Tech companies tell us it’s difficult to come up with a standard job description for an entry level software developer because rapidly evolving technology in the market also rapidly shifts requirements for the job. After reviewing a collection of existing job descriptions in the public domain, we can confirm there is a lot of ambiguity.

WTIA decided to do some quantitative and qualitative research to help people looking for entry level software development jobs read between the lines. This is especially relevant for students who are not attending a four-year university CS program. This guide is particularly useful for those in a mid-career transition and attending community college, continuing education at a university, or learning their chops at code schools.

At WTIA’s inaugural FullConTech 2015, educators and tech leaders stated, “With so much creativity in job descriptions and so little transparency in the recruiting process, it is difficult for job-seekers, recruiters, and hiring managers to get on the same page. At a minimum, we would like to publish a standard description of common tech jobs, including the skills required to be effective in those positions.” Meanwhile the WTIA registered tech apprenticeship program, Apprenti, has researched and documented the essential competencies of eleven tech occupations, including software developer.

We approached this analysis from a practical angle — rather than try to only normalize the text in public job descriptions, we asked employers what they value most in a software developer. We analyzed 50 job descriptions for entry level positions at local tech companies to find patterns. And then we interviewed a broad panel of HR professionals, engineering hiring managers, and higher ed faculty to learn from their expertise in the placement process.

The Overall Conclusion

It turns out the ambiguity in job descriptions is not driven by shifts in technology. The text in a job description regarding languages and development environments are a mask for the harder to define soft skills. Intellectual curiosity, a track record of demonstrated collaboration skills, strong written and verbal communication skills, and a solid technical foundation are the most important factors used in choosing a candidate. It turns out these soft skill elements are far more important than knowledge of specific coding languages or development environments.

What the Job Descriptions Said

In analyzing job descriptions — pulled from LinkedIn, Indeed.com, and many other public sources — WTIA researchers distilled what qualifications and skills were highlighted most. We categorized skills mentioned into three categories: technical competencies, baseline technical foundation, and soft skills. The job descriptions listed technical competencies far more than baseline technical or soft skill requirements. Here is the breakdown of technical competencies cited in the 50 job descriptions analyzed in this study:

• 84 Backend
• 36 Full-stack
• 34 Front-end (SAL, .CSS, .HTML)
• 19 Backend, Embedded, Mobile/OTT
• 5 Embedded

It is not too surprising that technical competencies consume more than half the job description requirement list. These are technical jobs and there is a wider range of vocabulary for technical competencies than there are ways to describe baseline technical foundation or the more challenging, soft skills. But technical competency is not helpful in screening applicants when hiring an entry or even mid level software developer. In fact, the panel of experts agreed that baseline technical foundation and soft skills were far better predictors of success.

However, the job descriptions usually include aspirationally desirable high level technical languages. These aren’t actually required — they are a proxy for establishing whether a candidate has sufficient technical foundation. Unfortunately the list of technical languages and technical skills confuses recruiters, candidates, and placement offices.

The panel of experts agreed that entry and mid-level developers must have a strong grasp of data structures and algorithms, a familiarity with coding, design, testing and maintenance tasks, and sufficient critical thinking practice to solve complex problems. Entry level developers do NOT need to be masters of a particular language or possess detailed technical familiarity with any development environment.

The Soft Skills that Matter

While it is interesting that baseline technical foundations are more relevant than specific technical skills, soft skills repeatedly come out as one of the top if not the primary requirement for hiring a software developer at any level. There are five sub-skills in the collection of “soft skills” that the panel considered: collaboration, communication, intellectual curiosity, organizational skills, and self-motivation.  

The top three were intellectual curiosity, collaboration and communication. When asked to rank which skill mattered most, our panel found it difficult to come to agreement. The conversation turned to the tight interdependency of these particular skills. Communication seemed to be the primary driving skill of them all.

One panelist summed it up like this, “Communication is still the most important soft skill. It encompasses more than just speaking. It’s about conveying your ideas, giving and receiving feedback and active listening. The most mundane daily tasks also require effective communication. The end goal more often than not is to get to a well-defined quality solution based on shared ideas and visions. If the communication breaks down, then the development breaks down.”

However, the panel also agreed that without intellectual curiosity, the candidate would not be successful despite possessing other technical skills. Recruiters and hiring managers place high value on this specific soft skill to predict the candidate’s potential impact on the team.

Intellectual curiosity is a term applied to someone that has a deep and persistent desire to know. This attribute leads an individual to constantly ask “why” — not as a passive aggressive means to avoid a task, but from a place of genuine curiosity to learn and master. The panel also agreed that intellectual curiosity is a behavior that can be encouraged and nurtured but cannot be taught directly. This makes prior experience a key factor in recruiting because intellectual curiosity is developed and/or demonstrated over time. Of course, demonstrating this skill requires good communication skills.

In interviews, a candidate can demonstrate intellectual curiosity through advanced preparation about the company and the interviewer. Candidates that come prepared with specific questions to learn  are more highly valued than those who come prepared to simply demonstrate technical skills. Also, candidates who respond to a challenging question by asking clarifying questions during the interview demonstrate their critical thinking and curiosity. Finally, candidates can demonstrate intellectual curiosity by describing how they researched and learned independently in order to solve problems.

A third soft skill that rose to the top of the debate was collaboration. The panel acknowledged that it is difficult for most recruiters and hiring managers to clearly describe in a written job description the specific collaboration requirements for a given role. However in the recruiting process, collaboration is an essential component for making the hiring decision. Collaboration can come into greater play as a requirement when a new hire is joining an existing, experienced team. New hires sometimes want to rely on familiar techniques and tools, while existing teams already have norms and standards and therefore a kind of team inertia. One panelist summed this up as, “You have to enjoy adapting to how the team does things, or else you cannot be productive on the team.”

If you think this topic was valuable, save the date for WTIA’s cross sector collaboration conference, FullConTech, on May 8 at the Microsoft Learning Studio. Registration information will be available by Jan. 15.

WTIA interns Douglas Johnston, An Huynh, and Fuzz Anzi completed the research in 2016.

Recruiters and engineering managers from Base2 Solutions, F5 Networks, Synapse, Comcast NBC Universal, North Seattle College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Swift HR Solutions, Comtech, Verify 340b, Atlas, Apvo, CSG Services, SM Diversity, Uniquely HR, and IGT volunteered their time to provide research. Katherine Safar helped managed the project.