Tips For Devs — 5 Ways soft skills can improve your career
This article is going to be a little different from some of my other ones. In today’s interconnected world, it is ever more so important that we are able to communicate with each other effectively. I want to take an evening to talk about soft skills.
As software engineers (developers, programmers, coders, whatever you would like to be called) we rarely have to interact with clients and other parts of a business. We tend to stick to our own teams and leave all the outside interactions with our team leaders and managers. However, I am here tonight to tell anyone here that soft skills go beyond just communicating with clients and can benefit your career. Let’s get into 5 ways improving your soft skills can improve your career.
5. Improving working relationships
Some of you may not like the other people in your office, some of you may love them. No matter how you feel about your coworkers it is important that you maintain a good working relationship with them. If your coworkers don’t like you or don’t know you it can sometimes be difficult to get things done around the office. No matter how good of an engineer you are you will ultimately have to rely on some of your coworkers at some point. I’ll give you a real-life example of this. I was working for a company with some older system and I wanted to modernize. I had a pretty good working relationship with one of the guys who managed our infrastructure. I was able to get some testing boxes spun up ASAP and given priority.
At some point in time, you may need a favor from someone in another department. If they know you and like you, you’re way more likely to be taken care of faster and with less headache.
4. Explaining your job
Sometimes people think that we engineers work by computer magic and often question whether we actually do anything. This is the case with plenty of software engineers and IT staff.
I have a lot of personal experience with this one. I have been working in roles that non-technical coworkers just don’t understand. I’ve often been subject to questions like “what do you do all day” and “the app doesn’t look any different, did you even do anything?”. Sometimes these sorts of things get sent up the company chain and negatively impact your reputation. Now, you shouldn’t have to constantly explain what you’re doing, but every now and again it can come up in meetings. Clearly and effectively communicating your job and what you’re doing is a big must.
I’ll give you another real-life example. I was working for another company that managed its own data centers. It was a small data center with old machines that were starting to struggle to handle our increasing workload. This didn’t affect anyone in the company other than the IT staff and it would cost a lot of money. As an IT staff, we were able to convince the higher-ups that new hardware was required and it would be worth the investment (we would have had to shut down operations if we didn’t but they were still a little unconvinced). To every other employee in the company, there was literally no noticeable change. Obviously people were upset that a ton of money was spent upgrading all this stuff for no noticeable change.
Enter soft skills. We drafted up an email when we finished the upgrade explaining the reason for the upgrade and the consequences of not upgrading. This did not satisfy 100% of the employees, but we were able to satisfy probably 95% of them which is really good.
3. Making yourself look good
This goes hand in hand with number 4. I’m not telling you to embellish or lie about what you’re doing, but you can certainly paint what you have done in a different light. Let’s face it, we all try our hardest to do the best work we can, but sometimes we fail to mention it properly.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s say that you were asked to design a new feature for an internal application to better track sales and use that data to help improve sales numbers. If you have a regular performance review you can say one of two things to describe the exact same work.
Not making yourself look good: “I gathered requirements for the project. Then I designed and implemented [SALES SYSTEM] using several cutting edge technologies. I tested the system and made improvements. When the system was finished it helped the salespeople sell more of the product.”
Making yourself look good: “I worked with [SALES MANAGER] in order to better determine what metrics needed to be tracked in order to improve company sales. After meeting with the sales manager and gathering requirements I was able to begin building [SALES SYSTEM]. I designed the system using [TECHNOLOGIES] as they were well supported and modern technologies that saved me [T AMOUNT OF TIME] in creating the system. After working on coding integrations for [TECHNOLOGIES] I was able to test a beta version of [SALES SYSTEM] with [SALES MANAGER]. I scheduled a review meeting in order to gather constructive feedback. After making improvements based on the feedback I received I was able to bring a full sales system to production. Using the system I created over the last [X MONTHS] we were able to improve sales by [N PERCENT] quarterly.”
I want to stress that both of these describe the exact same amount of work that was performed. If you read the self-review that makes you look good you will notice that it describes the process of creating the system in more detail. Management likes team players so it’s good to show that you can effectively work with departments outside of yours. You will also notice that it is much less vague. When communicating what you were doing regarding your job it helps to give numbers, management loooovveesss numbers and specifics like that. Lastly, always give concrete numbers as to how much your work has benefited the company. Just saying something like “It had a positive effect on the company” doesn’t cut it. Remember, management loves numbers so you should always find a way to quantify the benefit your work brings.
2. Getting promotions and raises
We all like getting more money. Building off of point 3, making yourself look good can definitely help in this area. We all want to be recognized for our work which usually means companies give us better titles, responsibilities, and the raise that comes with it. If this is something that interests you your soft skills will certainly help you. We talked about better explaining your job duties and the work you have done. This can go a long way to shine a light on yourself as a crucial part of the team and thus someone the company will want to reward. There are other things you can do as well, like speaking earnestly to your manager. Simply telling your manager what you want can also go a long way toward getting what you want. Often times we can feel sheepish about asking for raises or feel as though asking for more money can be rude. I have certainly worried that I can come off as rude by asking for raises or promotions, but working on your soft skills can help improve this.
If your company does periodic performance reviews, take that as an opportunity to just tell them what you want. Let’s see how we can phrase this by looking at a bad example and a good example of asking for a raise.
Bad example: “I have done a lot of good work for this company and I think that is deserving of a raise.”
Good example: “Over the last year I have been instrumental in developing [SALES SYSTEM]. This has helped the company improve sales by [N PERCENT] quarterly. I have gained a lot of experience by creating this system and would like to use that experience to continue to improve the company. I think that my continued hard work and going above and beyond is deserving of a raise”.
I really want to stress that you definitely should NOT lie about the amount of work you do. One thing you can do is ask about what you can do to earn a raise, you just have to be honest with your boss about what you want and you guys can work on a plan to get there.
Another good example: “I have enjoyed working for the company for [N YEARS]. I would really like to learn how I can move up in the company and become more involved. What are some ways I can start to move up within the company?”
Just be honest and lay out what you want. If you ask for something and work hard for it, most times you will achieve your goals.
1. Moving up the chain
If you want to move up in your company you’ll definitely need to have great soft skills. Many times moving up in a company is pure office politics. I am not a fan of office politics but I have always tried to participate in the least offensive way possible. When I say office politics I want to be specific about what I mean. I am talking about office procedures, following the outlined rules, and respecting the chain of command. For example, don’t step on people‘s toes in the office by skipping their chain of command. Some people take things like that very seriously.
Participating in inter-office politics can take some other forms as well. Participating in holiday events, company gatherings, BBQs, whatever kind of events your company is into. Hanging out and talking to people can go a long way to help improve your standing in the company. One big thing to remember is not to kiss ass, as most bosses are aware of what you’re doing and may make them just shake their head at you. Just be yourself or, if you’re like me, a friendlier version of yourself. Unfortunately, good work is only part of the battle of moving up in a company. It often helps a lot if you score social points with your bosses, and you may end up having a good time in the process.
Conclusion
Your hard work and dedication can take you a long way professionally. However, that is only half the battle. The other half is being good at communicating with the people you’re working with. Improving your soft skills can help your coworkers recognize your good work and view you as an invaluable member of the team. I hope that every developer reading this can take away a few good lessons that will help improve your life professionally.
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