Soft skills in software engineering: A study of its demand by software companies in Uruguay

Software development requires professionals with knowledge and experience on many different methodologies, tools, and techniques. However, the so-called soft skills, such as interpersonal skills, teamwork, problem solving and customer orientation to name just a few, are as important as, or even more important, than traditional qualifications and technical skills. In this paper we review a set of jobs advertisements offering job positions related to software engineering in order to identify what soft skills are most in demand by software companies in Uruguay. We also compare our findings with the ones reported in other recent studies carried out with data from other countries. This comparison shows that evidence exists about a common set of basic soft skills software companies demand when looking for new staff for software engineering activities.