With respect to all those who seem to be agreeing with you, I want to put forth another way to look at this.

First, I do agree that there is a need for a certain amount of communication skills. that is in fact why I got into this business in the first place. I worked with someone who was very smart, but had little patience due to a bunch of end users that had an average IQ somehwere around 80. OK, maybe it just seemd that bad! 🙂

What about the other side of the coin? I once worked with someone who was an Oracle DBA with incredible social skills. This person was barely able to log in, didn't understand the difference between an OS account and an Oracle account, was unable to do any troubleshooting at all, and basically was limited to checking disk space. The company they worked for spent 10's of thousands of dollars training them. To this individual, talking and socializing was most important. Everybody liked them. Nobody respected them.

IMO, you need a balance. We have all been forced to work with people that are incapable of understanding technical issues. Having an ability to talk nicely is irrelevant if you aren't competent in your field. There is a reason we have project managers, project leaders, business analysts, et cetera. There is ALSO a reason we employ technically competent people. Asking all brilliant people who are extremely competent technically to also be extremely socialable just isn't realistic. These skills are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The more technical people tend towards less social skills. The more social people tend towards less technical skills. To me, that is a fact of nature. It does not mean an individual cannot have both skills, but I can count on one hand the number of brilliant, technically superior people who also were outstanding at working with non technical end users. One in particular was an absolute genius, yet could glad hand with the C-Suite as well as anyone.

So, what I think companies need to do is to look at their needs. If you are a development company, you probably want a team of technical people who are leaders in their field. You also want a team of business analysts that are able to communicate with the non technical end users and the technical team. If you are a company that consumes software, why are you trying to hire leading edge technical people and trying to shoe horn them into a role that requires them to work with end users? Hire people with a good balance - you don't NEED technical genius! Essentially, I think companies need to stop trying to buy two employees for the price of one. If you need both skills, you are going to have to pay for it. Either by paying for two employees, or by paying a premium for the somewhat rare individual that can do both. Otherwise, accept that you are probably not going to get the best technical person if you want people skills. You can get technical competence, just not "the best". See note below please before reacting to this statement.

Lastly, I am trying to word this well, but may have failed. So please, don't read this as a claim that nobody has both skills. I am talking in generalities. As I said, while there are some people who can do both, I view it as an exception, not the rule. There are people who are very social that are also technical, and vice versa. In my experience, it is just very uncommon for someone to excel at both roles. So, if you are one who is very technical, and also able to play the social game, kudos to ya, but please don't take offense. Rather, read this as a complement that in my view you are more skilled than most. Also, ask for and demand superior pay because you are worth it!