The number of technologies out there is growing day-by-day. This can make it very difficult for you to figure out how you can increase your software developer skills. While it is nearly impossible to guess what is the best programming language you should be mastering there are a few skills that will always remain important and relevant.
Many of the important skills are in the soft skill side. These are the skills that can give you more opportunity to succeed in your career. So, in no particular order of importance, here are six important skills that you should have as a software developer.
Problem Solving
As a software developer, you are a problem solver. You just happen to solve problems with code.
Take a moment and think about all the software that you use every day. Each one addresses a problem you (a user) are having and that is why you’re using that software. The software that doesn’t serve a purpose will end up being forgotten or uninstalled.
If you think about it, all software is designed to solve some user problem and within that general solution, there are a range of smaller problems that make it up. The technologies and or programming languages don’t matter as much as you think. If you are a strong problem solver, you’ll be able to pick up what you need to know to reach a solution.
Communication
As a software developer, you’ll be communicating with many people ranging from those that are technical and those that are not technical at all. Hold on a minute, don’t a software developer just code? That is not exactly the case because as a software developer, you are a problem solver, not just a coder. You solve problems with software and that may mean coding or not.
Since software development is about solving problems, you will need to communicate with others to find out the problems you are trying to solve. For example, you might be solving business pain points, which you will need to communicate with those on the business side to understand the problems. Remember some of the people you’ll talk with might not be technical. So, you can’t start throwing out jargons and expect it to make sense. You will need to explain technical topics in a non-technical fashion so those that are not a developer can understand you.
So far, a lot of what I have been talking about is on the non-technical side. Let’s switch over and look at things from a more technical side. Suppose there is a problem and you have the solution for it. You will need to explain it to other developers. If you can’t communicate your ideas effectively then no one will understand your idea.
Teaching Yourself
In the world of software development, things are always changing. A technology can become obsolete the next day. Things are moving way too fast.
So, what does this means for you? The technology and languages you invested in right now can be no longer in demand. When that happens, you will need to learn a new set of skills to become marketable. What can help a lot when such an event happens? That is learning to learn (teaching yourself effectively).
You need the ability to quickly acquire the knowledge you need for tasks. Being able to quickly adapt to the rapidly changing landscape of software development, technologies, and platforms will give you an incredible advantage over other developers. Your software development skills will always be in demand.
If you are interested in learning how to learn things quickly, I wrote a post about learning efficiently to help you get started.
Dealing with People
Unless you work alone and develop software just for yourself, other people will have an impact on your career as a software developer. As a developer, you are used to thinking logically (it’s part of what you do), but that doesn’t help too much when it involves human beings. The problem is that humans are not logical, humans are emotional ones. So, unless you can effectively deal with other developers, managers, and customers you’ll constantly face trouble.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to how you treat people. Treat others how you want to be treated. Simply be nice to others and that will go a long way!
Perseverance
It is rare that a program or code that you develop will work on the first try. It often takes multiple attempts and a lot of work before you get an application running smoothly. You might even find yourself scrapping many hours of work to try a different approach. So, this is why it is important that you learn to handle failure gracefully and keep moving forward.
Failure in software development is not a bad thing. In fact, you should embrace failures and treat them as learning opportunities. Here are more reasons why you should not be afraid of failures.
Technical Skills
As a software developer, you do need to have technical skills, it doesn’t have to be in a particular technology or even a broad skill like mobile or web development. It’s definitely important to have a solid foundation in a couple of areas, but it is not nearly as important as the other skills mentioned in this post.
If you can solve problems, teach yourself, communicate effectively, deal with people, and be persistent, you will have much more success in the long run. With that said, it is still important for you to really understand a programming language or two in addition to a general area of specialization.
I hope this post was helpful to you. If you found this post helpful, share it with others so they can benefit too.
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