You’ve probably seen them. All the posts about breaking into tech companies, with the same advice: learn to code. The “top skills” these guides tout are typically just a list of different programming languages. Maybe with a few other highly technical skills thrown into the mix.
There’s nothing wrong with learning to code, of course. Lots of people have kicked off a successful career that way! But there are other skills—skills not tied to a particular programming language—that tech employers seek out. These “soft skills,” or as we like to call them, human skills, can become the foundation for a successful career.
So for everyone who doesn’t want to become a developer? We’ve got you! And we can help you show these off in your interview process, too.
Let’s check out the top skills hiring managers look for—no coding needed—and how to flex them when you’re looking for a job.
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Top Skills for Tech (Beyond Coding)
- Emotional Intelligence
Managing other people is often an important skill as you grow in your career. But what about managing yourself? It might sound strange, but the ability to manage yourself—be aware and address your own biases, assumptions, and emotions—is a fundamental skill that will serve you from day one of your career!
Emotional intelligence is all about understanding what you’re feeling and thinking. When you do that, you can adjust, make decisions, and take next steps accordingly. This will make you a better team member and—as your career advances—a better leader, too.
Show Your Skills: Come up with a time that your self-awareness helped you make a good decision or manage a challenging situation. When you’re asked to talk about your work or other experiences in a job interview, make sure you highlight how you reflected, analyzed your own thinking or feeling, and took action.
- Active Listening
Being understood is a powerful feeling. And giving people that feeling? That’s pretty powerful too.
For this reason, active listening is a really important skill. When you show people you’re listening—and that you really hear them—it builds understanding, promotes connection, and can help resolve conflict.
A lot of times, when people think about building communication skills, they focus only on conveying information, rather than the listening part. But listening skills are crucial, both for emerging leaders and for people who want to become more effective managers.
Show Your Skills: Fortunately, active listening is a skill you can easily show in action! During an interview (or during the chit-chat before and after), use active listening skills like paraphrasing and asking clarifying questions. See if you can start a few sentences with phrases like: “If I understand correctly…” or “Could you elaborate on…” during the conversation. This shows you’re listening and want to deepen your understanding.
- Building and Maintaining Trust
It’s hard to get good work done without trust. No matter what type of role you’re applying for, hiring managers in tech will assess whether you’re someone who seems like they’ll be able to build—and maintain—trust with your teammates.
Do you have a record of keeping your commitments, checking in with your supervisors, inviting others’ perspectives, and celebrating wins with your teammates? These are the types of actions that help add to your “trust bank.” Hiring managers will be on the lookout for them.
Show Your Skills: “Trust” may feel like a big and kind of squishy term. But you can show it in action by thinking of specific examples of when you contributed to the “trust bank” with teammates in the past! Maybe you were transparent with a manager, checking in when there was a problem and showing how you were fixing it. Think of times like this, where you “walked the talk” when it came to establishing trust. Highlight them in your application or interview.
- Adaptability
Being adaptable means that when situations change, you can change, too. You’re quick to learn from new experiences and apply new strategies when necessary. In a fast-changing industry like tech, you can see why this is an in-demand skill!
To see if you’re adaptable, hiring managers will look for traits like open-mindedness, flexibility, and whether you’ve kept going when times are tough. They’ll also want proof that you’re able to learn from setbacks.
Show Your Skills: Brainstorm a time when, due to an obstacle or problem, you had to change direction. This can be at work, school, or as part of an internship. How did you stay calm and flexible? Did you apply what you learned from setbacks to quickly make a good decision? Use this story in your cover letter or interview!
- Creativity
The World Economic Forum lists creative thinking as one of the most desirable skills for workers. While the term “creativity” might make you think of art classes, creativity is a deeply important skill in business.
There are roles often labeled as “Creative Services,” of course, like graphic design and copywriting. But the ability to think creatively and apply outside-the-box ideas can drive innovation and help teams come up with novel solutions. No matter what they’re working on!
Show Your Skills: To highlight your creativity in a job interview, think of a situation where you came up with a unique solution to a tough problem at work or in a class project. Maybe you applied learnings from a totally different situation or field to fix a sticky problem. Or maybe you came up with a novel process or approach that helped get your team out of a tough spot. Walk the interviewer through how you moved from idea to implementation to help your team!
- Storytelling
Good storytelling makes all your communication more effective. It helps you show why something matters, boosts your ability to persuade and motivate people, and allows you to get—and maintain—people’s attention. All important tasks in any role!
Research has shown that our brains treat stories differently from other information. The ability to craft a great narrative is something that recruiters and hiring managers actively look for. They know that whether their team is advocating for a new idea or showing the impact of a recent project, storytelling will help them get support and demonstrate their impact.
Show Your Skills: Draw attention to your skills in this area by telling a story in your cover letter and/or your interview. Set the scene, identify the problem, and show how you overcame it! Your story can be short and sweet. Just make sure it has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Why Human Skills Matter in Tech
Things in the tech industry evolve quickly. Whether you’re working at a startup or a massive multinational company, you—and your teammates—need to be ready for lots of change.
The World Economic Forum thinks that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years, particularly as AI changes the way we work. But while technical skills can become outdated quickly, skills like adaptability and creativity help you navigate change and stay up-to-date, no matter what the industry throws at you.
So it’s no surprise to us that LinkedIn’s In-Demand Skills Report also features adaptability as its top in-demand skill, with many “soft” skills like communication, leadership, and teamwork near the top.
We’re not here to disparage technical skills like coding. In fact, many of the learners we work with are building their career on these skills!
But no matter whether you’re seeking a technical or nontechnical path, these human skills will help you thrive throughout your career in tech.
What’s Next for Your Move Into Tech?
Hopefully, this post gave you some ideas for how to showcase your skills in these areas as you navigate your move into tech. Or work on building a nontraditional career in tech! 💪
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