Or so says a recent study by the Society for Information Management. They asked CIOS to list the skills they value most among entry-level and mid-level hires. Ethics and morals topped the list, while technical skills like application development and project management barely made number 10.
In a way, this doesn’t surprise me. While it may be cliche, the advice I always give my clients is to hire for attitude and train for skill. And let’s face it, morals and ethics are part of a person’s attitude and not something you can train for.
While you probably don’t want to hire someone with NO technical skills for a tech job, you may be surprised to learn that a large number of “tech” directors that I know originally had no technical background (i.e., no formal IT training). They simply “fell into” the IT job at some point, and have been self-taught since.
Why have they been successful? Because they had the right attitude, and were able to train themselves for the skills. Funny how that works.