I was mentoring a recent college grad in tech a little while ago and they asked me to tell them one piece of advice that I felt would help them most in their career. I thought about it for a little while and said something which my 24 year old, cocky self would smirk at: I said that most people new to tech don't recognize the extent to which software development at a scale larger than a couple people coding in a basement is essentially a social task. Paying attention to how you communicate with others, how others communicate with you, how you handle conflicts and disagreements, how well you can sell people on the merit of your ideas, how you behave when part of a team, these skills are not secondary to your technical skills - they should be at the same priority.
Well said, Andy!
Tim Wilcox
3mo
Appreciate the communication & “behave” side of this. Thx Andy
Debojit Kaushik
3mo
Very true indeed, Andy! The skills around, getting an earnest buy in and influencing other engineers are very underrated. Especially with software engineering, where everybody is highly opinionated.
Retired - formerly Digital Product Manager at Carelon / Elevance Health
3moWell said! Anyone working on a team and with other teams needs these skills! Which is like almost everyone! And if people respect how you treat them and others, the teamwork yields great things!