We’ve done a lot of coverage on the top tech certifications you should focus on when you’re looking for a high-paying career in DevOps, IT, or software engineering. And the skills you’ll learn while training for those certifications remain the meat of what hiring managers are seeking in tech candidates.
But a recent survey of 525 tech industry workers and managers by Reign (a software development consultancy) and Fractl (a content marketing house) showed that there’s more than tech know-how involved in landing a good job. According to the survey, companies looking for tech candidates, especially quality candidates with the potential for upward career trajectories, want soft skills—non-technical skills such as time management, leadership, communication, creativity, and so on—almost as much as up-to-date tech skills.
And it’s not just managers who think these skills are valuable. The survey showed that 72% of employees thought soft skills were important for success in their jobs compared to 42% landing on the tech-skills-only side. Meanwhile, their managers leaned even more strongly in this direction with 76% of them rating soft skills important in a good tech employee versus 44.9% for tech. Even when the survey asked directly what a manager’s ratio was between tech and soft skills, the majority (52%), said they wanted an even mix of both, not a heavy focus on one or the other.
Reign being a software house rather than a general technology firm meant the survey asked about the top development languages that programmers felt were most in-demand this year. Overall, it was a close race between Python, Java, JavaScript, and C++. However, Python won the day with 29.15% of developers rating it the best language to know, while 30.57% of managers felt the same way.
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For those aiming for a career in software development, the Reign and Fractl survey has a lot more interesting information, including how often you should be refreshing your skills to stay at the top of your field and how many employers actually reimburse for that expense. It even talks about your side-hustle options, if you’re one of many programmers doing freelance work to increase your income in addition to a nine-to-five job.
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Read More: A Good Tech Job Requires Soft Skills, Too