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Communication Skills: A Core Part of Software Engineering
Developing the skills tech companies look for
Communication skills. They come into play when writing documentation for frameworks and libraries, or when sending emails or slack messages to coworkers. They’re an important factor in how two or more people convey complex ideas and concepts to each other, which is core to collaborating as a software developer. And, more recently, communication skills have become an important part of software developer interviews, where most companies will check for a level of aptitude in a candidate’s communication skills.
But we throw communication in the soft skills category, where it lives as a second class citizen to the more dignified technical skills. Maybe it’s the name soft skills that gives it that feeling of being lesser-than, but communication skills are sometimes simply considered as nice to have. However, it is an imperative skill for a successful career in tech, as the need to communicate more complex ideas to a wider group of people becomes an increasingly important part of the job. It’s also an important factor for making the tech industry more inclusive by enabling people from different backgrounds to work well with each other on projects.
When we look at software development, we talk a lot about the amazing inventions…
