6 Software Developer Soft Skills Every Engineer Needs
By Undercover Recruiter, nearly 76% of employees’ productivity depends on their intelligence level. This is especially true for the IT sector. After all, programmers shouldn’t only create applications but also work to achieve team results. That’s why the owners of IT companies pay great attention to software engineer skills that aren’t directly related to professional activities.
The employees’ constant desire to develop within their specialties is among the most important personal qualities. So, coders should attend various pieces of training, seek qualified programming assignment advice on reputable platforms when performing complex tasks, etc. However, even more personal qualities are essential for IT employees. So, let’s look at them.
What Skills Do You Need to Be a Software Developer With a Good Salary?
Below is a list of the eight most important programmers’ personal qualities. The rating has been made taking into account the views of the owners of the large IT companies and experienced managers of coding departments.
Importance of Communication Skills
Programmers should be able to articulate their thoughts clearly. Moreover, IT employees have to communicate politely. After all, coders frequently talk to customers. Thus, the most critical communication skills for a software developer are:
- ability to listen to feedback;
- adequacy of objective criticism perception;
- ability to speak briefly about complex things;
- non-conflict and willingness to help clients, colleagues, etc.
All of the above requirements apply to both spoken as well as written communication. And that’s especially true for remote specialists.
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills
Programmers regularly have to deal with complex tasks that require non-standard solutions. Therefore, the coders should be able to think critically to solve such problems. This helps to evaluate the effectiveness of options for solving complex problems correctly.
Business owners usually determine the presence of such qualities at interviews in direct communication with future employees. This is particularly true for companies that offer jobs for inexperienced coders. Stats confirm the significance of the mentioned personal feature. Under LinkedIn Learning 2020, creative problem-solving is among the highest priority qualities (see the chart above).
Self-Awareness as One of the Essential Soft Skills for Engineers
Programmers should clearly understand their capabilities. Inadequate assessment of one’s own skills is commonly fraught with:
- failures of agreed deadlines;
- poor-quality tasks’ performance;
- failure to complete projects.
If programmers say that they know everything, this indicates their insecurity. Such specialists are simply not confident enough to admit they don’t know something. On the other hand, entrepreneurs and managers have to provide employees with the possibility to receive, e.g., Python or Java assignment help and other types of assistance.
Significance of Interpersonal Skills
This personal feature is incredibly important to ensure the cohesion of development teams. Among such engineer soft skills, it should be noted not only verbal communication but also:
- Active listening. This is the ability to pay full attention to interlocutors when they speak as well as to delve into what the collocutors say. It’s important to interact with the speaker and show it by giving non-verbal along with verbal responses. The latter involves nodding, making eye contact, as well as smiling.
- Non-verbal communication. Such a feature is probably the most important interpersonal skill needed for a software engineer. It’s because, by the University of Colorado Denver research, 55% of general communication between people is body language.
- Showing attention to others. This quality helps build personal connections between members of the development teams.
It’s simply hard to survive in a collective without the specified features for programmers. That’s why business owners pay special attention to the presence of such personal qualities during employee probationary periods.
Time Management Importance
Under Timewatch, at least 38% of employees say they spend up to an hour a day on things that aren’t essential to their job. Furthermore, about 46% of workers consider they control their workflow for one or two days a week. Such trends negatively impact IT companies’ efficiency generally.
Thus, time management is among the skills required for software developers nowadays. Employees who take their workflow under control frequently positively influence the rest of the collective members. This is how to build a successful coding team.
Why Is Emotional Intelligence Level Essential for Employers?
By Vantage Circle, nearly 58% of job performance depends on the employee’s EQ index. So, managers and business owners strive to hire coders with high emotional intelligence levels. Nay, such a feature adds about $1,300 to annual wages. This makes the specified personal quality probably the most profitable among the software engineer skills required.
Emotional intelligent employees don’t like to engage in pointless arguments, emphasize their importance, or ignore the requests of managers and customers. Additionally, such specialists assist colleagues in completing complex tasks. It’s particularly essential when the co-workers need help with C, C++, and other difficult coding languages.
So, What Skills Do Software Engineers Need Most?
In today’s highly competitive environment, it’s not enough for programmers to simply have good professional skills. It is also important to have positive personal qualities. This will increase not only competitiveness but also the payment level.
Among the most important soft skills of software developers, IT business owners highlight the ability to communicate, cooperate, and plan the workflow correctly. The presence of such traits helps to accelerate career growth. More information on similar topics can be found in thematic blogs.
