How to stand out among other candidates in the IT market?
Expose your soft skills! Regardless of whether you are just looking for your first job in IT or have already spent some years in the industry, do not forget that business competencies are also important in addition to knowledge of technology. Even if your role is strictly technical, your daily tasks require you to collaborate with the team, client and non-technical people.
To be successful in this field, highly developed soft skills are necessary. Communicativeness, analytical thinking, flexibility, problem-solving or creativity are just some of many that will make it easier for you to perform your daily duties and – in combination with technical skills – will guarantee your success.
Development of soft skills
How to start developing your soft skills? First… identify them! You can observe your strengths yourself at work, but also in everyday situations – think about what duties come quickly to you and what skills they require. Career counsellors or professional tools (eg, CliftonStrengths – 'Gallup test’) can help if you have difficulty with this. With this knowledge, you will be able to develop not only those desirable skills for the job market or the role you have but also those for which you have a natural aptitude.
Present your soft skills during recruitment
Do not omit information about soft skills in your application. Listing them one by one in your resume does not look convincing, but if you enrich the information with contexts and include them in the part about responsibilities, they will certainly be more credible. For example, you can indicate your communication skills by referring to who you communicated with while in the role (e.g. your team, non-technical people, stakeholders etc.). If your forte is analytical thinking, then point to responsibilities where you used this skill. Similarly, at the interview – if you are asked about your strengths, do not do it by listing them, but bring up specific situations that confirm just these skills.
Jobs of the future
It is worth noting that developing these competencies is a great investment – the jobs of the future will be based on soft skills. Many of the tasks for which we currently use hard skills will be automated. Increasingly, our value in the market will be based on soft competencies.
Are you interested in developing soft & hard skills? Check out career paths at Polarys Polska and apply for our positions!
