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As a contractor you should be able to take your pick right now as there are many more available roles than candidates, but technical skills alone are no longer enough to land you the top jobs – you also need IT soft skills.
A soft skills definition usually refers to interpersonal skills, also called people skills – in other words, the skills that make it easier for you to work well with others and to quickly adapt to different or changing environments.
Hard skills are the core skills or technical skills you need to do your job e.g., the programming language, databases, or particular frameworks. On the other hand, key soft skills for tech professionals are the non-technical skills they need. IT soft skills examples include verbal communication, problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Of course, your technical knowledge is important for landing a top tech contract, but the reality is most employers these days not only value but also insist on soft skills in technology.
“This is particularly the case for tech contractors who need to implement substantial changes in a company or who are hired for project management or leadership roles,” explains Head of IT Contracting at Michael Page, Justyna Ostropolska.
For example, a Chief Security Officer or Information Security Officer needs to be the security ambassador of the company and must communicate the importance of a solid information security environment to all stakeholders.
Ostropolska adds: “Nowadays everyone is looking for strong, communicative candidates who are good at connecting business and IT.”
Here is a list of top soft skills for IT professionals that will make you stand out from the competition.
As we said above, this is the most important soft skill for tech contractors, other than their tech knowledge, as they must be able to explain why and how they are doing things to different stakeholders in the business in plain, understandable language.
Here we’re talking about the ability to work effectively in a changing environment. You need to be open-minded and flexible enough to accept last-minute changes and adjust course when needed. “The nature of contracting is that you should be able to hit the ground running and land on your feet in any role without the need for too much training or handholding,” says Justyna Ostropolska. You need to be resilient and easily work across teams.
Hiring managers want to see how tech professionals would be able to find creative solutions to solve problems that you may not have anticipated. Analytical thinking is also important because it helps you approach problems in a logical and structured way.
As contractors bring an outside perspective, they can often ask the right questions and apply knowledgeable and beneficial judgment at critical points – a strong soft skill asset.
For contractors time management is key – you have been hired to do a job and get results in a defined, and often short, period, so the ability to prioritize and to be results-driven is a core skill.
As there is little time for training, contractors should listen carefully to what is being required and pay attention to detail to ensure they meet all the requirements of the contract, and nothing is lost in translation.
Contractors often need to step into a stressful environment, for example where the team has been overworked and under pressure and look to the contractor to lighten the load, or when there are tight deadlines for setting up a new project from scratch.
Even if you’re working remote – as many contractors do these days – the person’s ability to get on with team members, even if it’s via videoconference, also counts for a lot. Having a sense of humor and being able to connect to others on a personal level, is an important part of IT contracting.
One of the IT soft skills that will make you desirable as an IT contractor now, states Ostropolska, is your ability to share or impart your skills with others. This means that when you leave, they have the knowledge to continue without you.
So, what do you do if you´re not sure that you have the soft skills or you are unsure about how to highlight them in your applications or job interviews?
Personal development is always important, so consider doing online classes to help you boost your soft skills.
Also, an experienced recruiting agency would be able to help you identify your soft skills and advise on how to structure a CV to best display your strengths.
Today, hard and soft skills count equally. Hardly anyone wants a great specialist on a project who cannot talk to the team or share their knowledge.
Therefore, remember to show your soft skills in your CV alongside your project experience and technical skills.
At Michael Page, we have a network of clients of all sizes who are looking to fill IT positions. As experienced recruiters, we can connect top quality candidates with clients for top IT contracting assignments across all sectors and markets, both at the national and global levels.
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