Why Technical Skill Isn’t the Most Important Proficiency for Engineers

When making a list of key skills for an engineer, developers and engineers likely focus heavily on technical proficiencies. Although technical knowledge is necessary to be an engineer, the ability to communicate effectively is too often overlooked.

Why Do Engineers Need Communication Skills?

The answer is simple: Today’s challenges are too big for one individual to tackle alone; they require collaboration across large teams of people with distinct skill sets. This is especially true in transformative projects involving advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. People from different backgrounds communicate in unique ways, and being aware of this can make us more efficient.

Technology development requires contributions from engineers, researchers, program managers, ethics researchers, psychologists, businesspeople, and other stakeholders. It’s critical to effectively gather input and perspectives from all these contributors early to prevent duplicated or wasted work.

This involves a few requirements, such as:

• Ensuring everyone is aligned with a shared goal,
• Communicating the vision of the deliverables and road map to get there, and
• Embracing uncertainty through constant testing throughout development.

As you can see, technical knowledge isn’t even on the list of factors that make a great project. So, why is communication important in engineering?

It’s because communication is at the foundation of teamwork and keeps everyone on the same page, working toward a unified goal. That makes it just one of the key skills for an engineer to learn, foster, and showcase when applying for jobs.

Essential Engineer Skills and Qualities

There are four basic engineering tiers, and where you rank depends solely on your skill set.

Great engineers have a working knowledge of formulas and theory fundamentals. Those who can only work at the code level will only be able to work with existing implementations done by others. Creating new methods requires understanding what you’re doing on the math level; otherwise, you’ll always be following others.

Top engineers also know what’s happening in both the business and the outside world. If you don’t keep up with what others are doing, you will eventually fall behind. This is true of every scientific field, and AI moves particularly fast. Integrating others’ ideas into your own work will turbocharge your results. Using a peer-reviewed digital repository prior to publication is beneficial. However, make sure you find good curation channels that work for you (e.g., conferences, subject matter experts on Twitter, etc.).

Excellent engineers understand the full stack. Anyone can code Python these days, but very few people can go up and down the abstraction ladder. If you want to train a large AI model, you must understand what’s happening at a hardware level. As model sizes grow and accelerator architecture gets more exotic, this will only get harder.

God-tier engineers know how to talk to people. Most assume people can read their minds, which leads to team friction and unnecessary overhead. Simplify what you’re saying, even if you’re talking to a fellow engineer. Draw a diagram, and then simplify it again. The difference between good and great work is how well it’s explained.

This leaves three steps to improve your communications skills and level up your engineering prowess:

1. Learn to Listen to Others

Understand that other people communicate differently than you. Next time you talk with someone difficult, try to be aware of how they process and view the world. Understand how you would communicate the same thing and make a mental note of the differences. Next time you interact with them, experiment with sharing your view of the world in “their language.” This technique is called mirroring and is an effective verbal and nonverbal communication method.

2. Start Talking More

It sounds counterintuitive, but you need to talk more to get better at it. Present your work and thoughts in public as often as possible, whether it’s through a talk, video seminar, or simply speaking up in crowds. Each time you do it, reflect on what you did right and what could be better. Don’t worry about the outcome of the talk itself because you already succeeded by gathering data to further improve your communication skills.

3. Develop Genuine Empathy

The hardest part is developing empathy. Assume people have good intentions, and if someone communicates something that ruins your day, consider the restraints they’re operating under. Think about how you would do it under the same circumstances and directly ask them, “Why was it necessary to do it this way?” Asking questions to understand somebody is one of the best engineering skills and qualities you can learn in your career.

We often view technical proficiencies as the key skills for an engineer to develop. Certainly, being able to code is critical, but if you can’t succinctly communicate what it is you’re coding, you won’t get far. Communication is a vital skill for engineers to learn, as it can help you stand out from the pack as a next-level expert.