I’m interviewing some people to work as developers, since it’s part of my job as team leader. We had some good people and bad people, but yesterday we brought in a guy that I think it’s worthy of note.

He clearly knew how to program. While he wasn’t a genius, he could get stuff done. Either way, after some deliberation, me and my boss decided not to hire him.

Why? Well, he had a serious problem interacting with people. Part of working as a programmer in a team is discussing problems, explaining what you’re doing and collaborating. He clearly couldn’t do any of these things easily and would certainly become a problem really quickly.

So, fellow geeks, please work on your communication skills. Learn how to present and explain what you’re doing and what you’re trying to achieve. Be more social. Talking to people is part of the job. I made sure we brought the guy for a second interview so we could be sure of what we were doing, but he simply wouldn’t work in a place with loose hierarchy and where you basically have to decide what you’ll do next by yourself.

This is even more important if you want to work as a freelancer/contractor, since you’ll have to be your own marketing/sales department too.

I think my point is that the age of the 100% socially recluse geek has forcefully come to an end. Soft skills really matter these days.

If all this sounds obvious to you, good. This only means you’re already in the right direction. Congratulations.

It’s important to note that I’m NOT an HR person; we only involve HR when we’ve already made the decision to hire.

Take care and good luck.