How important are soft skills for software developers?
My short journey so far in software development has impressed on me the fact that writing software is not just about writing code. In a day’s work, I often find myself assuming several roles, some technical and more often than not, many not so technical ones. Depending on my client at a particular time and the project scope, I may have to put on a UI/UX designer’s shoes, a scrum master’s hat, assume a public speaker’s job or live as the product end-user and so on.
If there’s one thing that I have come to appreciate so much with each passing day, it’s the fact that accountability is very important in this career just as it is in other facets of life — accountability to ourselves and to others. As much as I would prefer to sit in my corner and write my code the whole day uninterrupted with meetings and check-ins, this is very much part of the job especially if you are working in a team. Your accountability or lack of can be a big hindrance to the progress of the whole project. Your teammates, your CTO, and the product owners need to know what exactly you are working on, what is working and what is not, and they need to know whether you will meet the sprint deadlines or if you will need help doing so. This does not mean that they don’t trust you or think you are incompetent, it is simply part of the job.
So if you are planning to join this exciting career or already are in it, remember, soft skills are as important as technical skills or even more important. To be successful in today’s tech world, you need to be trilingual: you have to speak code, client and colleague!
