The high-tech industry can be an enormously challenging place to spend a career, so it’s a pleasure to get insights from someone who has seen more than 40 years of changes.

Bob Jones, owner of the information systems company Socrates Group, spoke at last week’s meeting of the Technology Alliance Group for Northwest Washington. His presentation, “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer,” was a humorous account of what he’s seen as a tech guy.

Jones had plenty of funny anecdotes about working with other geeks, but one key observation was the importance of people skills to go along with the technical expertise in a person. It’s still a challenge these days: One survey he cited found that 58 percent of information technology folks were not easy to work with.

“Once the techies start speaking in techno-babble, the people relationship part just goes out the window,” said Jones, 61. “Even my wife leaves the room when I go into geek mode.”

After his presentation I talked to Jones about this issue and how it’s changed over the years, particularly the managementtechie relationship. He believes that it has improved to the point that tech-trained folks are recognizing the importance of people skills.

“It used to be that you could be a prima donna and get away with it,” he said. “Now if you have poor relationship skills, you will have trouble in business. I think those in the technology industry are doing a better job recognizing that ultimately they need to satisfy the customer, and not just look competent.”

Jones pointed out, however, that it may become increasingly difficult to hire people who have both the technical and people skills. He’s noticed how rapidly technology has evolved, and there is more pressure to keep up with the changes.

“More than ever, we are in a continuous state of learning and we’re getting to a point of information overload,” he said. “IT people are completely focused on what the next changes are through retraining and don’t have as much time to use relationship skills.”

Jones said it’s a challenge because there are different ways of dealing with computers and people.

“Computers are nonjudgmental; if you make a mistake, all it does is show you the mistake,” said Jones, who estimates he’s written more than 2 million lines of code in his career. “With people, there are shades of gray, and it’s hard to see those ambiguities when you’ve been working on a computer all the time.”

It’s important to keep in mind, though, if you hope to make a living in the high-tech industry. While it’s important to know the latest versions of computer software, business people know a quick way to lose sales is to not have customer service skills.

Despite all the challenges, it was obvious Jones really enjoys what he’s doing. He said one of the important lessons he learned along the way was to take himself less seriously.

“As a business owner, I try to create a place where people can relax and get things done,” he said. “It’s also great for business. If we’re not taking ourselves so seriously, then we can do a better job serving customers.”

Biz Talk runs each Sunday. Reach Dave Gallagher at 715-2269 or dave.gallagher@bellinghamherald.com. Visit his business blog online at TheBellinghamHerald.com/blogs.