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This whole sub proves my point that Social Skills are more important than Technical Skills

· 3 min read

In my 15 years of working in corporate America, I've learned that social skills are more important than technical skills and being the smartest in the room. All the stories in this sub prove my point.

If colleagues and superiors think you're an asshole, weird, or "something is off with him/her" you're either going to be fired/laid off or at best be stuck in the same role for eternity with 0 promotions.

MOST of the day to day work in corporate roles is technically easy to pick up and doesn't require advanced degrees or a ton of book smarts. You can learn the day to day duties in a month or two. There are technical roles like engineering, accounting, and medical that require a good amount of technical knowledge but most corporate white collar jobs can be learned within a month or two on the job.

I've worked with people that are dumb as rocks and can't send email attachments or open PDFs but they thrive in the workplace because people simply like them. As they work their way up they have people that work under them that handle the technical stuff as they spend their days schmoozing through meetings and rubbing shoulders with other important VP's.

Being someone that is universally likable, trusted, with a baseline of getting your job done on time will take you FAR. While being the smartest asshole in the room will get you nowhere.

Comment 1
You're just describing office politics. You can either be very sociable/likeable or you can be respected, both things can get you pretty far. The worst thing to do is be competent, but an arsehole, you will give yourself job security, sure, but you will be in the same position at that company and passed up for promotions to those that fail upwards, just based on their personality.

Perception rules the roost. There's actually a segment of people that prefer being the best at putting the square peg in the square hole and come off a certain way by design.

Comment 2
Oh man I've worked for some of those square peg people you described. They're masters of perception and can schmooze and impress all the right people but lack real technical knowledge.

Comment 3
Sure, as long as your bosses share that opinion.

Some of us are autistic assholes who couldn't care less about your soft skills. Yes, we get promoted too, and we run teams.

Comment 4
I know someone who runs our entire vdi structure. He is also neurologically spicy but uses that as an excuse to be the biggest asshole in our company. His role is pretty niche so he can't really be fired without a couple months of pain.

Everyone including myself despises him. He's so unpleasant to be around. Seems like a lonely way to exist imho

Comment 5
Social skills aren't taught anymore

TL;DR​

Corporate survival manual: 1️⃣ Be a people‑magnet. 2️⃣ Keep your tech skills optional. 3️⃣ If you’re the office's biggest jerk, at least make sure you’re the only one who can actually do the job. 4️⃣ Good luck, you’ll probably just get stuck in the same role forever. 😎