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Since this investigation was conducted in a three-phase triangulation process to yield the most promising results, the following findings are also presented in three steps. To begin with, results of the student questionnaires are compared and related to the literature. Then, both Austrian and Finnish IT-related job ads are scrutinised before a close-up view is given on how important HR managers perceive worklife interaction skills as a major toolkit for information workers. 

Student questionnaires

In Austria, 25 Bachelor students of the degree programme Communication and Knowledge Media responded to a questionnaire comprising the following five open-ended questions: how do you define interaction skills and what qualities are vital to qualify for such skills? Where are these skills predominantly acquired and what expectations are held vis-a-vis the higher education institution to further enhance these skills? And finally, what do future employees look for in a junior jobseeker?

What was most striking is that these young people hardly define themselves via their I-shaped knowledge, but all take T-shaped skills as a base understanding for being the ideal employee. Another finding that turned out to be conistent with previous studies on ethnical socialisation of Germanic people (Schroll-Machl, 2013, Thomas et al, 2010) was the extent to which interaction skills were identified with being reliable, hard-working and context-sensitive. Being a self-starter and having a high level of motivation were found to be the key answers provided by Austrian ICT students. In contrast, Finnish students....

 

Job ads

As to the job ads, Austrian companies that looked for IT staff predominantly rated hard skills as the major prerequisites. However, a number of ads also included proficient language skills, in both German and English, as a key element of the job profile. What is striking, here again, is the number of ads that included reliability as a crucial ingredient in the Germanic professional toolkit. 

 

Human resources managers 

The Austrian interviews were conducted with two C-level managers that work in the IT industry and frequently recruit IT personnel. Both drew a clear line on the job description and emphasised that interaction skills are a nice-to-have, but not necessarily a prerequisite for all IT-related professions. When working as a programmer, there was no perceived need to be a good communicator; it was even stated that introverted persons were happily coding in their remote offices without too much interaction at all. What became apparant though is that in order to get promoted and work in different fields of area, such skills then became crucial enablers or blockers. In view of the globalisation in general, and the interconnected world of ICT in particular, soft skills in the form of T-shaped expertise such as conflict management, communication skills and intercultural competence were perceived to grow in significance. What was found to be most striking in their answers was their perceived inherent  job portfolio where only hard skills such as programming languages, ERP systems and network knowledge appeared to be worth mentioning whereas soft skills were taken-for-granted and only noteworthy upon specific request. It became apparant that although softer skills were perceived as crucial, they were not explicitly stated or talked about. 

Interestingly, the longer the managers lingered on the topic at hand and the more they engaged in reflective practice, the more they became aware of the importance of personal qualities such as dedication, motivation, team spirit and time and conflict management.

 

 

 

 

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