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Andrew Bosworth, a VP and one of the original employees at Facebook recently wrote an article about how working on his interpersonal skills at work was crucial to his career.  IT professionals should take note that this isn’t an isolated anecdote, either.  IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are certainly already encountering a dearth of good, qualified candidates for IT jobs.  But in addition to this, technical recruiters and IT staffing companies are seeking something even rarer- IT professionals who put a lot of effort into their people skills.  The best candidates, the ones IT recruiting firms have no trouble getting placed in IT roles, are the ones who are easy to work with.

There are obviously many, many different kinds of roles in IT, and thus many reasons why good social skills are important for them.  Here are just a few examples.  Service-oriented roles and client facing roles are probably some of the most important for IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting companies to fill with sociable IT professionals with excellent people skills.  Without good people skills, you could only do half—or less! – of these jobs.  Even jobs that aren’t client-facing or service-oriented still require good people skills because of the demands of the corporate culture.  Particularly in a startup environment, IT recruiting agencies need candidates who can work well with others.  Since a team must grow and stretch together, it’s crucial that they are able to respect, and even like each other.  It’s becoming more and more clear that soft skills aren’t just a plus in IT—they’re absolutely crucial for real success!