We work hard to improve our technical and soft skills, but we often take our character traits and mindset for granted. We assume that they are innate and fixed parts of who we are, and as a result, we allow them to run on autopilot.
This way of thinking is detrimental. Your mindset is not only critical for a successful software development career (perhaps even more so than your skills), but it is also within your control.
True senior developers acknowledge that character traits are malleable. They are self-aware of their mindset and deliberately work on improving it. This is the superpower that makes them stand out from the crowd and accelerates their career.
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3 things you need to succeed as a software developer
Professional software development is a complex discipline that requires a diverse set of abilities to succeed. These abilities can be grouped into three main categories:
1. Technical skills
This is the most obvious group. To be a successful developer, you need to be proficient in your trade, including programming languages and frameworks, clean code principles, architecture, testing, and debugging. Additionally, you need to have skill with your tools, such as IDEs, version control, and the command line.
π‘ However, possessing technical skills alone will not take you far in a professional, team-based environment. This is why it is important to also have soft skills.
2. Soft skills
To work on large commercial projects, you need a solid set of soft skills, including teamwork, communication, project management and planning, remote work, self-organization, learning, and personal productivity.
Many of us find non-technical skills less enjoyable than the technical ones, and thus we often neglect them. However, these skills can distinguish solid, professional developers from the crowd. At least we recognize their importance.
π‘ There is also a third category that is equally important, but flies under the radar of almost all developers - even the otherwise good ones.
3. Mindset
Mindset is similar to soft skills, but its components are more fundamental core traits, such as curiosity, patience, empathy, grit, and adaptability, among others.
We know that traits like persistence, attention to detail, and communication skills are important for a successful software development career. However, because they appear to be inherent and unchanging parts of our personality, we often do not deliberately try to learn them in the same way that we learn the latest development frameworks.
π‘ This blinds us to a huge and important part of our skill set, which can significantly hinder our progression.
Ignoring your mindset can jeopardize your career
Software development is a complex and fast-moving field that can be frustrating at times. To learn, grow, and stay relevant as a developer without burning out, you need a specific mix of character traits. It's also important to note that software development is a team game, and lone-wolf hackers have no place in professional software development, no matter how technically skilled they are. Functioning well in a team requires a seemingly opposite set of traits.
Mindset is different from skills. Understanding Agile development principles, for example, is not the same as being adaptable and open to frequent change. Similarly, knowing debugging techniques is not the same as having the curiosity and persistence to enjoy chasing a problem for several hours without getting burned out or discouraged. But, just like skills, these traits can be learned.
Without understanding which traits are critical for a programmer and deliberately honing them over time, you'll never reach your full potential. True senior developers are self-aware of their mindset and continuously work on improving it. This is what differentiates the best developers from the crowd.
10 traits of a successful software developer
1. Curiosity
If I had to summarize in one sentence what software development is about, I'd say it's about learning. You need to stay up-to-date with constantly evolving technologies and software development processes. You need to learn the deep details of complex business domains (several ones throughout your career). Analyzing and clarifying requirements is learning. Research is learning. Performance optimization and debugging - in other words, poking deeply into the inner workings of code - is a kind of learning as well.
Software development is also about working with people (and for people). You'll be working on cross-functional teams, with a diverse set of people from different specializations and backgrounds (nowadays, in the age of remote, most probably from multiple countries and cultures). You'll have to understand "business". You'll have to understand and solve user pain points and problems.
π§ Having a strong sense of curiosity is essential. Without it, you may find yourself less effective in your pursuits and at risk of burnout. So, it's important to maintain that sense of inquisitiveness and drive to continue growing and learning.
2. Problem solving
Software development is like a giant puzzle with an infinite stream of problems to solve. As a developer, your role is to solve your company's and customers' problems. This requires addressing both organizational problems (such as how to function as a team, how to organize your workflow, and what processes to use) and technical problems (including logic, architecture, and performance). These problems can be broken down into smaller, nested problems, all the way down to atomic problems like how to design and name a specific function or unit test.
𧩠If you do not enjoy solving puzzles or do not have a talent for breaking down and untangling problems, your software development career will be challenging.
3. Patience
Becoming a true senior developer requires years of deliberate practice. Along the way, you'll experience setbacks that may slow your progress. Developing your career is a rewarding but sometimes slow and painful process. To achieve excellence and reach the top, you must be prepared for lifelong dedication, which requires a lot of patience.
π’ Patience is critical not only for our job but also for handling technical support, working with non-technical users, coping with organizational bureaucracy, and as a problem-solving aid. You won't be able to sustain working in the fast-moving, constantly changing tech industry without patience.
4. Grit
Software development requires a lot of persistence, including hunting bugs, deciphering poorly documented APIs and libraries, untangling legacy code, and tracking down performance bottlenecks. It also requires sustaining a deep focus for extended periods of time.
No matter how senior you are, you will struggle, fail, get stuck, and become frustrated a lot. You will need a lot of grit to push through and avoid getting burned out.
π§π However, it's important to understand the right amount of grit to have. What's the balance between unproductively persevering for hours or days versus constantly disrupting your team by requesting assistance for even the smallest obstacles?
5. Emotional intelligence
Software development is centered around people and teams. You will work closely with your colleagues at an individual level, which includes pair programming, debugging together, and code reviews. Additionally, you will work with your team to brainstorm, plan, and make decisions together. This collaboration can be messy, as your work may overlap or conflict and you may have differing opinions. You will also need to negotiate your roadmap with management. Ultimately, to build a great product, you must put yourself in your users' shoes.
π In addition, these people come from diverse backgrounds, both technical and non-technical. They are passionate and have strong opinions. Some may have difficult personalities. As a developer, your success depends on how well you can build rapport with them. Without high emotional intelligence, this can be impossible.
6. Ego
Software development, and working in a team in general, requires balance. On one hand, you're hired for your expertise and expected to have strong opinions and guide less tech-savvy or junior team members. On the other hand, you'll work with equally experienced and opinionated teammates who will challenge your point of view, and with whom you'll need to make group decisions.
Your ego may be hurt in the process, so it's important to keep it in check. However, try not to completely withdraw or disengage.
πΆοΈ As a team member, it's important to have strong opinions but not be a zealot. Hold your point of view weakly and be open to being convinced otherwise. It's important to be able to defend your opinion but also know when to let go and not be condescending or arrogant. You should respect your team, the business, and customers, and be able to disagree but still commit to the team's decisions. Additionally, it's important to gracefully accept constructive (and even negative) feedback. This attitude will help you be an effective team member.
7. Adaptability
Software development is constantly evolving. Technologies change rapidly, new methodologies gain popularity, and companies pivot to adapt to the market.
Throughout your career, you will also change projects, teams, companies, and business domains. Even a single project involves constant inspection and adaptation, especially in agile approaches. Additionally, your team will self-reorganize frequently.
β»οΈ Most people are allergic to change. Change is hard, uncomfortable, and stressful. However, being adaptable and open to change will instantly set you apart. It will not only help you climb to the top of the seniority ladder, but it will also let you stay there for a long time.
8. Reliability
I know I'm repeating it, but software development is a team game. Your colleagues, manager, and company all count on you to do your part. No matter your technical expertise, nobody will ever consider you a true senior developer if they can't rely on you to take care of your work and deliver on your promises without being micromanaged.
π§π Making mistakes is inevitable. Even the best companies experience failures, but they view them as valuable learning opportunities. To do so, you must be capable of picking up the pieces, gracefully recovering, and earning trust by learning from your mistakes to avoid repeating them in the future.
9. Pragmatism
Professional software development requires striking a balance between tradeoffs. It involves constant compromise between development speed and quality, balancing new and promising solutions with proven and stable ones, and walking a thin line between under- and over-engineering.
π To succeed in professional software development, you need to be pragmatic. You must understand that nothing is black and white, and that no principle or pattern holds true in every situation. You must have great intuition for making tradeoffs between different approaches, technologies, and solutions. You should feel comfortable cutting corners, but have a good sense of how much to cut.
10. Positive outlook
As a programmer, your life is not always easy. You will encounter annoying customers and tight deadlines. Your project may even get canceled. You may have disagreements with your team or management, but still need to commit and execute. Additionally, you will have to work with ugly code. Yes, every codebase has good and bad parts, even at top companies like Google.
You will become tired, frustrated, and upset.
π You should have a positive bias. Maintain an optimistic and cheerful attitude, and always look for a silver lining. Be the person who rallies the team, kills negative moods, and restores morale. This approach will not only get you noticed and promoted, but it will also make your career more pleasant and sustainable.
Summary
If you want to be a successful software developer, you have to be a complete one. You must have the right mix of tech skills, soft skills, and character traits and you can't ignore any part of this trio. Character traits are the most tricky part. Most developers neglect them because they are either not self-aware of them, don't know which ones are important, or don't believe they are malleable. But if you can overcome this flawed way of thinking - if you can change your mindset - you can turn it into a superpower that will elevate your career and make you truly stand out.