A few days back I had an interesting and rather thought provoking conversation with one of my friends. My friend was looking to change his job because he was going nowhere with his current one in spite of his excellent technical knowledge, dedication and a good personality. What was more annoying is that a person with less experience of the same job but with just better speaking skills marched ahead.
Since then, I have been wondering what takes you higher, superior technical skills or outstanding people skills. I am sure you can debate for one or the other. I personally believe that it takes a right balance of both.
Talking about myself I would say that I am good at the technical stuff. My people skills are fair enough. I converse well with people when required to do so but I don’t keep jumping in and blabber away all the time. So is this the end of the ladder for me?
I am sure most of you will agree that software engineers in general are more technical than communicative. So when your company expects you to be more communicative, talkative or someone who should keep giving suggestions to the management and basically butter up, what do you do? At this point, I would start thinking those 6 years of college with an average GPA of 3.5 doesn’t really matter. You can be exceptional at your technical knowledge and skills, but you won’t climb the ladder of success unless you speak up often.
I am not against innovative, thoughtful and required communication. Like I said at the start, a right balance is always required. But if you are ignored, like my friend, because the person who has the power to promote you overlooks your contribution to the company as a developer and experience of the past years, just because you are not always under the limelight is taking it a bit too far. I believed that as long as you do your job well, meet deadlines and put in the necessary amount of time to get the product out of the door, you are good to go, But seeing that more deserving and intelligent people being surpassed by “people skilled” individuals I am forced to think again. So what is the right attitude? Will this match been won by the people skillers or the techies? Will there be justice?
Since then, I have been wondering what takes you higher, superior technical skills or outstanding people skills. I am sure you can debate for one or the other. I personally believe that it takes a right balance of both.
Talking about myself I would say that I am good at the technical stuff. My people skills are fair enough. I converse well with people when required to do so but I don’t keep jumping in and blabber away all the time. So is this the end of the ladder for me?
I am sure most of you will agree that software engineers in general are more technical than communicative. So when your company expects you to be more communicative, talkative or someone who should keep giving suggestions to the management and basically butter up, what do you do? At this point, I would start thinking those 6 years of college with an average GPA of 3.5 doesn’t really matter. You can be exceptional at your technical knowledge and skills, but you won’t climb the ladder of success unless you speak up often.
I am not against innovative, thoughtful and required communication. Like I said at the start, a right balance is always required. But if you are ignored, like my friend, because the person who has the power to promote you overlooks your contribution to the company as a developer and experience of the past years, just because you are not always under the limelight is taking it a bit too far. I believed that as long as you do your job well, meet deadlines and put in the necessary amount of time to get the product out of the door, you are good to go, But seeing that more deserving and intelligent people being surpassed by “people skilled” individuals I am forced to think again. So what is the right attitude? Will this match been won by the people skillers or the techies? Will there be justice?
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