7 Characteristics Of Great Developers

Software development is no child’s play; there isn’t a magical practice workbook that can be studied for becoming a good software developer. More than skills on the keyboard, one needs a certain mindset and thought process that decides the fate of the career of a developer. The world is filled with students and young people aspiring to become software developers, but only a few of them are truly able to master the art and become artists that paint the binary canvas. Apart from a sound knowledge in software and writing code, each brilliant programmer has got infinite resilience, humility and the ability to learn. In this article, we will look at some of the characteristics that shape the career of great developers and make them successful in their ventures.

1) Learning The Correct Skills

This is the most important characteristic of all: one must possess an adequate knowledge of the stuff he has to deal with. Not necessarily does this require a college degree in programming; one can learn the skill by working with some mentor or even using online courses only. This is very important for someone willing to make a career in the field because it would allow them to concentrate their attention to one single avenue of the vast field and master the skill. In addition, having the right skillset gives confidence to the developer by assuring him of success if he employs his skills in the correct manner.

2) Practice

No skill can be retained without adequate practice; that is also true for programming. Coding is a complex project: one requires the ability to carefully write each line and make sure the program doesn’t succumb to errors and crashes. Therefore, it is necessary to stay in practice for maintaining coding skills and even improving them. For this, one can use online platforms to run small coding operations for practice or build trivial software to be adequately sharp in writing code for complex programs, when need be.

3) Collaboration

Collaborating and working with a partner or in a team is especially important to grow as a skilled programmer: this allows you to understand your weaknesses, recognize your strengths, improve dealing with teammates and work in a goal-oriented environment. One can easily look for other programmers willing to collaborate on the Internet, in programming marathon events or even in one’s own class. In addition, working as a freelance code developer is also a lucrative vocation as it allows you to train for meeting assignment deadlines and even get paid in return.

4) Focus

Any programmer might learn to steer his way around codes and software, but of course, not every programmer turns out to be a great one. Only the finest of them all have the ability to persevere and focus on the task at hand. This requires cutting all distractions and making the program the first priority for the day. A good programmer can focus on the software at hand and pass himself through the task by using a highly productive routine which involves focusing on the software alone and paying the highest possible attention. Merely by doing so, one is able to learn to maneuver the nooks and corners of every line of code, thus mastering the skill completely.

5) Patience

Not always does a programming venture go correctly; there might be mistakes and even failures. Sometimes, paying complete attention and devoting oneself maximally to a task would be entirely futile. It is not very rare if the code doesn’t turn out to be as useful as expected, or the program does not avail much recognition. But this does not demotivate a great programmer, who takes every failure as an opportunity to learn the mistakes and rectify them from that point on. In addition, one must learn to trust the process: programming is not easy and learning to code proficiently requires time, which one must devote to coding patiently.

6) Discipline

Learning discipline is important for programming if you wish to make a long-lasting career in the field. without discipline, a simple task of fixing bugs in a program can become very hard because of the distractions that a person might face while putting oneself to work. Therefore, it is optimal if you devote specific times of the day to the task of programming solely and focus on a single task.

7) Adaptability

Not everything might go as planned while building a program, so a great programmer is able to make himself mentally ready for accepting any change of plans at any stage of program development. In addition, working in a team might require one to perform certain tasks that aren’t particularly desirable as a programmer. However, having flexibility allows a programmer to work in any circumstances and meet goals even as a part of a team.