IT developer and “soft skills”

It’s high time to start making friends

Maksym Prokhorov Founder and IT manager of PM Partners

Programmers are often consider soft skills to be secondary and do not always pay attention to them.

And since I know a lot of stories about how soft skills became decisive when hiring, I’m sure — we need to talk about them.

Arguments in favor of “soft” skills

In search of a better job, IT professionals often focus primarily on their technical knowledge and skills. This includes career guidance, a good level of English, mathematics, and awareness of current frameworks. Undoubtedly, all of the above is very important, especially when it comes to not only a change of company, but also a promotion.

However, it happens that technically brilliantly savvy candidates perfectly fulfill the terms of reference, but fail the interview with a potential future employer. And here IT professionals need to understand — personal skills can be crucial for the employer. I know more than one case when it was on soft skills that the final decision was made in favor of a particular candidate. Actually, I have done this many times.

I will list those mistakes that were made by very competent technicians and, as a result, they were left without the desired place in good companies:

1. inability to explain your thoughts;

2. too talkative or, conversely, uncommunicative;

3. introvert or extrovert;

4. not proactive or excessively proactive;

5. incorrectly having a conversation, interrupts, rudely answers;

6. does not want to or does not know how to communicate with the customer;

7. speaks in terms, but cannot explain in ordinary language, which makes him doubt his competence;

8. overconfident;

9. illiterately conducts business correspondence;

10. has an unsatisfactory profile on social networks;

11. has too long CV.

It is possible to list further, but all it will be about communications. If you are a good IT specialist, applying for a certain (for example, a managerial) position, and really want to get it, you should work on “soft skills”. Correctly write a resume, think about what and how to say during the interview, and also take care of appearance, because it is still influencing.

In addition, employers consider being important skills such as emotional intelligence, teamwork, the ability to organize themselves and negotiate, the ability to present a project well, etc.

Do you think there are too many non-technical requirements? In fact, training them is much easier than learning to code.

Tips for fast gaining soft skills

I have to spend a lot of time on business trips, participating in various activities and communicating with quite a large number of people. So, I can definitely say that without personal flexibility it is almost an unrealistic task to build the relationship you need.

All people are different — it’s true. At the same time, the truth is that there are rules that allow us to find common language, despite this “difference”. And then casual meetings can lead to business projects, and different opinions may be the beginning of new technology. However, this will only happen if your soft skills are great.

I offer the following basic skills that you should start improving right now, especially for IT professionals:

Effective communication. It is important to feel the line between defending one’s opinion and imposing it. Learn to admit your fallibility (if it really is), as well as calmly and reasonably defend what you are absolutely sure of. Talk about the need to extend the work, when you understand that this will help achieve better results. And do not feel embarrassed when asking for help from colleagues or a boss, but be prepared for the refusal. Be sure to stop manipulation and involvement in backstage games.

Emotional intelligence. Keep your emotions under control. Show them moderately and wisely. To do this, you first need to study your emotional reaction to an event and see how each emotion responds to your physical condition. Such research will help you learn how to better control yourself and to be flexible. Accordingly, you will be able to build your communications more effectively.

Planning and organization of work. Here you need to be able to distinguish between major and minor tasks, to properly manage time for their implementation. Meeting deadlines, dealing with the stress that sometimes can be created by multitasking, and staying balanced in stressful situations (so that they do not knock you out of the work process).

Flexibility and creativity. If you can improve a process, do it. And when you understand that “routine sucks”, find a way to diversify the task. At the same time, be able to accept the ideas of colleagues and adapt to changes in work, because they are inevitable.

Ability to withstand stress. There are special practices that help increase stress resistance. Believe me, if you cope well with stress, you will save a lot of health and time.

These and other soft skills will definitely help not only in terms of work, but also give a positive effect our whole life. So why not to take a step towards good change right now?!