One skill you need to hit the jackpot on your IT career
Recently, I was invited to a panel discussion regarding our expectations from a young graduate in the IT industry. Having interviewed a lot of graduates throughout my career, there is always that one thing they tend to miss out on. We, at Embla constantly stumble upon a lot of candidates who are technically skilled but cannot be placed in a project due to the lack of “soft skills” or “employability skills” they possess. E.g. A Tech lead who is unable to effectively communicate or lead a team.
Different people define these skills in different ways. But in general, these skills can be broken down to communication, teamwork, planning and organizing, problem-solving, initiative and enterprise, learning, technology, and self-management. Nonetheless, the problem comes down to learning and improving a skill effectively.
Most candidates are aware of their flaws and what needs to be improved. However, the problem is that they do not know how to fix it or prioritize it.
Let me give you an example for “communication” skills; At a typical interview, a conversation usually goes like this…
Me: From a career point of view, which soft skills do you think you’ll need to improve?
Candidate: (A whole list of new technologies)
Me: Let me rephrase… apart from the technical skills, what other skills do you need to improve in order to get to the next level in your career?
Candidate: Communication skills
Me: Okay, so how are you planning to improve your communication skills?
Candidate: By watching movies, taking a 3-month course, and by interacting with foreign clients
Me: So how will you know if you have improved or not?
Candidate: Umm… I will know. I will feel it.
Communication means being clear about what you mean and what you intend to achieve when you are conveying a message, which includes listening and being able to comprehend what the other person is trying to say. In the above example I have shared with you, some of the most effective ways to develop or improve communications skills are;
- Reading articles, news etc. to improve vocabulary
- Blogging or using social media to improve writing skills
- Making oral presentations/product demos. Practice makes it perfect!
If you are hoping to improve your communication skills by interacting with foreign clients, DON’T! Effective communication does not relate to how many words you know in the English language. The key is to develop your skills through continuous learning, constructive feedback and learning from your own mistakes and also by not giving up on what you are trying to achieve. You can use the following development cycle to achieve goals in improving your soft skills.
- Learn — make a commitment to put an effort to learn regularly. Improving your speaking skills can only be done through practicing every day. Practicing it every 6 months is not a good option as well
- Feedback — Collect constructive feedback from others around you on your level of improvement. This has to be done regularly: ideally, every week. And no, you will not be a good judge of character of yourself in improving your skills
- Adjust — Based on the feedback, change and continue to improve your skills
- Repeat — this is a never-ending cycle. We all learn something new every day!
Nonetheless, any skill development goal needs to go through the above cycle in order to actually improve and see results within a short period of time.
In summary, an IT professional will always have to learn about new technologies and industry trends; and they will go through the above cycle since it will be monitored by their superior or Team Lead.
Be confident in your tech abilities. If you believe you can do it, we will too!
However, most individuals do not focus on improving their soft skills and often neglect the importance of these skills which can affect their career development goals negatively. Therefore, it is important to identify your weak areas and work towards improving yourself to achieve your ultimate career goals and to be the best version of yourself.
