Top 6 Qualities Every Great Developer Has

As an IT talent acquisition, many resumés cross my eyes on a daily basis. I get to talk to a lot of different people with absolutely diverse backgrounds. Some graduated from the University, while others built their careers based on self-learning and a ton of experience. Despite their visible differences, there are some personality traits that all great software professionals share in common. Besides the incredible and hardworking job that every developer does, I find it is vital to keep a balance between both their soft and hard skills.

So here are the top 6 qualities that every great developer has:

• Strong communication skills, both written and spoken, are the key to success when bearing in mind that most developers’ jobs involve a lot of collaboration with various parties. So no, despite what many people might think, developers are not sheltered by their desks with no contact with the outside world at all. As surprising as it may sound for some people, their job involves a lot of feedback meetings, kick-off sessions, and day-to-day collaboration with colleagues.
  As a developer, you must be comfortable with, for instance, asking all the right questions to the right people, being able to communicate freely with the stakeholders, and also knowing how to ask for help when necessary.
• Bringing creative solutions to the table is highly beneficial to the company and to the client. Developers provide a way out of clients’/users’ problems, pains, and inconveniences. Occasionally, they will be required to think outside the box and challenge themselves to explore solutions they have never done or thought of before. Progress is discomfiting but it must be done. This leads me to the next trait. 
• A quick learning ability (to adapt and to grow) is a must because, ideally, as a software professional, you should be very curious, an amazing self-learner with a can-do and positive attitude, since in programming, things are always changing. And fast. Every day, new tools, programming languages, and technologies arise, and it is crucial to keep up with all those changes. Additionally, coding as much as possible is a great exercise to keep doing, even during free time. A large chunk of a developer’s job is to spend time on operational tasks. Thus, it is critical not to neglect coding skills. Practice makes perfection. This mindset helps developers to boost their skills and to stay updated regarding the latest trends and best practices in the tech ecosystem. 
• Being a great team player makes everyone’s work easier once they apply empathy, collaboration, and a knowledge-sharing mentality with their teammates. Enabling them to solve tough problems and having the capacity to help other developers may upskill their team, themselves, and the quality of the final product being delivered.
• Good task and time management skills are also very important, such as showing up at meetings or any other appointments on time. Remember that most of the time developers are dealing with clients and their rigid deadlines. Showing up or delivering projects on time is not just a sign of professionalism, but also a sign of consideration and respect. Thus, estimating the time that they might need to complete certain tasks is very important.
  As a developer, do not expect your managers to do every single time management task for you. You, better than no one, know how much time and effort a task will require. Use your voice and be proactive.
  These skills might come in handy in your personal life as well. Try to balance both, and you will see an increase in productivity – professionally, and in quality – personally.
• Last but not least, attention to detail is crucial for programmers to achieve clean and functional code. For this to happen, they have to identify errors and flaws that may arrive in the code, which is absolutely normal to happen, by the way. Mistakes, and bugs, happen even to the best. Being precise, even in the smallest elements as well as having analytical abilities, is every developer’s super-power. 

These are the kind of skills and traits we look for in the people we recruit to LOAD. We want our employees to acknowledge that hard skills can be learned at any time, and they will be since new technologies, processes, and tools are always arising. Besides, LOAD has a self-learning policy implemented and we take it very seriously. Soft skills are the reason why we were able to create such a well-balanced team in regards to mindset. We are a boat being guided by like-minded people.

Find out more about our open vacancies here and join our team today!