Do you think that technical mastery alone is enough in tech? Think again! The real game changerThese are your soft skills. Discover the behavioural skills that make all the difference: the ones that turn teams into high-performance squads and establish you as a key expert.
Do you work in the world of technology, whether in a company, on a freelance basis, with an end customer or within a Digital Services Company (DSC)?
If you think that technical expertise alone is the key to success, it's time to qualify your perspective.
While hard skills, or technical competencies, are undeniably the foundation of any IT profession, they are no longer sufficient to guarantee professional fulfilment and collective success.
Employers, and particularly ESNs that outsource their talent to clientsIn addition to their technical expertise, these companies are increasingly looking for candidates with a strong work ethic, situational intelligence and excellent interpersonal skills.
Soft skills often underestimated
These soft skillsHuman competencies are the skills that illustrate an individual's approach to work and interactions with others. They are intrinsically linked to a person's personal characteristics and retain their relevance even if there is a change in technical specialisation or mission.
These behavioural skills, often seen as secondary, are in fact the glue that binds high-performance teams together and the springboard for a career.
Unlike hard skills, which are generally acquired through formal learning and specific training, soft skills, although they may have an innate component, are cultivated and refined through experience, feedback or training.
A tech professional with solid soft skills, such as communication, leadership and problem-solving, will be seen as more desirable than a candidate who limits himself or herself to technical skills.
Indeed, even the most brilliant technical expert will find it difficult to put forward his ideas, collaborate effectively within a team or understand the needs of users if he does not possess these essential human skills.
Let's take a look at the top soft skills most in demand from IT engineers.
8 soft skills for working in IT
In digital technologies, certain soft skills stand out as particularly sought-after and valued. They stand out for their direct impact on individual and collective performance.
1. Communication and collaboration
Verbal communication is essential to actively listen to users' needs and share appropriate solutions. It is often necessary to communicate complex subjects to people with limited IT expertise, replacing jargon with accessible terminology.
Let's take the example of an ESN consultant who has to present the architecture of a new big data solution to a client management committee. He will avoid drowning them in jargon: "our Hadoop cluster with Spark for distributed processing and Kafka for real-time ingestion..." and will prefer to use analogies to get his ideas across.
La written communication is also crucial for professional emails, technical documentation (clear and maintainable), writing specifications or progress reports.
Working together is just as important, because technology does not exist in a vacuum. Building technological solutions as a team encourages the creation of better applications and products.
For example, during a code review, a senior developer doesn't just point out errors, but explains the "why" behind his suggestions and suggests ways of improving them, thereby promoting the quality of the code and increasing the skills of his colleagues.
Fluency with communication tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Confluence) is a major asset, especially for ESN consultants who have to juggle their company's communication channels with those of their customers.
2. Critical thinking and problem solving
Critical thinking is the ability to analyse a situation or piece of information objectively, assessing its relevance and validity, without allowing oneself to be influenced by preconceived ideas. bias personal.
IT specialists often rely on this skill to carry out research, identify effective solutions and implement them. It also makes it possible to avoid personal bias in decision-making and to analyse the results of solutions to make any necessary adjustments.
When faced with a new "fashionable" technology, such as AI, a CIO does not rush to adopt it. He or she first analyses whether it really meets a business need, assesses its maturity, its cost, the skills required and the potential risks, before making a well-founded recommendation.
Problem solving is another essential soft skill in IT. Having a methodical approach (defining the problem, identifying the causes, generating solutions, evaluating, implementing, checking) is crucial for identify the source of a problem and find solutions quickly. In a sector where there are many technical challenges, this ability enables us to maintain a functional working and production environment.
Let's take the example of a customer's e-commerce site that is experiencing intermittent breakdowns. The ESN consultant doesn't just restart the servers. He sets up detailed monitoring, analyses the logs at the time of the breakdowns, identifies an ineffective SQL query under heavy load, rewrites and tests it, then deploys the corrective, permanently resolving the problem and providing a detailed incident report to the customer.
3. Adaptability and continuous learning
The IT sector is constantly evolving, presenting new challenges and technological innovations. A flexible professional is able to respond effectively to these new needs while remaining productive. Adaptability is therefore a key skill if you want to remain relevant in the IT world.
At the same time, technical skills are becoming increasingly obsolete. According to an IBM study, IT skills only remain relevant for about two years and a half.
The ability to train continuously to adapt quickly to technological innovations is therefore crucial.
To succeed and avoid obsolescence, constant updating of skills is essential.
4. Stress management and resilience
IT professionals are frequently faced with situations of intense stress, such as risky production start-ups, cyber attackscritical system failures impacting the company's business.
The ability to remain calm under pressure, manage uncertainty and bounce back from setbacks (the resilience) is an essential soft skill. Stress can be exacerbated by the need to maintain complex systems 24/7 and to respond to emergencies outside normal working hours.
For example, during a major database migration on a Saturday evening, an unexpected problem arises, threatening to delay the reopening of the service. The IT team, under pressure, remains calm. The project manager communicates transparently with management, while the technical experts methodically investigate, isolate the problem (a version incompatibility not detected during testing), apply a workaround plan and manage to finalise the migration with minimal delay. On Monday, a post-mortem is carried out to learn the lessons (resilience).
5. Leadership: influencing and guiding, even without a position of responsibility
Even if you're not in a managerial position, having skills in leadership can help you convince others of the validity of your ideas and work effectively within a team.
You're likely to have to manage a team or project on a temporary basis, and doing so successfully can improve your long-term career prospects.
Leadership skills such as conflict resolution and the decision-making are also essential for effective communication with customers and colleagues.
A junior ESN consultant, working as part of a client team, identifies a possible improvement in their manual testing process, which is time-consuming and a source of errors. He prepares a short demonstration of a simple automation tool, presents it constructively to the team and his client manager, and proposes to carry out a pilot. His initiative and ability to convince, without formal authority, illustrate emerging leadership.
For CIOs, leadership also means change managementwhich consists of inspiring and motivating teams to take ownership of the transformations.
6. Autonomy and organisational skills
Despite the collaborative nature of most IT projects, it is often have to work alone.
The ability to function independently and proactively find solutions to challenges with a minimum of supervision is highly valued by potential employers.
For IT freelancersThis autonomy is essential for building relationships with customers and submitting projects on time.
Organisational skills is another essential soft skill, especially when working on several projects simultaneously. Without good organisation, it's difficult to meet deadlines and make progress on different projects, while avoiding mistakes and staying focused.
A consultant on assignment for a client receives a set of tasks for a two-week sprint. She breaks each task down into smaller steps, estimates the time needed, plans her work in her project management tool, and proactively communicates her progress or any blockages to her client contact and her manager, without requiring constant supervision. Organisational skills are vital if you are to juggle several projects or responsibilities without losing track.
7. Emotional intelligence and empathy: understanding and interacting with others
Emotional intelligence, which encompasses understanding and managing one's own emotions and those of others, fosters a harmonious and productive working environment.
Empathy, the ability to understand the user's pain, is vital to the development of human-centred technologies. The worst products are those where designers and engineers have no real understanding of users. The absence of empathy can lead to frustration and misunderstanding between tech professionals and other stakeholders.
An end user calls IT support, very upset because his business application is no longer working and he's stuck. The support agent, instead of coldly replying "Have you restarted?", starts by saying "I understand your frustration, it's very annoying when the tool stops responding, especially if you have an urgent job. Let's see together how we can resolve this." This empathetic approach often defuses tension.
Another example of emotional intelligence: during a scoping meeting, an ESN consultant notices hesitation on the part of the customer's business manager when faced with a proposed technical solution. Rather than ignoring these weak signals, he tactfully asks: "I sense that you have some concerns about certain aspects of this proposal. Could we take a moment to discuss any concerns you may have? This may uncover an unspoken business constraint and enable the solution to be adjusted.
8. Time and priority management
Time management affects many other soft skills, such as reliability in meeting deadlines.
Someone who can get the job done on time becomes immediately more valuable. In fast-paced roles, such as responding to cyber securityTime management can be particularly crucial. Knowing where to invest your time depending on the impact and knowing when to delegate or postpone a task is essential to avoid spreading yourself too thin.
Cultivate your IT soft skills: an investment in the future
Contrary to popular belief, soft skills are not fixed in time and can be developed. Here are a few ways of improving your behavioural skills:
- Actively solicit constructive feedback. Become aware of your strengths and weaknesses by seeking feedback from your professional environment. Ask your colleagues, managers and even your customers (especially in ESN) for specific feedback on your communication, collaboration and handling of difficult situations. For example: "After this client presentation, would you have any advice on how I can be more effective next time?
- Take part in targeted workshops and training courses on the specific soft skills you want to improve (time management, communication, conflict management, etc.)
- Get involved in reading and monitoring. Read reference books, listen to podcasts and follow webinars on personal and professional development.
- Put soft skills into practice in real-life situations on a regular basis. Actively seek out opportunities to put these skills into practice. Offer to run a meeting, present a technical subject to non-specialists, or mentor a more junior colleague.
- Observe and learn from others. identify people around you who excel in certain soft skills. Observe their behaviour, the way they communicate and react.
- Don't hesitate to enlist the help of a coach or mentor. An experienced outsider can help you identify your areas for improvement and put in place a personalised action plan.
Conclusion
In the tech sector, technical mastery alone is no longer a guarantee of success. Soft skills have become key differentiating competencies, the 'extra soul' that makes all the difference. They are essential for successfully navigating multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, for solving complex problems that go beyond the merely technical, for adapting fluidly to the constant changes in the sector, and for building solid and lasting professional relationships.
By investing in the development of these valuable behavioural skills, you will transform your technical potential into a global expertise you will not only polish your profile: you will transform your technical potential into a global expertise, becoming an invaluable and sought-after asset. Don't wait any longer to turn your soft skills into your advantage!
