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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Information Technology (IT)

They are talking about this topic: General Skills

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Consultation skills are essential for IT professionals since they must work directly with clients to assess and resolve technical issues in an efficient, professional manner. They must be able to clearly communicate technical ideas to stakeholders who may have less technological knowledge, and they must be able to effectively manage conflict.

Employer Quote Region
"We need graduates with the ability to speak and feel comfortable in an interview. Because in our environment, the day you start working you are client-facing. You are now serving clients. So, if someone cannot go through an interview and be confident in their skill sets, we can't put them in front of our clients. So, just the soft skills. We are very limited in the colleges that we can recruit from because not a lot of colleges have programs that give their students the technical skills and also help them with general communication skills." Metro
"Even from the entry-level hires, communication and consultative skills are lacking. And they don't gain it by going into a job necessarily. And I think the smaller the company is, the better shot they have if they are well-rounded because they have to engage with other business people." Metro
"And so what we see, especially in the two-year programs, is that they are heavy in the technical skills. They are fine sitting down in front of a router, but if you put them in front of a client to explain something they are completely lost." Metro
"It's becoming incredibly important to find that magical mix of someone that can speak to our business partners in the language that they understand and then be able to come back and talk to our technical folks in the technical language that they are accustomed to. So, it really is becoming an important shift." Metro
"It's trying to find that person that's got those technical skills. And, now, coupling it with the ability to have a conversation with a business partner, especially because of the way we operate." Metro
"They need to be able to think on their feet. They need to be able to be collaborative, consultative, and be able to communicate effectively with those business partners. We're asking them not just to be tech support. We're also asking them to be consultants, and how do you train on that? That's something that they have to come with." Metro
"I think another employer mentioned the word 'consultative.' That's incredibly important in today's world. I think it's important for individuals to come in and be able to understand that their role in the environment is to help, and to look for ways to really show value. So, when I'm looking for someone to fill a job, I do like to see that they've been a consultant in the past because that brings a particular way of doing things to the table." Metro
"These people are constantly being put in front of the customer and sometimes the customer is even an external customer—not within the business. And so—this is going back to the critical thinking skills and communication skills—we can no longer be little technicians that just sit in the cubicles and do our jobs." Metro
"It's really true that technology people are asked to bring skill sets to the table that most operations people are not. For instance, not only do they have to be technically competent in the programming languages, they have to be consultants. They have to be strong communicators." Metro
"A lot of times, soft skills are short. An employee might be very talented technically, but when it comes to communication skills and teamwork—we're all in the service industry these days—so, just being able to communicate and talk and work with people is important. And I think there's an opportunity to improve in that area." Metro
"I absolutely agree with the comment about business acumen, and having some of the softer skills. Particularly with what's happening in the industry and as we move towards as-a-service platform and as-a-service software. Those skills are becoming more and more important. I want to emphasize that the technical skills do not go away, but the nature of the job is changing. So, you need the technical skills for the evaluation, but perhaps you need less of them. Equally important, if not more important, are the soft skills around better management and negotiation. Leadership and management competencies are all the more important going forward." Metro
"Why does IT exist? To help the business achieve its goals and to serve its customers. That's the focus that we continue to try and push to our IT. They talk that way, but a lot of times you end up with a technologist who wants to tell the client how they should do it. Really, this is where the consultation piece comes in: 'How can I help you achieve your goals?'" Metro
"IT does interface with a lot of different aspects of the business. So, those management and relationship skills become ever more important because we are negotiating. We are service providers on a daily basis. Technical skills are so important because we have to translate to enabling technologies. But, if you cannot present yourself in a professional manner, you don't even get in the door to begin with." Metro
"One of the areas where we're doing a lot of hiring within my group right now is around business analysts, project managers, and architects. So, those are labels for individuals whose full-time job is to interact with the business and draw out their requirements and then create a solution design. I think, many times, in the schools, they do a lot of teamwork within teams. But I think students need to be asked to actually help define the problem set that they're trying to solve. Often, the business doesn't even really know what they want. They need someone to help them and collaborate with them to define what that need is—not just to create the solution but to design that solution." Metro
"In the scheme of things, people generally fail at the job, and it's competencies such as strategic relationships and communication skills that are missing. It's not that they don't know the technical piece." Metro