About Soft Skills in thieves’ words

From time to time at interviews, in comments on Habr or other resources, I come across an opinion that Soft Skills is nonsense. They are invented by the HR Masonic lodge and nobody really needs them.

I am a developer, which means that I am clearly not a member of the secret lodge of HR. And I think Soft Skills are important. So I thought: “Since today is April Fool’s Day, why not try to talk about Soft Skills in the most stupid and simple way?”. Therefore, today I will talk about Soft Skills in thieves’ words.

Important disclaimer: the author is not a fan of AUE and prison romance. Doesn’t try to propagate these movements. Also, I’m not trying to talk seriously about Soft Skills. As such, there are a great many Soft Skills. I will only talk about a few and not the fact that the most important. This is all a joke made for the sake of a joke.

Let’s get started…

Analogy

In order for us to gently roll into the rut of thieves, let’s draw an analogy between a Senior developer and a professional chifir brewer in the zone.

Both of them are professionals in their particular field. For years, they have been pumping their skills. Nobody doubts that your Hard Skills are at a high level.

Imagine that you are this chifir brewer.

Ability to fit into and communicate with a team

Let’s say you passed the interview. Ahem … More precisely, the guard found out that you are doing chifir perfectly, and put you in a cell with the thieves.

You go into the hut and instead of proudly declaring “Evening in the hut. I am, in short, like a master, well, like a chifir. Instead of these wonderful words, you say “Hi sweeties, how are you relaxing? And I can make delicious tea.”

You know… there’s some chance your greeting won’t be appreciated. Probably, your place will not even be at the bucket, but in the bucket itself.

Nobody wants to be in a shack. Maybe…

The ability to understand colleagues and communicate with them in the same language is a Soft Skill. If you cannot do this, then you will be recorded in the “roosters”. And it doesn’t matter how good a chifir master you are. You will no longer be listened to or will not be taken seriously.

Also in IT. Well, except that there is less chance of being in the “cocks”. If you come to the team, everyone is so serious there. And you are a joker, first of all you start joking about your mother, then you may not be understood in this way (this is how I feel when I post this article on Habr). And vice versa, if you come to a group of pranksters with a stone face, then there is a chance to remain a renegade, who is still made fun of. They just do it behind your back. The ability to fit into a team and communicate in it is an important soft skill.

Go ahead.

Ability to competently provide requirements and competently explain what you need for quality work

To consider the next Soft Skill, let’s imagine that you “clearly” introduced yourself and “boyishly” explained who you are. One of the thieves provided you with a snitch, who will have to carry the tea leaves you need to the zone.

It’s better not to think about how he will do it …

You “overwrite” the cord “In short, tea, this is, well, like, this, with a woman on the pack and this, well, like, this is average, well, like, in size.”

Shnyr leaves with the air of a man who has understood absolutely everything – both you and the meaning of life.

Getting the right tea leaves is not a quick thing. Therefore, you are currently engaged in an “advertising company”.

Sooner or later, but the snitch still comes back and hands you the package.

You look and understand that instead of black tea “Princess Java” you were fitted with “Princess Noori”. So is green too. And this tea is packaged in bags, which means that there is much less tea in a pack.

As a result, you will not be able to make a chifir of the level that you did before.

Of course, you are a professional in your field, and perhaps you will be able to cook “something”. Even from the available ingredients. But, most likely, “it” will taste even worse than the scum from the local kettle.

Oh yes, those properties that you advertised are also unlikely to be achieved. Green tea does not give that beautiful shade of gilding that black would. Customers will obviously be dissatisfied.

The ability to correctly provide requirements and competently explain what you need for quality work is a Soft Skill. Without this, you will not be able to do anything worthwhile, no matter what kind of professional you are.

The same is true in IT. You will constantly have to explain a lot and intelligibly to others what you need. Frontend/Mobile-developer must correctly set the requirements for the backend-developer where and in what fields what should come. Well, or the backend developer should clearly explain what the frontend / mobile developer should send him. Otherwise, errors are inevitable – wrong data or in the wrong format.

Ability to correctly estimate and pronounce deadlines

Let’s say, by the happiest chance, the snitch bought exactly what he needed. You start cooking chifir and the godfather asks: “What, like, when will it be, like, is it ready?”. Thinking: “And how do I know that, ept, everything depends on the temperature of the water and the batch of tea.” You answer: “Well, this, I, this, I will do as I will. Will be ready. Then it will brew until it gets dark enough.”

There is a good chance that the amount of time that the godfather thought about may be very different from the real one. As a result, he will invite godfathers from other huts to chifirchik at eight o’clock in the evening. Such an ordinary gentlemen’s evening tea party. Your chifir will be ready only by twelve, and you will very quickly find yourself in the balabol category.

If there is any uncertainty in the assessment, it is also better to say it. The phrase “By 10 I’ll finish like. Will brew – xs. Everything depends on the temperature of the water and this, the batch of tea depends. Maybe another hour and a half, maybe two and a half.” At the very least, this will not create false expectations.

It’s the same in IT. In our example, the deadlines are set implicitly, it is not clear. “Will be done” part or all of the work? What does “when it gets dark” mean? When will it get dark outside or the tea itself? Unclear. This all leads to false expectations. Therefore, it is important not only to be able to correctly evaluate, but also to correctly pronounce the terms.

Conclusions without conclusions

Soft Skills are important. Bad Soft Skills can devalue your Hard Skills and your work.
Well, it is logical that without good Hard Skills, your highly developed Soft Skills will not save you. After all, without sufficient practical skills, you still will not be able to correctly set the requirements or evaluate the project. You just don’t have enough knowledge to do it and the result will be just as terrible.

As for me, you should not forget about either Soft Skills or Hard Skills, but try to develop them harmoniously.