Why You Shouldn’t Overlook Soft Skills In Software Developers

When looking to software developers, one should never overlook the importance of soft skills. Soft skills are personality characteristics that allow an individual to interact effectively and in synergy with other people. Assessing the soft skills of potential talent is key to a successful hire. Making the right hiring decisions is paramount for the growth of your company.

Finding a candidate that exhibits all the soft skills you desire can be a tricky and daunting process. An interview alone may not cover the quality of soft skills that a candidate possesses. A true measure of character is hard to detect at first glance, but there are several key traits that you can look for in the short time you spend in conversation with the potential talent.

Here’s a list of soft skills to look for in your next software developer and why they are so crucial.

Communication

Great communication skills can mean the difference between a project getting off to a great start, or a project slowly dragging on due to misunderstandings. Are your teammates able to articulate their concerns in a professional manner, without seeming combative or harsh? Productive discourse is always great for coming to a solution, but poor communication can turn a simple discussion into a heated argument or worse, a failed project.

When working with clients outside the realm of software development, the ability to explain complex technical concepts can help projects move along smoothly. Is your potential hire able to explain complicated and specialized ideas in relatively simple terms? This skill could be a deciding factor whether a project moves forward.

Organization

The ability to have an organized process around daily routines is a quality that many struggle to find. Organization, planning, and time management are all crucial skills that determine if client work is done on time. Does your candidate seem to have a methodology behind accomplishment of their tasks?

Patience

If your company is diverse in its structure, many teams from different backgrounds will have to work together. From project managers to software engineers to human resources, everyone works at different speeds with potentially different mindsets. The ability to exhibit patience when someone is not working as fast as you want them to is part of being a successful team member.

Teamwork

The importance of being a good team player cannot be stressed enough. Lending a helping hand to colleagues is part of being a great employee. Does your candidate have a demonstrated history of working as part of a team? Fortunately, finding past evidence of teamwork is not just exclusive to those in software development. Teamwork skills can be refined in almost all facets of the workforce.

Problem Solving Skills

Is the potential hire successful at solving both easy and complex problems? Not all problems are related to writing code or delivering a product. The interview can be a good environment to witness a candidate’s problem solving aptitude.

Problems don’t have to be solved alone. There’s no better way to assess many soft skills than providing a challenge to a group and seeing how they tackle the problem together.  One can witness many soft skills at work in an environment such as this.

Empathy

Never underestimate the power of empathy. Everyone on a team is struggling with different problems, both personally and professionally. Finding a new team member who is able to empathize with other’s struggles makes everyone’s life easier.

When an environment of collaboration and teamwork is established through empathy for others, ideas and suggestions can flourish without fear of judgment. Developing skills of empathy can help establish a welcoming culture and collaboration-focused environment.

Using Technology To Detect Soft Skills

At Flint Hills Group we helped Alyss Analytics, a data analytics company that specializes in HR and recruiting, create an AI based solution capable of detecting candidate’s soft skills from a simple video resume.

Developing this technology was fascinating. Now companies can assess thousands of candidates quickly. With our help, the Alyss Analytics Artificial Intelligence model is able to analyze the specific data points provided in the video resume to assess a score of a candidate’s soft skills. This technology is now a game-changer in the HR & recruiting space.

Is your company assessing candidates’ soft skills in a productive fashion? Let Flint Hills Group help, we can even provide you with outsourced Developers or an entire software team with a project manager. Be sure to read our reviews on Clutch, an independent platform for rating agencies. You can then review our process, and request an estimate for your project.