Successful engineers always depend on more than just technical skills. Nowadays, recruiters prefer to hire engineers who are not only good at what they do, but also bring key soft skills required to effectively interact with their team. This is because no matter whether the company is big or small, as an engineer, you will always be part of a larger system. Soft skills are not just about making yourself and the people around you feel good, but more about creating an effective product and a positive user experience.
Communication is key to your success as an engineer, and recruiters look for candidates who can communicate their ideas clearly and concisely. Not only is it essential to communicate with fellow engineers, but it’s important to be able to work with non-technical people as well. There will be times when you have to collaborate with people in other departments, whether you’re trying to understand project requirements or you need to explain to a stakeholder why something can’t be done as they’ve requested, and you’ll have to be skilled at breaking things down as simply as possible. Soft skills related to communication comprise active listening, public speaking and presentation, writing skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, negotiation, persuasion, leadership, teamwork, empathy, patience, and diplomacy. If you struggle with communicating, you can try starting a brief conversation with someone outside of your department. Getting to know people outside of your team and learning about what they do can help to build soft skills.
Today’s recruiters also want to know whether you’re a lifelong learner, someone who is eager to evolve and stay current in your skillset. Technology is always changing, and whatever you learned might no longer apply in a current role. You need a natural desire for self-learning because it’s an ongoing process. It is also important to be intellectually curious and keep asking questions, whether it’s about projects you’re working on, tasks you need to carry out, or goals you want to accomplish, because these are what leads to improvements in engineering products and processes. Related soft skills can include problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking, innovation, troubleshooting, and brainstorming. Even if it’s a problem you’ve seen before, it’s always worth taking the time to see if there’s a quicker or more efficient solution. Looking at older processes with a new perspective helps you to stay engaged and keep your skills sharp.
When you are performing tasks at work, it’s vital to not only accept both positive and negative feedback, but also to apply it accordingly. Being open to feedback is an essential quality hiring managers look for when conducting interviews. If the interview process involves an in-person technical challenge like a whiteboarding exercise, the recruiter will definitely take note of how you react to any feedback during that session. Trying to portray yourself as the perfect candidate can come across to managers as a lack of self-awareness. Instead, you should be honest about your strengths and weaknesses to make it clear that you’re good at self-evaluation and also receptive to feedback from others. Adaptability, collaboration, self-awareness, resilience, cooperation, flexibility, and humility are soft skills related to openness.
Finding out best practices for giving and receiving feedback can be tricky, and will vary based on the situation and the person, but the key is to maintain professionalism and remind yourself not to take any of it personally. It is easy to get too much involved in a project and skip over the feedback part of it; so you should make a habit of offering feedback to others regularly.
Learning soft skills takes time, and working on them can be a challenging and lengthy process. Of course, you don’t have to do it alone, and can think about enlisting the help of others who can give an objective opinion. Finding a mentor is important especially when you’re first starting out in the industry. It should be someone you can reach out to weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis and ask questions. The most important factor in perfecting your soft skills goes back to the idea of honest self-evaluation. It’s not always easy or comfortable to think about skills to improve on, but the only way to get better is to recognize how you need to grow and take actionable steps to make progress.
