Acquire the Right Skills Deliberately

In the previous chapter, we talked about growing your network to support you. We taught you how to take responsibility and take action for your career. We shared how to actively ask for help, how to listen and ask good questions, how to have crucial conversations, how to effectively negotiate with other professionals, and how to accept feedback. In this chapter, we will cover how to acquire the right hard and soft skills deliberately. What really matters for developers are the skills they build in their careers. There are significant differences in acquiring soft and hard skills. Once those differences are understood, it can boost your skill acquisition. This chapter will discuss the differences between hard and soft skills, and how you can practice those skills for the best results in your professional life.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

• Soft versus hard skills – the reality
• The science behind acquiring skills...