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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
The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers desire candidates with strong communication skills, both verbal and written. They look for new hires who possess interpersonal skills, which enable them to communicate professionally with their colleagues and work effectively on a team. These skills are often lacking. Some respondents attribute this lack to the younger generations having less experience with face-to-face communication.
| "We are going to look for the well-rounded person. We want them to have the personal skills, the communication skills, the technical skills, etcetera." | Metro |
| "Just the soft skills. We are very limited in the colleges right now that we can recruit from because not a lot of colleges have programs that give students the technical skills and also help them with general communication skills." | Metro |
| "I agree with the other employer that the well-rounded communication skills are where we are really having a hard time finding people." | Metro |
| "We are not looking at entry-level like the other employers are, but we still see the same problems with the experienced—the two-year, three-year, five-year—people that we are interviewing. They come in without the social skills. They don't know how to communicate." | Metro |
| "Employer 1: They have to be very good technically, but they also have to relate well within their group. And, in a smaller organization, they are going to be walking down the hall and they are going to have to talk to the CFO one day and talk to the CEO another day because they bump into them in the hallway. That's a very different situation. Employer 2: I think you get that in a larger organization, too. Employer 1: Absolutely. Employer 2: Especially at our company. It's an Agile job, right? So, the developers are working with the testers and the business analysts and the end users. And it's changed a lot. It's more than 'stick the guy in the cube and he just cranks out programs.' There's a lot more interaction with other teams." |
Metro |
| "I don't think that there are any programs that have a heavy focus on professional development, which might get you some of that experience with networking, presenting yourself clearly, selling your skills, and showing what you can really do. I think the technical skills will definitely get you in the door. Your resume will get through. You might be able to sell yourself through an interview, but what's going to keep you in a company are those critical thinking skills, the ability to be adaptable, to collaborate with those around you, to be a good team player, to communicate, and work well together. That's what's going to keep you in the door and help you with career progression. If you want to move through the ranks, those skills are definitely important. And I don't think that there's enough attention paid to soft skills and professional development in general." | Metro |
| "On day one, our company is expecting you to be nimble, adaptable, to be able to collaborate well with others, to take feedback, and to give feedback." | Metro |
| "They have to be able to present themselves and communicate or they won't work at a small company. That's for sure." | Metro |
| "They need to be able to think on their feet. They need to be able to be collaborative and consultative. And they need to be able to communicate effectively with those business partners." | Metro |
| "What I think is missing sometimes is the soft skill side. Where are they learning the business-speak? Where are they learning how to communicate? Where are they learning to ask the right questions? If you don't have that as part of the program, coming out, they have to learn that on the job. But, unfortunately, the job expects that right away. So, that soft-skill side has to be part of the curriculum." | Metro |
| "The days of sitting down and banging out code over a six-month development project are over. Everything is in small one-week or two-week increments, where everyone's involved. If you can't communicate, if you can't understand what the end goal is, how can you really contribute to that small team?" | Metro |
| "They have to be strong communicators. So, they're being asked to bring a lot more skills to the table." | Metro |
| "You need to know how to write a requirement. Is it testable? Is it this? Is it that? Having that specific training, along with that project management soft skill side—which is asking the right questions, communicating, and doing what's difficult." | Metro |
| "Basic skills will go a long way, along with communication." | Metro |
| "I would agree that we supply resources to our customers. And, a lot of times, the 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 |
| "People generally fail at the job and it's the lack of strategic relationships and communication skills. It's not that they don't know the technical piece." | Metro |