Google finds STEM skills aren’t the most important skills

[GwinnettNole]

I've been a big proponent of STEM education. However, after working in IT (software engineering) for 20 years now I thoroughly believe IT could benefit from people that have the critical thinking skills, communication and empathy.

This, I think the case holds true if you can excel at technical skills, have the ability to think critically, & communicate you have a very bright future ahead of you.

http://michiganfuture.org/01/2018/g...age:d_flagship3_feed;v0QAPo9SS/mBS+dc5eGqVQ==

 

[DanC78]

Great read. And I find it awesome they did the research.

The only subjective flaw I can think of is the skill of politics. In my experience I have seen people promoted and praised from senior leadership when in fact they are a fake. Their soft skills give them ability to smooze their bosses, and then feed them BS as to what is causing failure instead of taking blame or what real actions need to be taken...they are basically clueless. These types of folks drive me nuts, they continue to get promotions without brining any real value to the buisness, they are just good sales people.

 

[LesClaypool]

I know several CEO’s and VP’s of technology firms that value these skills, but they almost always want them in conjunction w/some bona fide technical skills too...which is hard to come by.

Philosophy majors don’t generally take Programming courses, nor do History majors usually take Higher Math.

They both, among some others in the humanities and social sciences, do apparently retrain fairly well to some of the more technical skills that they didn’t obtain in college though...and...they’re much cheaper to hire b/c let’s be honest, no one’s looking for history and philosophy majors in the job market. This adds to their marginal attractiveness as job prospects.

 

[GwinnettNole]

I know several CEO’s and VP’s of technology firms that value these skills, but they almost always want them in conjunction w/some bona fide technical skills too...which is hard to come by.

Philosophy majors don’t generally take Programming courses, nor do History majors usually take Higher Math.

They both, among some others in the humanities and social sciences, do apparently retrain fairly well to some of the more technical skills that they didn’t obtain in college though...and...they’re much cheaper to hire b/c let’s be honest, no one’s looking for history and philosophy majors in the job market. This adds to their marginal attractiveness as job prospects.

Is Google saying that they would hire people with someone that has the communication, critical skills and empathy— for example a Humanities major—- and have them become a software dev by google giving them a coding boot camp when they are hired?

I’d say the technical aptitude is a must. You can figure this out in an entry level exam and turn them into programmers. I’ve seen mixed results with this.

 

[RTM58]

This, I think the case holds true if you can excel at technical skills, have the ability to think critically, & communicate you have a very bright future ahead of you.

Welcome to the Ivy League

This guy most definitely lacks empathy and wasn't supportive of his colleagues

The fact that this required a study is concerning. I'm sure the guys that left Google to start their own companies didn't require "having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues." This is really a list what it take to be good employee.

The seven top characteristics of success AT Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.

 

[nynole1]

As an IT recruiter for 16 years, I can tell you it's very difficult to find people who are technical gurus and communicate effectively. Those who can are compensated very handsomely.

 

[nynole1]

Welcome to the Ivy League

Even guys like this don't know it all. Remember when he donationed $100MM to Newark schools lol

 

[DanC78]

The IP is with the developers. The other guys that I believe they are referring to in the blog simply communicate between customer/market-needs and the nerds. But imo this isn’t a chicken vs egg debate. Developers are the foundation and then the others come along.

 

[RTM58]

Even guys like this don't know it all. Remember when he donationed $100MM to Newark schools lol

Advertising dollars for his future Presidential run.

 

[NDallasRuss]

Is Google saying that they would hire people with someone that has the communication, critical skills and empathy— for example a Humanities major—- and have them become a software dev by google giving them a coding boot camp when they are hired?

I’d say the technical aptitude is a must. You can figure this out in an entry level exam and turn them into programmers. I’ve seen mixed results with this.

One of my good friends from college came out with a criminal justice degree and was hired on at a software company, who trained him up. He became a successful developer, and then project manager.

I think sometimes demonstrating the ability to learn is as important as the particular thing that you previously learned. If you can show that you can learn, and also some of the other mentioned skills, then you can be successful even if you didn't know you might be good at writing code when you were picking college majors.

 

[Banditking]

Great read. And I find it awesome they did the research.

The only subjective flaw I can think of is the skill of politics. In my experience I have seen people promoted and praised from senior leadership when in fact they are a fake. Their soft skills give them ability to smooze their bosses, and then feed them BS as to what is actually causing failure instead of taking blame. These types of folks drive me nuts, they continue to get promotions without brining any real value to the buisness, they are just good sales people.

Yep. Networking, racial/cultural identity, taking credit for others’ work, etc.

 

[Random_John]

As an IT recruiter for 16 years, I can tell you it's very difficult to find people who are technical gurus and communicate effectively. Those who can are compensated very handsomely.

Can Concur.

 

[seminole97]

The IP is with the developers. The other guys that I believe they are referring to in the blog simply communicate between customer/market-needs and the nerds. But imo this isn’t a chicken vs egg debate. Developers are the foundation and then the others come along.

 

[DanC78]

View embedded media

 

[nynole1]

Advertising dollars for his future Presidential run.

I don't think he needs to advertise there, he automatically gets all those votes.

 

[RTM58]

I don't think he needs to advertise there, he automatically gets all those votes.

It's a national campaign.

 

[FSU_UCLA]

A lot of my arts and performance students have been getting snapped up by the tech companies the last couple of years.

 

[nynole1]

It's a national campaign.

Same rules apply nationally.

 

[squiffynole]

Is it sometimes a brain aptitude situation where people who are brilliant technically might inherently have less capacity in other areas?

 

[FSU_UCLA]

Is it sometimes a brain aptitude situation where people who are brilliant technically might inherently have less capacity in other areas?

Everybody has relative cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Most people emphasize their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, which exacerbates the relative differences over time.

 

[fsunole025]

Welcome to the Ivy League

This guy most definitely lacks empathy and wasn't supportive of his colleagues

The fact that this required a study is concerning. I'm sure the guys that left Google to start their own companies didn't require "having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues." This is really a list what it take to be good employee.

The seven top characteristics of success AT Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.

I'm not sure Mark Z is a good case study for the research being discussed here. He is considered successful because of a brilliant idea and his ability to get it to market at the right time that created an entire new market. I wouldn't consider him as a leader in the technical space. Some might disagree with me but I doubt he spends countless hours these dates writing code and innovating on delivery techniques.

A better case study would be the group of people who wrote the Agile manifesto, Extreme Programming, mob programming or dojo concepts. Those principles are more aligned to understanding empathy, perspective taking, collaboration, etc. while also incorporating technical best practices ensuring built-in quality.

The most successful organizations have leaders that understand how to balance building the right thing, getting it to customers at the right time to validate a hypothesis, and building the thing right the first time. Traditional approaches of technical gurus to deliver working software or complex systems are no longer capable of sustaining the pace. That is unless they have zero competition in their market. It's no longer about having more people writing more lines of code and being more predictable than your competitors.