Having top IT skills can only carry an individual so far in his or her career path. Personality traits improve potential. These traits matter in every job and every field, IT included. These are our top ten personality traits for successful IT professionals across the industry.
Willingness to Learn
Technology is always shifting and expanding. IT professionals have to be ready to grow alongside it. A willingness to learn and keep on top of new technologies and developments is vital to the success of any IT professional and their company.
The best IT professionals go beyond that into curiosity and inquisitiveness, actively seeking out the latest and greatest opportunities to better themselves, and the business.
Ability to Learn
Closely connected to being willing to learn, IT professionals should be teachable to be successful. With a keen sense of observation and an ability to take direction, correction, and even constructive criticism, a teachable tech professional lets go of defensiveness to pick up new skills and information from the people around them.
Adaptability and Flexibility
IT is hardly a predictable field, which means professionals in this industry have to be ready to roll with whatever the day throws at them. This may include anything from consistent interruptions to unpredictable hardware requiring fast problem-solving.
IT professionals need adaptability and flexibility to respond to tech issues. Problems don’t always happen during business hours.
Learn more about what makes a person adaptable / flexible.
Friendliness
IT professionals are typically working with technology that does not talk back, but that does not mean they are exempt from being personable! Even the most tech-involved professional will have to work alongside people, whether it’s helping a user figure out a problem or reporting to other IT staff.
IT professionals benefit from being personable enough to communicate with others in a friendly way, which helps make information sharing easier and more effective.
Ability to Work in a Team
IT professionals typically work as a larger team, handling various aspects of a company’s tech infrastructure. An IT professional, therefore, needs to be ready to act as a team player. They must cooperate and interact with others, especially as tech moves away from strict silos toward a collaborative approach.
Problem-Solving
Problem-solving, for many IT professionals, is the distillation of what their jobs entail. Good IT professionals tend to be able to think about the issue at hand and come up with creative, effective solutions. An IT professional might not get the right solution first time, but will be willing to keep trying until the situation is resolved. The role requires tenacity and out-of-the-box thinking, as well as a strong background knowledge of the tech.
Check out these 10 Characteristics of Good Problem Solvers
Multitasking
At any given moment, an IT professional could be managing several different tasks, simultaneously, all of which are important to business operations. IT professionals have to possess the fortitude and organization skills to get through the various demanding tasks they’re faced with each day, using time management techniques to prioritize what needs to get done and when.
An IT professional who is a multi-tasker is likely to have an unflappable personality, which calls back to the adaptability and flexibility previously mentioned.
Honesty
As with any job, things do not always go right with IT work. Employers want an IT professional who is honest and possesses integrity, willing to own up to any issues or mistakes without trying to cover them up.
Honest employees are willing to admit mistakes and work to fix them. They can then take steps to avoid the problem in the future by learning what went wrong and what could be done differently.
Enthusiasm
An enthusiastic personality goes a long way. We have likely all worked with someone who is negative, reluctant, and may even have lowered the mood and performance of your team. On the other hand, an enthusiastic employee buoys others, imbuing positivity and energy into the workplace. They will demonstrate a readiness to take on a new task or challenge.
Technology-Loving
It might seem obvious to some, but loving technology is a trait that can be overlooked in pursuit of all the rest. An IT professional is often most effective when they are not doing the job only to make money but because they love technology. An IT professional who loves his or her job can use IT skills to improve workplaces.
People who love what they do tend to be more enthusiastic, more willing to learn, and dedicated to doing the best job possible. Loving technology might be one of the most important personality traits for an IT professional.
If you see yourself in this list, it’s a good sign! That being said, it’s always possible to brush up on skills and further develop traits to improve yourself as a tech professional.