16 Most Important Soft Skills For Success

From the time we wake up to the time we sleep, we’re surrounded by people. Whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert, whether you like it or not, you have to interact with people. That’s when soft skills come into the picture.  Soft skills are personal attributes that enable a person to interact effectively with others. I’ve worked under and together with managers over the past 20 years. While “hard skills” are crucial for execution, management is impossible—and unpredictable—without the right soft skills in place. We have promoted less skilled people to management roles if that’s what it takes to… Continue Reading

11 Strategies to Improve Your Creative Thinking Skills

In today’s world, where artificial intelligence is penetrating most industries and robots are replacing human-driven jobs, creativity is one of the most sought-after skills. It’s more crucial than ever that humankind employs more creative skills to leverage its dominance over machines. And yes, I know it sounds like a cliche, but the only way to stay competitive is by following business processes with some creativity in mind. Based on this article, it has been revealed that creativity is the most sought-after soft skill by companies when considering potential hires. Just following processes blindly is often not a solution to a… Continue Reading

Don’t Call Yourself a Developer If You Don’t Code

This essay was originally written in 2015 after years of "race to the bottom" in the WordPress space, especially among service providers who sell low-cost solutions without revealing the drawbacks of their work. For some unknown reason, the number of "WordPress Developers" out there is probably nearing the number of Java developers, despite the fact that all Java developers do program extensively whilst the WordPress developers far too often have no idea what's going on behind the admin panel. Full disclosure: I am a WordPress Core contributor since version 3.7 with a background in Java and Python. Many of our agency projects… Continue Reading

WordPress Job Titles and Skills – Where Do We Stand?

Since I've started my analytical research on the community, including the client's side earlier this month, I've had plenty of examples within the broad community (all people building WordPress websites) for things that are quite alerting. Problems in Our Ecosystem Some of the encounters include: Contractors taking on assignments that they are obviously not capable of solving Web design companies asking for their website to be built by an external company WordPress service providers asking me for WordPress work when they found out that they aren't capable of moving a site People labeling themselves as developers, even though they touch no code… Continue Reading