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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:
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.

Employer Quote Region
"We look for three things when we're hiring someone, especially entry-level hires. Raw technical talent is one. Communication skills are second. That's a huge bonus, if you get someone that you know can write well and speak well and is comfortable doing it, because they will automatically be more effective. The third, which we don't always get, is business acumen. People who can sit in a meeting with a customer, and can understand where the customer's coming from. We're lucky if we get that. But communication is critical." Northeast
"Written communications are very important in our business, and I'm sure you've experienced that there are some people that can be just incredibly blunt. They can communicate, but it's going to hit you full force. And then there are people that can express themselves a little more eloquently." Northeast
"I just asked another employer if her employees' communication issues are generational or not. I'm curious because I've got a couple of kids that are just out of college, and watching them grow up, and how they interact with other people—I like to think that their communication skills are good—but one son got around 3,000 texts in a month. And I have 200 on my phone and it's like, 'Well, do you communicate in any other way?'

If you could check these kids, I think it's in the hiring process: How will they interview? Can they communicate beyond their resume? That's where you feel the stuff out. I don't know if you can teach that. And I don't know if that's the responsibility of the college. If you go back into the high school setting...the communication thing is basically how the people are growing up nowadays. I do it different than my kids. I come at it from a different side, and working with some of the other managers, they're still kind of old-school in the way that they need the interaction. They need the face-to-face. The phone calls are great, the emails are great, but getting out there and getting to these people, and understanding their needs, is really where it's at. Some of these kids say, 'If I have to figure something out, I'll just Google it. I don't need to talk to anybody. I don't need to interact with a classmate sitting next to me. I can do it on my own.' Somewhere interaction has to get re-introduced—that it's more than just you and your computer. In our work environment, we share work spaces and the communication happens whether we want it to or not. Sometimes it kind of forces the communication without them realizing it, so there are a lot of good opportunities even within your environment to let these things happen."		 Northeast
"I think it goes back to the re-occurring theme here. Whether you're focusing on a single item or you're focusing on a change in landscape, you need critical thinking skills, and again, communication. Those are really the two big things. Part of me thinks it's just that IT in general attracts more of an isolationist-type person, because people don't get into IT when they're freshmen in college and say, 'Hey, I'm interested in computers.' Most of them started younger and the expectation is, 'It's me and the computer, it's not a group of people and computers.' It's just an isolationist-type mentality. So, I think that introverts naturally migrate to this industry. I think our focus on teaching communication along with that IT skill set is very, very crucial." Northeast
"Employer: I think pushing those individuals out of their comfort zone during the education process is a good thing—especially for the real introverted ones. It's important to get them into situations where they are forced to communicate in group settings or team settings. I think that can make a difference. Because as soon as they come into our business they're going to be out of their comfort zone regularly in terms of the technologies they have to learn, communication situations, and business situations. They're going to constantly be put into situations that are going to stretch them. And the sooner they get used to the idea, I think the better it is.

Question: And that's something you would put into a curriculum?

Employer: Yes."		 Northeast
"For the analysts that work for me, the percentage of the time that they are able to be isolationists and focus on just building something is 10 percent. The other 90 percent of their time requires collaboration, discussion, meetings, and presentations." Northeast
"Communication is key. They have to interact. They have to speak to project managers and clients who don't necessarily speak the technical language. So, they need to be able to translate. And they may need to translate between three different parties. So, communication is very important." Northeast
"I think communication styles are more generational than IT-related. The newer hires want to text everybody for everything, and the ones who have been there for a while actually want to talk to people. That is what I'm seeing." Northeast
"Employer: I think it just goes back to knowing who your audience is, and being able to communicate in the way that the other person appreciates.

Question: And it's something that could be taught?

Employer: Yeah. With our team, I mean, we text back and forth all the time, and I'm perfectly fine with it. We use Instant Messaging, we Skype, we do whatever. But if we're sending an email out to a client, that's a totally different situation. They need to be aware of those boundaries depending on what the situation is.

Question: So, the worker needs to think specifically about who they're about to communicate with and then pick the appropriate means?

Employer: Right."		 Northeast