Why soft skills are so important in tech for engineers in today’s job market?

[Imrul Hasan Tusher]

Why soft skills are so important in tech for engineers in today’s job market?

For the past number of years, underpinned by reports that by 2030, 85 percent of the most in-demand roles will be in specialties that don’t currently exist, engineering professionals have been looking to future-proof their careers.

Upskilling in AI, robotics, and cybersecurity is now common and while opinions constantly change about which specialties are expected to grow, one thing all predictions hold in common is that AI, machine learning, security, and management will continue to be in high demand.

Looking to the future
Additionally, Cognizant's Future of Work report shows that those with skills in translating machine learning into human practices will remain in high demand as we enter the 2030s.

Elsewhere, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers cites space engineering as an area expected to grow in demand while The Institute for the Future’s Ten Year Forecast places the highest amount of opportunities for engineers among those with strong AI skills.

Similarly, within technology adoption, big data, cloud computing, and AI feature prominently, with more than 75 percent of companies looking to adopt these technologies in the next five years, thus raising the demand for engineering specialists.

However, The Future of Work Report from the World Economic Forum shows that while the demand for strong engineering and practical skills remains, the demand for soft skills such as communication and teamwork is growing in popularity among hiring managers.

According to the report, analytical thinking and creative thinking remain the most important skills for workers in 2023, with soft skills remaining more important than technical skill-based attributes.

The same report also states that 44 percent of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years, which means as the demand for tech capabilities continues to grow, so too will the number of engineering professionals with exceptional technical skills.

Filling the gap

However, what hasn’t grown at the same rate, is the amount of engineering professionals with management or strict business experience and it’s this gap that is responsible for the growing demand for soft skills.

Fifty-three percent of employers are worried about the lack of engineering managers – with it becoming increasingly more difficult to manage a team of industry specialists – meaning that those who can straddle both worlds and impress with a strong mix of hard and soft skills are set to remain in high demand as we approach 2030.

The Interesting Engineering Job Board is full of senior engineering roles, ideal for those looking to take their careers to the next level. Three such roles are highlighted below, but be sure to browse the job board to find your perfect position.

Engineering Technologist, Leidos, Orlando

Leidos is seeking an Engineering Technologist to join its diverse and fast-paced organization in its Orlando office. In this hybrid role, the successful candidate can work from home one to two days per week. As a core team member, you will be interacting with other electric utility disciplines, performing engineering design work and calculations. You’ll be coordinating with permit agencies, right-of-way specialists, system owners, and field leaders. If this sounds like the role for you, explore all the requirements here.

Senior Network Engineer, The Villages

The Senior Network Engineer will participate as a member of the Network Engineering Team with The Villages, focusing primarily on being able to implement and support enterprise networking solutions. These duties are accomplished while delivering customer service to both internal and external customers. You will have five years of related experience and/or training or equivalent combination, education, and experience as well as knowledge of LAN/WAM systems to help design and install internal and external networks. Find out more information.

Post-Sales Machine Learning Solutions Engineer, Hugging Face, US Remote

Hugging Face has built the fastest-growing, open-source, library of pre-trained models in the world. With over 130K+ models and 110K+ stars on GitHub, over 10 thousand companies are using its technology in production, including leading AI organizations such as Google, Elastic, Salesforce, Algolia, and Grammarly. The Post-Sales Machine Learning Solutions Engineer will help leading companies successfully use AI. Duties will include advising data science teams on best practices for building models, writing a Jupyter notebook to show off a new technique developed by researchers, researching the best way to adapt models to a niche domain, and working on technical blog posts. If you have relevant experience and want to get in on the ground floor of an innovative start-up this is for you. See all the details now.

Source:https://interestingengineering.com/career/why-soft-skills-are-so-important-in-tech-for-engineers-in-todays-job-market