All Soft Skills Are Interconnected

So lately, I have been working through new aspects of programming in my bootcamp at General Assembly.

We have 4 units, 4 projects. The first one which was developing a portfolio, I was in my extreme comfort zone, almost to the point of boredom. Thank God I had started learning JavaScript one year prior and was feeling pretty solid.

I got to learn Jquery which was a lot of fun for me, so that was nice, and compared to my previous boot-camp experience, the comradarie was much better, the teachers were better, I was happy, and it led me into having too much confidence.

I hadn't experienced the “drinking through a fire hose” experience yet. My confidence was doing well, I was trying to help others and play my part, but it was in a more selfish way, but it was working.

Then we started React and I got my experience.

I like to think I’m a relatively intelligent person(at least I can keep up the appearance haha!) well I come from the blue collar world. My Dad tried to get from the lower class to the middle class, and had relative success, so I had that as a learning experience. The jobs I had done previously, other than when I was in the military as an Intelligence Analyst, didn’t require to much thought, even at higher levels, at least in my experience.

Well this worked in my favor for quite a good portion of my life. I am 32 years old now, and being alone to do my thing ALWAYS worked.

Now I have gotten a good blast of that hose, and I enjoy it.

There are a lot of barriers that get to be broken.

Like patience, perseverance, communicating professionally during high stress periods, holding your own weight.

These are some things I’ve had an opportunity to grow in recently, and I just want to say I am thrilled.

The careers I was working in the past provided growth opportunities, but this is different, or at least my approach, and I think think this is what is meant when you hear the term “think like a software engineer’.

Well, this has caused me to think, that perhaps I can think more like a software engineer in other ways.

Take pseudo-code for example.

I started writing this, because I see sometimes people say soft skills cant be improved and I disagree, I think any quality is improvable, at least mentally, and emotionally. This is pseudo-code for my emotional well being, to perhaps help others possibly, but if noone else, myself, but I truly hope it does.

So I looked up a list of the 7 most important soft skills you need in today's workforce. The results show that employers desire in essentially an array, ordered list, object possibly as well:

1. Leadership qualities, which I will break down what I think that looks like in depth, but not here as my desire is to communicate with myself, and potentially others more effectively, and that subject requires a lot of talk, but I will summarize for simplicity sake, "The 34th President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “ The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity.” Without it, no real success is possible, not matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field , and army, or in an office. Honesty and integrity are two important ingredients which make a good leader. How can you expect your followers to be honest when you lack these qualities yourself? Leaders succeed when they stick to their values and core beliefs and without ethics, this will not be possible."

So when you look at this, that means to be successful first have integrity with yourself in ALL facets of life, because once you take the place of student you can learn again, teachers are able to teach best when they are willing to learn, and not dictate, this is one of the many reasons people hate dictatorships, that is the result of a unbelievable stubborness of mind, that MY WAY IS RIGHT, and unfortunately time has easily proven that statement to not be true. So if I can put aside my ego, and my stubborness and my emotions, than I can live with integrity, and then AND ONLY THEN can you truly possess leadership because leadership in another quote :

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”

You know the way once, you live with integrity, by knowing the way your ALREADY in the action of going, and you become a light for others. This is the reason I chose the phoenix as the image for this newsletter.

2. Teamwork – This I have work to do on, to speak my thoughts more clearly and effectively, and not feel negative when I voice something, Im learning and will continue to be, and I love that, so failure is actually better than succeeding you learn more. If I voice my thoughts to a team more, this will produce effective results. it will align me when I am off line, and it creates comradarie. Its ok to rely on those with more experience because you will learn, and if you take the opportunity to teach someone who doesn't know at the same time, it cements what you learn, and fills in the knowledge gaps. The army taught me the value of a team functioning as a unit, and its a value I have never lost,, but I am definitely currently growing in this area.

3. Communication Skills – I am having a blast with this one right now. Which surprises me, but I see a different kind of passion in myself when its tied to learning. I desire to learn how to harness my creativity, thoughts, and passions into what I am doing as a programmer, its writing, and that perspective makes that flower blossom a bit. Being a chef taught me very clear communications skills at a high level, under high pressure situations, and that job was unbelievably stressful, and for much less salary, but I still have a passion for cooking, and keep that as a hobby for myself, friends, and family now.

Software development requires a different type of communication though, we need to communicate complex programming language things in very little normal language, and that conversion is initially tough, but just like learning a foreign language the best way, is immersion, it teaches the person vast amounts in a very short period of time. You could easily travel to different countries and learn 2 languages a year, if your heart was on it. To be direct and on point is desirable though, unless you are in your own sphere where its more free to be open, or an occasion where you know it is.

4. Problem-Solving Skills – This is an exercise in problem solving skills. I stated I see a problem, and I not only want to cement the idea that soft skills are incredibly teachable, but that these soft skills all compliment each other, if your succeeding in one, it brings up the others by a couple skill points to speak video-gamely.

5. Work ethic- This one is awesome to me, because I have had an amazing work ethic my whole life, and I am very confident in that, and my ability to manage things on my end. I am willing to grow, I have my eyes open, and I want to learn how to harness my work ethic into my passions as well, because that is where real results in life come from.

6. Flexibility/Adaptability – I am particularly good at this as well. I was in the military, and I learned to adapt to quickly changing and stressful situations, as well as a chef after I left the military. The more adaptable in life you are, the more you are able to succeed.

This is where I love this quote by Richard Branson :

"If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!"

I embrace this, totally, I love this mindset. Another one from the military:

“ Improvise. Adapt. Overcome”

Sometimes its stressful, and there is an initial shock, but you get used to it, just like that boot-camp where the challenge is more physical, this one is more mental, even though that one was daunting, and Im sure we can all think of times like that in life. So this is a quality that most improve on a constant basis in life anyways, but those who give life that extra push, get more, get better results, more data flowing back from the network.

7. Interpersonal skills – Interpersonal skills are a tough thing for a lot of people, myself included, especially in the age we live, where there is a certain level of disconnection. So this is where I was having issues, and another reason I established this news article. This is a way to improve these skills, and I can test this by putting the data out there, and if someone makes a request for the data, and its effective, than what I am doing is effective. This is another example of improve, adapt, overcome.

For myself I was dealing with confidence issues and Impostor syndrome, and needed to work on this skill, and its helping for me, on both ends.

So finally looking at this list of some of the common ones we see they are interlinked, an array of information that is all interlinked.

Throughout this article I have addressed these soft skills and have demonstrated where I was, how I am growing, and where I intend to be. Maybe its not as effective as it CAN be but its better than before, its an attempt, and you solve problems on bug at a time.

Anyone can grow in any of these areas, it comes down to commitment, and ultimately the ability to break down problems into components like React, and add them all into the app of life.

Just like nature takes back all things sooner or later(look at the pictures of old abandoned places, there is a certain beauty) its in us all, and gives us the ability to create new things, on even rotting ones if our will is strong enough. Cheers to the witch/wizard.

We can upgrade our components and don't let anyone convince you otherwise. We are software engineers. Software for a reason, it is mutable, soft skills are mutable.

I look forward to growing in life, and love to embrace a positive mindset, and will continue to work on that, and I cant wait to meet new people, and new ideas, and discuss new things, and go new places, the world is vast and wide, and we have the power to create at our fingertips.

Thank you for reading.