Leveraging emotional intelligence (soft skills) to maximize career success for computer science students

Abstract

With an industry focus on agile development practices, a premium has been put on communication and teamwork skills [21]. Software developers in the tech space will often need to interact with other developers, UX professionals, software testers, and perhaps even culturally diverse customers and clients. The capacity of professionals in this space need to meet customer expectations in a very competitive market centers around the ability of individuals to not only work collectively and as seamlessly as possible, but to also create synergies with a diverse group of professional colleagues. Individuals that have experience working in teams to accomplish goals tend to be more productive in meeting deliverables on agile software development projects [22]. Moreover, companies such as Google, Zappos, and Amazon, are using assessments of soft skills (or emotional intelligence) during the job search process to vet candidates [14]. Furthermore, Dr. Joseph Homan, former Chief Operating Officer at ZekiahTech in Maryland, tests for soft skills extensively when interviewing a new technical candidate and stated that he has noted that candidates with fewer soft skills are often perceived as having lower technical skills (personal communication, November 14, 2014). Another area where EI skills such as awareness of others and empathy is essential is in user experience. Being able to understand the user that technology is being designed for is vital to the ultimate success of the product. Based on these findings, a solid argument is made for the importance of teaching EI to Computer Science students at the undergraduate level.