Assessing Well being and Soft Skills of Software Developers and Students in the Context of Working from Home during the COVID-19 era

Derived from COVID-19 pandemic remote work is now a trend, involving new skills and variations on developers' wellbeing. Current students are going to live this new era in the labor market; it is needed to know if they are getting ready for this scenario. This paper presents an exploratory study based on a survey to assess how developers in industry and students in the academy experienced their wellbeing expressed in emotions during the pandemic, as well as how they practiced the soft skills involved in software development. The results of developers are considered as basis to assess how students are prepared for this context. The descriptive study has shown that developers experienced more positive emotions, while students had a mix of positive and negative emotions. In terms of soft skills, developers and students showed closer levels of practice, however students should reinforce some skills.