LinkedIn VP of Engineering Says Technical Skills Alone Are Not Enough

For many recent graduates with limited work experience and limited professional networks, finding their first full-time job can seem daunting.

In a field like software engineering, standing out from hundreds of other candidates can be especially difficult, as AI coding tools take on tasks that previously belonged to entry-level recruits.

This concern is a top concern for Prashanthi Padmanabhan, vice president of talent solutions engineering at LinkedIn. The vice president told Business Insider that in today’s job market, “technical skills are not enough.” Even though technical expertise remains “essential” to the job and areas such as LLM development and cloud applications are growing in importance, software engineers must demonstrate that they can contribute more.

The vice president said highlighting soft skills and side projects would help candidates stand out in a crowded market.

The importance of soft skills

Padmanabhan said that soft skills are essential to becoming an effective software engineer.

“You need to learn how to collaborate with different people, like a product manager, a UX designer, a marketer, to take your idea from concept to fruition,” Padmanabhan said.

The executive highlighted LinkedIn’s “Skills on the Rise in Engineering” report, a data-driven ranking based on the reasons why companies are hiring more and more. At the top of the list is developing and applying large language models, but the next three are soft skills: people management, agile problem solving, AI strategy.

“Your soft skills, like critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and teamwork, are equally important,” Padmanabhan said. “For example, what do you really think about user experience? »

Some executives say entry-level candidates will take on higher-level tasks because AI automates simpler tasks. In software engineering, where AI tools are being adopted more quickly, this may translate into more engineers building products rather than focusing solely on code.

Demonstration of solo projects

Courses and certifications can help showcase your technical acumen, but you may need to go further in this job market to show you’ve actually learned the skills, Padmanabhan said.

That’s why applicants should have some sort of project to show for the courses or certification they’ve learned, Padmanabhan said.

“When students graduate, they won’t have a lot of practical skills to demonstrate,” Padmanabhan said. “But what can they show us? How have they improved their skills?”

She said side projects can boost a candidate’s chances by showing they have applied learnings from a certification program, college degree or course.

“If you don’t have coding experience, but you have a brilliant idea in mind, just build something,” Padmanabhan said.

With AI tools managing more coding tasks, there is an increasing expectation that anyone can develop an idea. The executive said it became part of the interview process for candidates to show off a concept they brought to life. Padmanabhan said many students have a GitHub repository for projects they have built.

Padmanabhan said she asked candidates to send her surveys based on 100 peer interviews to demonstrate the reasoning behind their product idea. She said it’s important to validate your hypothesis from research before you start building. Then you “continually test and iterate,” she said.

“Showing how you build is very important, because that’s what happens in the real world,” Padmanabhan said. “We do user research. You do user experience studies.”

The executive said that once candidates have this kind of experience under their belt, they can use the interview to share more colors about their journey.