The top soft skills IT professionals need to have in 2025
Soft skills are more actually important than tech skills for IT professionals. Here’s the ones you should work on to ensure job stability and that next promotion.
Nov 19, 2024 • 7 Minute Read
Ask yourself this question: How much does it matter that someone has the skills to create an AI solution, if they deploy it full of bugs and security issues?
The answer, of course, is that it wouldn’t matter at all. Yet, as IT professionals, we fixate on how many certificates we have, the frameworks and services we know, or the number of projects we’ve delivered. However, these all pale in relevance compared to how likeable we are, our ability to work in teams, or our ability to think critically.
Long story short? The strength of our soft skills determines our employability and wage growth.
This can be hard to hear, particularly if these are your weak points. Many IT professionals make the mistake of trying to simply become exceptional in their technical abilities, hoping this will “outweigh” any shortfall in their soft skills. Unfortunately, when you’ve got a hole in your boat, the solution isn’t making the rest of the ship sturdier; the only real solve is to plug that hole.
So, what soft skills should you be working on? Below are the top soft skills employers look for in IT employees.
1. Critical thinking
When I talk to IT leaders and C-level executives, the number one skill they want to see in IT professionals is critical thinking. Critical thinking is the ability to question, evaluate, and make a rational judgement call based on the information you’re presented with.
Why is it so essential? If an employee can’t think critically, they are typically the ones who make the most mistakes and require the most management. For example, they may:
- Deliver solutions full of flaws that could have been picked up earlier
- Accept unreasonable deadlines or sub-par solutions without question
- Struggle to act autonomously without a leader making important decisions
- Fail to identify and flag risks that can cause project or organizational damage
- Struggle with introspection, particularly identifying their own skill gaps and how they could be doing things better
On the flip side, an employee with strong critical thinking skills can often act autonomously, leading a project from inception to delivery with minimal guidance. It’s clear to see why IT leaders not only prefer these types of employees, but often have them at the top of mind when it comes to promotions and raises.
2. Collaboration
Tech is a team sport, despite what people may think when they see a bunch of people hovering over computers. It’s particularly vital in the fields of software development and cybersecurity, where you are working collaboratively on code or operating with professionals in specialized, task-based roles. Your individual skills may be great, but they only shine when you can work with others towards a shared goal.
3. Communication
Here’s a truth that transcends both IT and non-IT roles: If you can’t communicate what you’re doing, it’s as if you’re not doing it at all. It’s a harsh and unfortunate truth, but it’s a lesson worth learning, as the strength of your communication skills can directly impact your job stability. Don’t assume that everyone knows how important the work you’re doing is. IT professionals need to constantly be communicating their value and what they’re doing upwards in a way that non-IT people can understand.
Outside of job stability, having strong communication skills are simply essential to getting things done. The ability to translate things from technical jargon into simpler terms is key to communicating with anyone outside of your immediate team and sets you apart in people’s mind as someone who’s easy to work with (and therefore desirable in senior positions). People who succeed and thrive in senior IT positions nearly always have strong communication skills.
4. Continuous learning
On average, IT skills are only relevant for two and a half years, according to IBM research. That means to succeed in IT and avoid obsolescence, you need to constantly be updating and acquiring new skills. There’s not an immediate consequence when you stop, but rather it comes a few years down the line as other professionals have acquired the latest skills to drive new projects, and you’re still working with older knowledge and techniques.
The need for continuous learning can be overwhelming at times. The key is to always be learning a little bit each week, rather than cramming your learning into bursts every few months (or years). This is especially true for fields that are continuously changing every week, such as cybersecurity.
5. Problem solving
No matter your discipline, most of IT involves problem solving. Most of us thrive on coming across that brain-teasing problem---such as how to create a certain function, train a model, or deal with a vulnerability---followed by the cathartic release and thrill of solving it. Your ability to work through and find a solution to these problems, mostly independently, are critical to your career success.
For those seeking a job in tech, showcasing your ability to tackle unexpected issues with innovative solutions can be a major asset. It demonstrates to potential employers that you have the critical thinking and adaptability needed to thrive in a fast-paced and often unpredictable field.
6. Time management and prioritization
Ninety-nine percent of the time, you’re going to be working for an IT team that is short on resources and long on work. This means you’ve got to be able to decide where to spend your time based on the most impact it’s going to have and know when you need to delegate or delay a task. Otherwise, you’ll be spending your time in all the wrong places.
IT leaders appreciate and recognize when you have time management skills, because it takes the burden off them to prioritize the workload for you, so they can work on more strategic tasks. In fast-paced roles, such as cybersecurity incident response, time management can be especially crucial.
7. Interpersonal skills and conflict management
As stated earlier, IT is a team sport, and you are typically dealing with a lot of non-IT stakeholders or clients. Conflict is inevitable either internally or externally, and your ability to work through this is a key skill. Professionals who can respond with empathy, active listening, facilitate constructive discussions, and agree on a resolution are particularly valuable.
Conclusion: Add soft skills to your radar
It can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to improving your soft skills --- do you just act nicer, or try harder? Thankfully, you don't need to do it alone, and there are pathways to success available.We highly recommend checking out Pluralsight's Professional Development Skills learning path. It's a 13 hour on-demand video pathway that helps you grow in your role and improve your communication, teamwork, and other soft skills. You don't have to take it all at once --- you can decide to take particular courses depending on your weak points, or watch the whole thing in short bursts.
