Research design

This study was conducted in three phases. Firstly, Bachelor ICT students from Austria and Finland were investigated and questioned about how important they would rate a number of soft skill qualities among which worklife interaction skills played a crucial part. It was sought to identifiy how students themselves define such skills and how they could best gather them.

In a second step, over 20 job ads each were scrutinsed in both Austria and Finland on a mutually agreed date (24 November on monster.at and monster fi) to find out what future employers predominantly looked for in an IT professional. This review aimed at identifying cross-cultural differences as to sought-after prerequisites and/or similarites among the job profile of computer experts that are likely to enter the labour market. 

In a third step,  Austrian and Finnish senior managers were interviewed to reveal their underlying expectations with respect to the job qualifications of IT staff. Particular focus was placed on their perception of the significance of worklife interaction skills for future ICT graduates. The interviews lasted between 20-40 minutes and were carried out with three male recruiting experts (two Austrian and one Finnish) and one female Finnish HR manager. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. By means of a qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2010; 2004) patterns were detected and inductive category development was promoted.