Hi,

3 must-have soft skills required for success in IT;Have fun & enjoy!

I suggest that you always keep in mind: "there is a customer out there," whether inside or outside your company or both, "who is attempting to do something with a digital computer." Maybe that person simply needs to be able to do it, period. Or, maybe they're having problems doing it. And so on. But, your technical expertise is secondary to this. Your technical expertise is merely a means to an end.

I also suggest that you always remember that "the state of the art," whatever that is today, "is not going to be the state of the art tomorrow." (And yet, it will be very close.) If you're always chasing the latest thing, and especially if you're dumping a job to take a job because you're afraid that no one will hire you because you aren't using the latest thing ... then, you're chasing windmills. You're also missing the point that the mission of software, no matter exactly what it is or how it is implemented, is always the same: Some customer out there has a need and/or a problem, and your job is to solve that.

The last suggestion is: "you're always working with people, and often under conditions of high stress." You have to have good people-skills ... diplomacy, tact, and the ability to keep your mouth shut and smile.

I disagree.

While those are important characteristics to have, they do not replace the technical skills of the job. The technical skills are a must-have, the traits listed there are simply a desirable (except problem-solving, which is a technical skill). They absolutely should come "lower on the list" as they put it. You can have the most open-minded, empathetic, and hard-working person on the planet, but if they can't program worth a damn, they're useless in a position that requires those skills. A terrific programmer that doesn't have those traits, while they might not be the most pleasant person to work with, will still be significantly better at the job.

I had an employee a couple of years ago that hit all of those bullets. He looked past the request, he was empathetic, and he was very hard working. He was also a terrible programmer, and I or somebody else always had to go back after him and clean up all of his screwups in the programs he developed. He was given numerous chances to improve, but he wasn't able to, and he was let go.

Obviously somebody who is a great programmer who also has all of those traits is the best choice, but if that's not an option, I'd rather work with somebody who is technically adept and not very personable than somebody who is great to talk to but can't do the job.

The first one listed, "problem-solving", is not a "soft skill". It is very much a hard, technical skill and it takes a lot of experience to develop.

Amen to all of that, and I'll also add that soft skills can be coached and trained on the job.

Hi,

Soft skills are important in that you must be able to communicate with people, especially those non-technical individuals that maybe the ones signing the check. Inter-communication with people outside of your expertise can be a challenge. Translation of technical jargon so that someone can understand what actually is going on is a skill that can be learned over time.

One must be very open when working with someone not affluent with the field you represent. I try to use 'KISS" philosophy when communicating. But you must not come across as talking down but be aware of the interaction(s) with the person(s) you are speaking too so that does not occur.

People skills are very important so you can interact with other persons, even with someone not a team member.

Personal interactions with other people can make or break a project. How you handle yourself with that interaction will help the project to evolve or be successful to completion. If poor interactions, then likely that the project may sour or just plain out fail.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Good skills to have.

Maybe they'd make a more efficient and customer driven IT as opposed to successful. I've seen creeps make money.

Hi,

I agree that some people can be successful even if they are creeps. I have seen some so called professionals step into a project and still come out smelling like a rose instead of dung.

Most successful projects are due to the teams overall leadership and interaction with that lead and team members. Along with positive interactions with the team and the non-technical client interactions. Not always a 'do as as I say, not as I do' mode of operations but one that nudges or manages the project with guiding hands instead of demands.

Good positive communications between all involved will help the project to proceed through to completion with a satisfied customer. Building bridges is better than burning them. Referrals can be had from satisfied clients.

Have fun & enjoy!

I thought the "soft skills" were referring to interfacing with people and such.

Then I viewed the cited article and some of the "soft skills" seem to me to be technically oriented in nature, they involve problem solving, and tenacity.

Those are exactly the items we look for in an R&D environment. The capability to think beyond design patterns and rigidly defined development processes. It's all great that some person can maybe whip out a very fast application that graphs data, but the total rounding of those particular skills involve deployment where a lot of other considerations come into play. My judgment is also colored because we are very near to a contractor style of company and thus we are very customer facing.

My bottom line is however smart someone is, there's always someone similarly adept at coding or smart, barring a few exceptions. And therefore I really can hire someone purely technical to rapidly get a job done. But it doesn't mean I'm hiring them permanently to be on my team, instead that person is likely a temporary contractor.

Call it a soft skill all you want, but I will turn my eyebrows up at anyone I'd be interviewing who does not demonstrate problem solving skills. This includes recent college graduates. If you learn one thing in school it is how to solve problems in a non-traditional form. You can't think outside the box, then you weren't paying attention.

And I will definitely look askance at someone with 10 or more years of experience and wonder about their talents if they cannot even communicate with peer developers, write coherently, or relate their design ideas in a clear manner. Honestly if you've been developing products or software for your entire career, and you have very few people skills, then it tells me you've been an automaton, and therefore you've not challenged yourself much.

I feel these days have past, or maybe the companies I've worked with don't have these types of employees. But used to be that you'd be working somewhere and some technical wizard who was very highly regarded was also very difficult to work with, and invariably upon complaint, the response would be, "Well, you just have to get to know so-and-so, and learn how to work with 'them' because they have such a huge reputation, blah-blah-blah." In my impetuous youth, as well as arrogant older age, my thinking still is the same, "I should NOT have to LEARN how to work with one particular person who's a complete [bleep] and everyone else understands this fully too. What's wrong is THAT person, not the rest of us." My thinking is sort of reverse discrimination/racism, if that's not too offensive to people. "I" cannot, and never should, judge anyone based on their race, gender, national origin, and etc, and so my thinking is that this technical wizard should not be all arrogant and a complete jerk and force the rest of the world to comply with their personality and/or preferences in how things are done, such that those people may work with that one jerk. Basically this technical wizard is committing the same sin as discrimination, but instead of one person being the target, it is instead one person targeting the rest of the world. And that's just incorrect, and wrong behavior.

Hi,

I can see where you are coming from. Good leadership is with the right means to get everyone involved and keep a team working within the realm of the project. Getting too know your fellow members is very important so that tasks can be assigned according to skill sets. You may need to weed or trim the team but a good team will help each other to reach the goal at hand.

Drama queens can be pushed in the right direction with proper motivation. If not then one will need to know what should be done to get that person in hand to bring his/her portion to fruition. Most admin/managers will know who can do what within a project. Then lay the law as to what must be done. No vacillation. Flex but do not bend to far.

Have fun & enjoy!

Another thing that puts a computer project into trouble very quickly is a lack of effective project management. You like to be lassiez faire because that encourages everyone to think. But sometimes, you must simply lay down the law.

Where the lack-of-management really comes to light, though, is a complete and utter lack of long-term plan. "Where are we going, here, and exactly how are we going to get there?" No one knows. The blind "self-directed teams" (sic) are leading the blind:

Teams are found to be stumbling in the dark, looking (only) directly in front of their own noses, picking only the "low-hanging fruit," until what's left is a giant pile of half-cut lumber ... and no house. (Which is okay, because they've all changed jobs already.)

However, we have a name for this exalted strategy. We call it, "Agile."

Listening Skills, Time management, and Diplomacy.