IT Insights Blog — soft skills

If the IT landscape were a forest, and tech companies were the individual trees, then you wouldn't have a very pretty picture. It's commonly estimated that nine out of 10 startup companies fail across all business realms, and startups are a huge presence in IT. The IT forest would be a peculiar one, with many impressively large and noticeably thriving trees, but many more fallen, rotting, burned out, or otherwise devastated saplings.

They say that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. That line of thinking only applies, however, as far back as the last time that you turned the page on a new chapter in the annals of your professional career, formal education, dating life, or whatever it is. Life is full of fresh starts, after all, particularly when it comes to the workplace: The most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average length of service at any job is 4.4 years.

The Latin root of the English word "patron" is patronus, a term used in ancient Rome not to describe a glowing spirit animal that defends a young wizard, but to label a wealthy benefactor whose sometimes daily largesse was given in exchange for the loyalty and public support of less fortunate individuals. For many in the lower, middle, and even upper classes of Roman society, receiving money and gifts from a patron was a key element of survival, sometimes from one day to the next.