Soft skills can enhance your technical abilities and set you apart from other IT professionals.
In the ever-changing IT industry, the technical knowledge and expertise that professionals need to succeed shifts as rapidly as technology evolves. However, there are some qualities that will always give IT jobseekers an edge – soft skills. They can be used to support technical abilities by helping you to apply them effectively in the workplace, and bridging the gap between technology and the people that use it. In addition, soft skills are harder to learn than technical ones, making them valuable assets that are highly sought-after by employers.
By focusing on your soft skills, you can broaden your career potential and boost your chances of succeeding in the New Zealand IT recruitment landscape.
After cybersecurity expertise, soft skills are the most important IT skills to have in 2017.
High demand for soft skills in IT
Employers often desire non-technical skills because they can unlock the potential of the technical ones by giving workers the adaptability, mindset and people skills to utilise them. More importantly, soft skills influence how compatible a candidate is with the rest of an organisation. No matter how qualified someone is, if they do not have the personal characteristics to fit into the existing team or mix well with the company culture, they are not going to be a good hire. In addition, while the IT sector is certainly a technical one, it's still ultimately shaped by consumer demand, or rather, by people.
The 2017 Tech Career Outlook from online IT professional network Spiceworks reveals that soft skills are the second most important IT skills for 2017. Surpassed only by cybersecurity expertise, 95 per cent of the IT professionals surveyed said soft skills were essential to have.
"IT professionals recognise soft skills are important to have, especially because they can help with the common challenge of getting management to understand the importance of IT priorities," said IT analyst at Spiceworks, Peter Tsai, to Datamation. "However, in the face of ever-increasing corporate data breaches and cyberthreats, the number one skill IT professionals plan to improve in 2017 is their cybersecurity expertise."
Yet the Spiceworks study also found that just 29 per cent of IT workers plan to improve their soft skills in the coming year, suggesting there is a disconnect between the needs of the industry and the focus of those within it.
What soft skills are employers looking for?
With many IT professionals neglecting to prioritise soft skills despite the demands of employers, equipping yourself with these non-technical abilities can give you a big advantage when looking for an IT job. According to Bloomberg's 2016 job skills report, the most desired and hardest to find expertise are soft skills such as leadership, communication and strategic-thinking. Likewise, a 2015 survey by the Wall Street Journal found that almost 90 per cent of employers said soft skills were difficult to find among job candidates. But what exactly are they looking for?
Business Insider highlights some of the most important soft skills for a successful IT career. These include:
- Presentation skills – Working in IT often means being at the forefront of innovation and having to convince others about the viability of a cutting-edge solution. As an IT professional, it's up to you advise the wider organisation, so you need to be able to present new ideas and inspire confidence.
- Communication skills – Similarly, it's important that you can not only communicate clearly with your colleagues, but make complex notions easy to digest. This could mean translating technical jargon into language that can be understood by other departments, or liaising with teams to complete a project. As it has become common for IT roles to be customer-facing, a good grasp of customer service and problem-solving is also going to make you a lot more employable.
- Ability to work well in a team – Finally, as IT gets increasingly integrated into wider business operations and projects get more complex, good collaborative skills are essential. An IT professional that can cooperate, take direction and accept criticism is going to be much more valuable to a company than one that can only work well alone.
Employers report that a well-rounded set of soft skills is difficult to find in job candidates.
How to enhance your soft-skills
Whether you are looking for a business analyst job or a role as a software developer, if you want to make yourself more attractive to IT employers, cultivating your soft skills is key. The first step towards this is to assess your existing soft skills, looking for the ones you're strong at and the areas that could use improvement. It would also be beneficial to ask a mentor, supervisor or friend about this, as their outside perspective will give you a better idea of what to focus on.
The Houston Chronicle advises honing your soft skills by practising them in every situation you can, and being aware of both your own feelings and motivations and those of other people. In addition, consistent self-reflection, feedback and professional training can all help you to sharpen the abilities you innately posses and develop those you don't.
Ultimately, simply having soft skills is not enough, you must be able to demonstrate them to a potential employer. If you would like help with this, or identifying a position more suited to your skills, contact your local 920 office today.
