LinkedIn engineering VP says technical skills alone 'don't cut it' for entry-level engineers

For many recent graduates with limited work experience and small professional networks, finding that first full-time job can feel daunting.

In a field like software engineering, standing out from hundreds of other applicants can feel especially challenging as AI coding tools take on work that used to belong to entry-level hires.

This concern is top of mind for LinkedIn's VP of engineering for talent solutions, Prashanthi Padmanabhan. The VP told Business Insider that in the current job market, "technical skills don't cut it." While technical expertise remains "core" to the job and areas like LLM development and cloud applications are rising in importance, software engineers need to demonstrate they can bring more to the table.

The VP said highlighting soft skills and side projects will help candidates stand out in a crowded market.

The importance of soft skills

Padmanabhan said that soft skills are key to being an effective software engineer.

"You need to learn how to collaborate with different people, like a product manager, a UX designer, a marketer, to take your idea from concept to completion," Padmanabhan said.

The executive pointed to LinkedIn's "Skills on the Rise in Engineering" report, a data-backed ranking based on what companies are increasingly hiring for. At the top of the list is large language model development and application — but the next three are soft skills: people management, agile problem solving, AI strategy.

"Equally important are your soft skills, like critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and teamwork," Padmanabhan said. "Like, how do you really think about user experience?"

Some executives say that entry-level candidates will take on higher-level types of work as AI automates simpler tasks. In software engineering, where AI tools are being adopted more quickly, that may translate to more engineers building products rather than focusing solely on code.

Demonstrating solo projects

Coursework and certifications can help showcase technical acumen — but you may need to go a step further in this job market to show you actually learned the skills, Padmanabhan said.

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That's why applicants should have some kind of project to show for the coursework or certification they learned, Padmanabhan said.

"When students are graduating, they're not going to have a lot of on- the-job skills to show," Padmanabhan said. "But what they can show us? How have they been up-skilling themselves?"

She said that side projects can boost a candidate's chances by showing that they applied learnings from a certification program, academic degree, or course.

"If you don't have the coding experience, but you have a brilliant idea in your head, just build something," Padmanabhan said.

With AI tools handling more coding tasks, there's a growing expectation that anyone can build out an idea. The executive said it's becoming a part of the interview process for candidates to show off a concept that they brought to life. Padmanabhan said many students have a GitHub repository of projects they've built.

Padmanabhan said she's had candidates send her surveys based on 100 peer interviews to demonstrate the reasoning behind their product idea. She said it's important to validate your hypothesis from research before you start building. Then, you "continuously test and iterate," she said.

"Showing how you go about building actually matters a lot, because that's what happens in the real world," Padmanabhan said. "We do user research. You do user experience studies."

The executive said that once candidates have that kind of experience under their belt, they can use the interview to share more color about their journey.