You’re a great coder? That alone won’t get you far: The soft skills secret in IT success

A staggering 75% of IT professionals lack crucial soft skills. This is your biggest competitive advantage for landing a senior role and accelerating your career.

#1about 4 minutes

Why technical skills alone are not enough for career success

Interviews with successful tech leaders reveal that skills beyond code, such as communication and business acumen, are what truly drive career advancement.

#2about 2 minutes

How soft skills impact hiring and promotion decisions

Recruiters prioritize candidates with strong soft skills over those with more experience, leading to the "senior problem" where technical experts get stuck.

#3about 6 minutes

Understanding the high failure rate of IT projects

The CHAOS report shows that 70% of IT projects are not successful, a statistic unchanged for 20 years due to communication issues, not technology.

#4about 4 minutes

Become the go-to expert by owning the 'how'

To establish expert status, engineers must take responsibility for the implementation details and prevent non-experts from dictating technical solutions.

#5about 1 minute

Translate technical problems into business value for stakeholders

Communicate technical debt by translating it into the language of stakeholders—money, time, and benefits—focusing on the problem and its impact.

#6about 4 minutes

Bridge the tech language gap with better communication

Miscommunication often stems from differing perspectives and interpretations, so it is crucial to listen to understand rather than just to reply.

#7about 3 minutes

Tailor your message by knowing your audience

Effective communication requires tailoring your message to the specific interests of your audience, whether they are engineers, marketing, management, or clients.

#8about 3 minutes

Use nonverbal communication to build trust and expertise

Nonverbal cues like presentation style and body language significantly impact how your expertise is perceived, so avoid presenting high-quality work in a low-quality way.