As you’re building your IT career . . .

As you’re building your IT Career, also develop your “Soft Skills”.

Today’s employers want to hire IT professionals who fit their corporate culture and work well with others. They’ve discovered that if their IT employees also have soft skills, then things run more smoothly and successfully overall.

Recently in our staff meeting we discussed a current IT job posting where our client revealed the “ability to communicate well” was a key deciding factor. This corresponds to a LinkedIn article listing the “Top 10 Most In-Demand Soft Skills“.  In looking at some of our recent job descriptions, our clients use words like collaborate, interact, mentor, assist, coordinate, motivate, persuade, and influence.

To get ahead and have greater success in today’s competitive IT arena, it’s important to strengthen key soft skills. In fact, we recently had a candidate who was pushed to the top of the list, even though this person did not have all the experience our client desired. The extenuating factors were attitude, aptitude and personality.

There are many resources available to help build soft skills, from personal coaching to classes and books. Recognizing the importance of soft skills is not a trend, but has been around for decades. The timeless bestseller—“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie—was originally released in 1936, and has been updated by Dale Carnegie & Associates for the “Digital Age.” Another offering is “How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less” by Nicholas Boothman, which one of our employees swears by.

Whatever method you use, building your soft skills along with your IT expertise will gain you greater success than having IT skills alone. We see it time and time again.

We welcome your feedback to share resources you’ve found useful in strengthening your soft skills.