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It is the ability to transform the verbal, rough description into programmable tasks. And this skill is hard to test out during the interview.
Normally we - software engineers go to an interview, and they throw a competitive programming problem to us and say, solve it or **** off. They say that is the best way for engineers to show their problem-solving skills. But I found it isn't true. Here we go, I'm not a big influencer so it won't hurt to keep reading this perspective.
Some of my coworkers are good at solving LeetCode problems, and they are good at requirement problem-solving too. But the underlying aspect of this is some of them cannot still
Explain the technical understanding to the stakeholders in their language.
Thinking through the entire system on how this new change affects the other parts and the consequences.
Well-written and verbal English. I'm not talking about the fluency in English here, I worked with the native UK and US coworker, it's their native language but their presentation was not always as clear as I expected. This skill includes the ability to draw diagrams, write the docs, do presentations, and lead meetings.
Communication and collaboration, delegation, listening skills, low ego, ease to work with, to teach the other in the day-to-day work.
LeetCode problem, somehow is on the other side of the pragmatic problem-solving skills above. I don't understand why the company tests mathematic skills but doesn't use any of those skills in real work. What they need is a person who can transform the product owner thinking into a running feature, while maintaining the harmonic atmosphere in the team. Live long and prosper.
People with mathematic skill is good for their product at some point, I worked with some 10x engineers, and they rock, but they also burned the whole team to the ground lately with their technical-centric thinking, high IQ doesn't always come with high EQ. Sadly I usually find myself in a pro-IQ interview where competitive programming is not my expertise, some time I pass the interview but I have to work with those 10x engineers, that was a terrible and stressful experience.
Finally, with 10 years of experience in this industry, I can say that people with my kind of problem-solving skills still have a place, with high pay and the open road for higher positions, but the company that respects those skills is not popular.
Pieces of Advice? Here is my 2 cents
For engineers, just keep moving, you know you are the unpopular group, and there are always the right places for you.
For companies, let's say EQ and IQ ranged from 0 to 10. You better look for a person who has both IQ and EQ above 5, that's enough. Don't just look at the IQ 10 and ignore the EQ aspect, the low EQ person is a destroyer. Mathematics problem-solving is not everything, you need engineers with pragmatic skills too. The perfect person may still exist if you keep looking, maybe some day you can find them.
