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Hard Skills are necessary to get a job, but Soft Skills are required to have a successful career.
Software developers have hard skills related to writing software.
Your employer gets to make money from the software you write.
If you are bad at working in teams, you won’t be able to work within a group of software developers.
As you demonstrate your ability to be a good teammate, eventually you may get put in charge of that team.
If no one wants to give you more responsibility, your career will stagnate.
Hard skills on a job description:
Software Developer Needed: Must be able to code in Java, JavaScript, and SQL.
Software Developer Needed: Must be able to code in Java, JavaScript, and SQL.
Soft Skills, however, are much harder to articulate in a job description:
- Communication: what constitutes excellent communication?
- Teamwork: how do you learn how to be better at it?
- Leadership: what activities make you a leader?
- Initiative: how else can you find other work you are supposed to do?
- Attention to Detail: how can you self-assess if it was good enough?
Thus, learning soft skills becomes a priority both for the employer and employee.