One of the most salient features of our Tech Hiring culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.
Rant: I agree that communication, empathy, writing are super important.
But the way we call things matter, and I find absolutely terrible that we choose the words soft skills as a super broad category opposed to the supposedly hard things.
There are three issues with the name soft skills
communication, empathy, writing, ... are not soft at all. They are the reason why IT projects, most couple, most families fail. Because they are hard as hell. I think that we devalue them by calling them softer than C++. ChatGPT can do C++ but it cannot do empathy.
communication, empathy, writing, ... often not skills either : they are often personality traits. Being kind will serve you in some situations, and you will be abused in others. Being an introvert is not better or worse than being an extravert, but many things presented as soft skills relates in fact to that personnality trait.
there is a not very subtle background of sexism behind those terms. Things that were placed into "hard" box are "traditionnally men skills" while things that were placed in the "soft" box are "traditionnaly women skills".
TL:DR communication, empathy, writing,... are important but the broad category to describe them as "soft skills" is a bad invention from HR consultants.
Rant: I agree that communication, empathy, writing are super important.
But the way we call things matter, and I find absolutely terrible that we choose the words soft skills as a super broad category opposed to the supposedly hard things.
There are three issues with the name soft skills
TL:DR communication, empathy, writing,... are important but the broad category to describe them as "soft skills" is a bad invention from HR consultants.
Right. Term soft skills might not be the best, because they are the most important and not so easy to develop.
Agree on they are the reason for success and also that they depend based on overall personality.
Everyone is different and everyone can help others in a different way + be a team player in a different way.
The key is that they have this traits. It's up to that specific person how they do that.