What qualities a good developer should have in addition to technical knowledge?

As everyone knows, technical knowledge in the work of a programmer is important and undeniable. Knowledge of technology is the tip of the iceberg because everyone has many other very important qualities that make this job easy to do daily. 

Technical knowledge can be acquired through training, courses, and study, as well as by working with already experienced people. 

And what about the soft skills I wanted to mention today?

I asked our programmers what qualities they thought were necessary for their work, and added a few myself. Each of these qualities should be honed and improved to become a better version of yourself every day.

Interpersonal skills  

According to Paweł, this is one of the most important qualities regardless of career level, experience, or age. In the work of a Graphic Designer, this trait is very important because good communication, the ability to build relationships, and active listening are essential. This trait is crucial when working with a team, as well as being integral when working on projects. Openness to the other person, a fluent way of expressing one's opinions, and diplomacy is an important aspect of communication.

Self-discipline 

This is a quality without which we certainly cannot speak of any progress, above all at the beginning of our journey.

The ability to use off-the-shelf solutions where possible 

Let us not confuse this quality with laziness, but with assertiveness and saving time. Why do something that we have access to and that is good? Using the right tools will make our work more efficient, e.g. a tool tailored to writing code, applications to help us focus on our work at specific intervals, e.g. Pomidoro, applications to break down tasks, e.g. Jira, Trello.

Time management

In other words, being organized when it comes to work and responsibilities (e.g. writing off emails, adding notes from meetings, logging work as it happens) improves our work and does not allow us to exceed deadlines. 

Courage

Courage is openness to new and unfamiliar activities. As well as courage in coming up with ideas and solutions, where this is quite difficult at the beginning of a career. Often in our work as Juniors, we do not want to come out in front. Therefore, having the courage to push your idea, perhaps an innovative solution, is very important.

Creativity 

Looking for out-of-the-box and original solutions. Taking on ideas that go beyond accepted conventions. Creativity often produces interesting, non-trivial results in work. 

Accuracy and attention to detail

Which by our QA Wojtek has been called perfectionism. It is this trait that he finds extremely important and useful in his work. Thanks to this, he can find not only errors but also solutions. 

Stress resistance

There are times when something goes wrong, and at the last minute, QA comes back like a boomerang with more and more bugs. Time is running like mad and the deadline is fast approaching, in which case this valuable attribute of stress resistance is like a cup of lemon balm drunk before a morning sprint.

Curiosity and inquisitiveness

You should try to look at a problem from different perspectives. Sometimes the solution is not visible at first glance, but by digging deeper into the problem we can find new and better possibilities. This curiosity can also lead us to a completely unexpected place for us.

For Hubert, our WordPress Developer, this curiosity and desire to learn new things have led him to where he is today. He started as someone who didn't know which way he should go. First, there was hardware and software, then the backend. Then the front end appeared on the horizon, which appealed to him to a greater extent, and finally, he found himself in CMS technologies, where he touches on both the backend and the frontend a little at a time. 

Curiosity is also involved in the second story of our Angular Developer - Hubert. When he was a kid, he liked to play computer games, but his interest always went beyond just playing. He was curious about the mechanics of the game and how it was built. He would experiment by changing the game files and see what would happen. At that time, he didn't know that it was programming.

Perseverance, not letting go

It is directly related to patience. Sometimes we don't manage to find the right solution right away. Sometimes we struggle with a problem for a long time, but consistency and patience lead us to our dream goal. 

As Koko sometimes says:  "More than once you want to give it up and switch to grazing sheep, but you mustn't give up ". In projects, we need a lot of things on the fly, and when these projects are several, the focus is a very important feature. 

A tip Daniel shared with me is to limit context-switching as much as possible. Every day, we are attacked from all sides because everyone needs something 'ASAP'. However, to do his job well, he always 'puts off' writing/switching contexts until he finishes the current task. He is 99% focused on the current task, so he can do it better.

Analytical thinking 

This trait was added at the end, but certainly isn’t any less important.

Dominik, who is at the beginning of his career path, believes that analytical thinking is very important in his day-to-day work; when he has a problem with a task, he breaks it down into several smaller ones, making it easier for him to find his way around. He always asks himself: why so? , what does it give? This allows him to understand the code better and therefore solve problems more efficiently.

Analytical thinking was also confirmed as a very important trait by our already experienced programmer, Wojtek Jakubek. This only proves that whether you are at the beginning of your journey or in the full development of your career, this trait is extremely important.

Summary

These are just some of the qualities that are important in the work of a programmer, but not only. 

Each of us has many valuable qualities that we sometimes don't remember or don't take into account how much they contribute. 

The soft competencies that I look out for in my HR work were very much in line with those presented by our development team. This only proves how important they are not only for me, a talent scout, but also in the work of a developer itself.

An important thing I heard several times before writing this article is to find yourself and want to do what you enjoy. This is an extremely important aspect. Only if you feel good about what you do, if you are fulfilled, and if you are passionate about it, does your job become a motivator and not an annoying interruption to your everyday life.

‍

Joanna Dymos