Building a career in IT means consistently delivering the technical skills needed to do the job. But to be successful in IT, it takes more than those technical skills to do the work well. You need to leverage your soft skills to show employers that you can make a difference beyond the work itself. Here are four soft skills that you can count on to help build your career.
Leadership
Success in the IT field is all about finding opportunities to show leadership potential. People with strong leadership skills know the value of working collaboratively, taking responsibility, being able to receive and incorporate feedback in a positive manner, motivate a team, think outside the box in terms of long-term business issues, and actively seek out solutions to problems as they occur. Describe your leadership skills in action from previous projects or roles. Focus less on how you progressed from role to role, and more on how you implemented these key leadership skills to bring success to previous teams.
Communication
Communication is an equally important soft skill for job applicants to have. In the IT field, communication is particularly important to showcase because rarely is work done in a vacuum. Your ability to discuss issues with coworkers and other stakeholders in a way that results in positive action is invaluable. Employers seek out candidates who are able to describe real situations where their communication skills were an asset to a previous company. Provide examples of how you succeeded in communicating with clients, supervisors, and coworkers in both collaborative and conflicting situations. This will give hiring managers a good idea of what they can expect from you on the job.
Teamwork
Good teamwork skills in an IT environment could mean the difference between a successful project and a total failure. Your teamwork skills and ability to work cohesively with coworkers and supervisors are critical to your success in this job market. Rarely does anyone ever work completely alone, but IT workers are especially counted on to interact with clients and support staff to get the job done. Teamwork skills involve the ability to communicate issues and potential solutions, collaborate in effective ways and maintain positive relationships despite stressful or highly demanding situations. Provide examples of how your teamwork skills have been of use in the past, and present a couple of scenarios to see how you would approach the situation to contextualize your teamwork mentality.
Adaptability
It’s an agile world these days, with businesses looking to their employees for quick twitch reflexes and the ability to adapt to changing business scenarios. It’s unlikely that a candidate would be able to succeed in a fast-paced IT environment without a certain level of adaptability. Discuss ways you have responded to changing demands of a project to show how they might respond in similar situations with a new company.
For more support building your career in IT, connect with the recruiting team at ESGI today.
