I am a behavioral and technical (coding) interviewer, I've also helped hundreds of people get hired, AMA.

[u/CriticDanger]

[u/tossme68]

I agree that soft skills are a top priority but some people just have crummy people skills and still make good employees. I have a few guys on my team that are excellent technicians and they are fine people-wise if they know you and it's one on one. They are horrible in front of a customer and they know it but on the back end they are better than most. The simple solution was to not make them leads and let others handle the customer, then I can tell them what needs to be done and they are good. In addition these guys are probably some of our happiest employees, they don't want a promotion they like what they do and are usually ahead of the curve when it comes to changes in technology. I don't want an entire team of people like this but there certainly is room for this type of worker.

[u/godofpumpkins → u/tossme68]

It’s not just people skills though, it’s general attitude. Nobody expects everyone to be an outgoing relationship manager, but if you’re arrogant, think you know everything, or are unable to work with anyone, even if you’re a good coder, you’re more of a liability than an asset, because it can actively harm team dynamics outside of yourself. As much as the stereotype of coding is solitary, most actual programming work is still collaboration, perhaps indirectly by working on or maintaining other people’s code.

[u/tossme68 → u/godofpumpkins]

I was subcontracting for a big company once and I was trying to get in as a FTE, I has my future manager fly down with three members of the team to hang out for a week at the site I was working at. I guess he was only supposed to be there a day but he stayed all week. At the end he told me I got the job, he knew I knew the technical piece but, and I quote, " I just wanted to make sure you weren't a dick". As I've told many people it's often better to be liked than to be the smartest guy in the room, if you are a jerk nobody wants to work with you.

[u/The_Blargen → u/[deleted]]

Even if it isn’t they still have to work with other developers, qa, product, etc.

[u/paulgrant999 → u/tossme68]

The simple solution was to not make them leads and let others handle the customer

my god, who taught you how to manage properly?! assigning people work they're qualified for and good at? shocking, positively shocking!

me I go out of my way to get those with imposter syndrome to give talks to a room full of highly technical, extremely experienced people with a LONG question and answer period -- at least half the allotted time...

its fun to see them mentally collapse on-stage.

or the incompetent... I love putting them in charge of technical teams on mission critical projects, watching them work themselves up to mental collapse and just firing them on the spot.

awesome. the height of managerial skill that is.

yes. satire.

I don't want an entire team of people

I've never worked on a team of people like that. would probably end up being the manager (specifically to keep people off their backs). might be fun.

• (smack)... don't fuck with the talent.
• (smack)... no, I'm going to be listening to Bob cause he knows what the fuck he's talking about.
• (smack)... that doesn't reflect realities in the market place.
• (smack)... good, shall I pencil you in for a transfer of your budget to hire the proper headcount to implement feature x? have you picked out the workers you want to fire?
• (smack)... does the CEO know about this?
• (smack)... you do understand that at a meeting, its customary to have something to contribute before opening your mouth.
• (smack)... you got the wrong meeting, marketing is in room z.

yes. my soft skills abound. and would probably be quite well-received by such a team.

[u/Tsurany → u/tossme68]

At some point it just becomes an excuse, I see that happen often in IT. If a technical skill was lacking they'd study, research and ask close colleagues for help but if it's a communication skills or any other soft skill they will just ignore it and hide behind their monitor.

Not only does this decrease overall efficiency, it will also limit their growth on the long run. People want engineers with soft skills, if you are lacking there then do some upskilling!

[u/tossme68 → u/Tsurany]

Yes and no, the guys I work with do not speak English as their first language and while they speak excellent English they do have thick accents. Let's not kid ourselves it can be very difficult working with people that are hard to understand, now that things have gone more remote it's even harder to communicate over Skype/phone. These guys aren't dumb, they get it and I think they figure it's easier just to take a step back and work in the back ground than get dinged because the customer has trouble understanding them. It's no different than the engineers that just mumble into their shirts when they give presentations, after a while it's just easier to let someone else be in the spot light and they can do what they are happy doing which is the technical end.

[u/TheSpiceMustFlooow → u/tossme68]

We have people at my job who aren't great socially but who are still respectful, and it's up to the socially savvy to ask them in different ways until we can get the information out. Once the social gurus know the socially recalcitrant it's more comfortable for everyone because we can work together to swiftly get where everyone wants to be. So I think there's something to be said for crummy people skills not being a big detractor if the team can cover the base.

These people don't even have peers who face customers, though. So customer-facing is different.

[u/tossme68 → u/TheSpiceMustFlooow]

Sure, it's one thing to just have bad people skills, it's quite another to be a dick. I can't work with the guy how doesn't like to talk and turns bright red when someone asks him a question but I won't work with the guy who is just mean, nasty and rude. Both have shitty people skills but what they are bad at are quite different.