Soft skills play a very important role in a successful career as well as during social interactions in society. These skills are also highly sought after by employers while hiring new graduates. The main objective of this research was to examine students' perceptions of the importance of flexible skills for their education and employment, and to examine the perceptions of the importance of flexible skills in successful individuals. To collect data we used a questionnaire, which was filled in by 350 people composed of students of Moscow universities and employees of a large IT company. Respondents identified five critical soft skills: communication skills, time management, business communication, stress tolerance and conflict resolution skills. In addition, it was found that the majority of respondents believed that soft skills were useful for success. Also, in the course of the study, we raise the question of the factors that develop, and vice versa, hinder the development of soft skills.