Do you require good Communication skills as a Software Developer? 🤔

The answer to this question is debatable! But sure, I will provide a constructive answer at the end supporting real world hypotheses.

One can argue that you do not need communication skills as a developer as most of the times you will be writing code. Let us agree to this point for now.

Now Imagine you have built an amazing solution for your team. You had a choice to choose a particular architecture and a certain design as you felt it was the best among other options. I am sure that this is a usual scenario in every developer’s life (Well, imagine if it’s not 😛).

It is that time of the month where you need to present/demo your solution to the upper management involving the product and maybe your clients. You need to tell them why you chose certain architecture and why its the best according to you. At this stage two things can happen,

• You give this task to someone else because you are not very comfortable speaking/presenting in front of the dignitaries.
• You somehow manage to complete the demo with minimal explanation and clarity, just for the sake of it.

Do both of these options tend to portray a negative outlook of you? Yes, it looks like. Something is not right then! Why for the heaven’s sake did you not have another option that could turn out to be in your favour?

The answer to that question is straightforward. You simply did not have good communication skills.

This is just one of the scenarios that require you to have good communication skills. Just to mention, it can be of the following,

• Giving a project overview to a new teammate,
• Explaining to peers on how your solution is better than theirs,
• Giving an interview and trying to explain certain theoretical concepts,
• Writing a professional email, or documenting code.
• or even, trying to convince your boss.

You definitely need good communication in such scenarios as a software professional.

Giving my own example I cannot stress enough on the point that good communication is what helped me make intelligent and best career switches in my life.

Think about the future. If you are a junior dev today, you might not be using a lot of communication right now, but as you move up the ladder, you are required to lead a team, make design decisions and what not. You know it better than me of what your Team Lead or Manager do, and how much of communication is required there.
I hope you’ve realised by now how important communication is in a developer’s career.

If you are already a good communicator or striving to become one, Bravo!!! You lead the wayyy…💃 And if you’re not, please start today and you will only thank me later for good things that will start happening to you.

Good Software developers are good at communicating with the computer; great ones are good at communicating with people too.

Thats my take on it. If it’s the same for you, hit that clap👏 button. And if not comment🗒 and let me know your perspectives :)