ย #IT #SoftSkills #CareerDevelopment
Hey IT pros! ๐ How important do you think soft skills are in your field? ๐ค
I’ve noticed a trend where technically skilled individuals struggle to land jobs or promotions because they lack strong communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills. Anyone else experiencing this?
Here are some thoughts to consider:
– Soft skills can set you apart from the competition and make you more relatable and approachable in the workplace.
– Employers often value teamwork, adaptability, and problem-solving skills just as much as technical expertise.
– Improving your soft skills can lead to increased job opportunities and career growth.
Possible solutions to enhance your soft skills:
– Seek feedback from colleagues or mentors on areas of improvement.
– Take communication or leadership training courses.
– Practice active listening and emotional intelligence in your interactions.
– Network with professionals outside of your field to expand your social skills.
Let’s continue this conversation and share valuable insights on the importance of soft skills in IT! ๐ฌ #CareerAdvice #ProfessionalDevelopment
Yeah especially for entry level IT/helpdesk, you don’t want to hire the smartest person in the room, you want to hire the smartest person that can work well with others.
I often recommend people getting into IT from food services or retail industries, because the customer support/team communication is more valuable than they realize.
As someone who has put in the work, what resources helped you the most?
I’ve been trying to put myself out there for years but I just can’t seem to relate to people. I honestly feel like I have anti-charisma. Just curious how bad you were and what you found that worked.
I just posted looking for help with a technical interview. My soft skills got me past the first interview. I really have no tech background, but I have a background in management and hospitality. My willingness to learn and those skills, I’m hoping that’s enough to get me through.
Oh interviewing isn’t my problem. Every interview I’ve had where I asked for feedback and the employer responded, they’ve said some variation on “You interviewed really well and we like you a lot. In the end we went with the guy who had more experience working on our insanely specific exact system.”
Oh, that’s not counting the one who grilled me with somewhere between 30-50 technical questions and starting treating me like a peasant because I didn’t have every option in Role installation in Server Manager memorized.
SOft skills only get you so far. If you arent part of any cliques then a promotion will be hard to come by.
“soft skills” – you need to be a little more specific on what you mean by this. If you think it is something people are missing, you have to articulate what exactly they’re missing.
A vaild point is being made. Hard and soft skills complement each other.
I recently got hired in federal gov with no Certs at all and very very minimal experience purely based on as the manager I did my interview said โI like your personality, you speak and communicate well and your passionate about IT, everything else you lack in we can train you so Iโll give you the foot in the doorโ Iโve been here for a month now and my god, most of my role so far has been utilising my soft skills more than anything. You pick up how things work on the job and slowly get used to them but the soft skills Iโve been using have been far more than my technical skills for sure. My boss has already hinted at a future promotion a few times, right now Iโm an ICT Support tech but my manager is wanting me to move to an IT Consultant position soon. Iโve got a background in Hospitality of over 9 years so I guess itโs helped a lot!
I couldn’t agree more. BUT, it’s not exclusive to IT. And I think it is largely a statement of society as a whole.
My issue is the open ended questions they ask. I can talk for hours but i need specifics on what im talking about. Stuff like “tell me about yourself” and questions of the like make me crumble instantly. Its just wayy to broad. Specific questions or “name a scenario where…” questions i knock out of the park. The fact that when you ask to clarify, they just say the same thing also gets me. Give me a starting point or something otherwise youre getting my life story from the moment i could form memories lmao
Soft skills canโt be teach but hard and technicals can. You really canโt teach someone how to be, and how to act thats gotta come from within, but you can always teach someone how to do something, teach them how to do a step by step process, procedures and tools and technologies.
Soft skills can go far along way in the work environment and the team. I rather have someone who can work along well with people and get along with the team and have a good morale and non toxic work place, who also can build rapport and relationships good standing potential guests, customers/clients that your company is dealing with.
You can only be this good in showing your social skills if you have a minimum amount of technical knowledge. Otherwise you gonna be too silent during meetings where tech stuff is discussed.
Even as a senior sys admin, I still have to talk to users on occasion. The difference here is I trade off talking to end users for talking to administration, vendors, and leading meetings and conferences. I have no plans to be CIO or VP but if you want to make the $$$, you have to learn to play the game. Not quite “good ol’boy” tactics but being in the shadows and an unfamiliar face is pocket book seppuku.
It’s also about who you know. Had one of our poorest performers at my job get an external job because he knew someone on the team hiring.
Ive had only had one job as an IT field technician in the oilfield, that at the time I was not qualified for. But all coworkers I supported loved how I handled situations, availability, and willing to understand their problems. They also knew that it was my first IT job and that there is steep learning curve in a fast paced environment. That said my soft skills got me through the job and I loved it. But now that natural gas price has plummeted I canโt find a jobโฆand I suck at interviewing despite all the progress Iโve made so far
I agree but I also think that soft skills are overrated along with things such as resume. Those things just need to be good enough, not perfect. Most of the time they are go-to excuses as in “You are a good guy but I see you as a friend” kind of way. As long as you can socially function without giving anti-social outcast vibes, I think you’ll be fine.
In the current market, someone will get the entry-level job because they have more experience or better “references” than you because most people are socially good enough already, but the fact that you have better soft skills than them won’t give you the job. Soft skills are more of a factor when it is an employee’s market.
I wouldn’t generalize a whole group of people in a career. I can say a good number of them not only lack soft skills but other important attributes as well. Not all but many.