Here we will know What are the Best habits of a Successful Software Engineer. So if you’re interested, please stay tuned.
First of all, the habits that I’m going to list here apply to being a Successful Software Engineer, not just a coder, Software Engineering is way beyond just coding.
1. Understand The Scope Of The Problem
Let’s get started. When I first started working in the field, I had an extreme urge to start coding right when I was given a project to problem, a feature to implement, because I felt that if I’m not coding, I’m just not being productive.
But the reality is that most likely, the Software you’re going to be built in is not going to be built fully by you from scratch, you’re most likely going to be working on something that needs to fit in into the existing architecture.
And what Successful Software Engineers do is that they first fully understand the scope of the problem. And only then once you fully understand what exactly you’re solving, only then you should start coding.
2. Successful Software Engineers are really good at Documentation
Most likely, you’re not going to be the only one working on the project, there might be other Engineers or designers or data scientists or product managers involved.
And you need to make sure that whatever is in your head gets documented, and then clearly communicated.
For others Successful Software Engineer will make sure to document every stage of his or her thinking of how they will approach the problem, what the solution of the problem is, what are the potential roadblocks to the solution of the problem.
And they will communicate this to all the stakeholders and parties involved in this project, They will do that so that everyone is on the same page.
And they will also do that to get feedback from everyone, most likely, you might have overlooked something and asking for feedback and being receptive to that feedback from everyone else is super important.
The easiest way to get that feedback is to get everyone on the same page, document everything for everyone. And that’s shared Successful habit.
3. Successful Software Engineers write readable code
Successful Software Engineers write readable code And they do so because they understand that they will probably not be the only person interacting with whatever they wrote. Or maybe after they wrote it, there’s going to be someone else maintain it.
So they keep in mind the fact that someone will have to come in and look at this thing that they wrote that they have never seen before and understand it most importantly, your solution, your code must be readable because someone else might comment and want to understand it successful.
4. Being good at cross-functional work
as a Software Engineer, you most likely will work with other functions, like designers or product managers or data scientists or people in operations. You name it.
A Successful Software Engineer empathizes with the other function that they work with, and almost put themselves in that person’s shoes,
so that they can effectively communicate with them, they can deliver to them the exact information that they need. So if I’m working with a designer, I will try to explain to them what exactly I’m building from like the design perspective,
if I’m working on a product, face and feature, that’s what I’m going to be focusing on in conversations with them versus the actual nitty gritty of technical implementation.
If I’m working with a data scientist, I need to effectively communicate with them about login or data analysis or just asking them the right question about how we want to analyze the data common from this new project or feature that we’ve built.
So being good at cross functional work is really important as a Software Engineer
5. Communication
If you think that as a Software Engineer, you can just sit in a corner not interact with absolutely anyone you’re definitely wrong. Of course, you should be setting your own boundaries and communication style.
But Successful Software Engineers are effective communicators, Successful Software Engineers make sure that they communicate clearly and effectively, especially if you work on a project that involves other stakeholders or you work with your team.
Other Software Engineers, you need to make sure that you communicate with them, And over communication a lot of times is much better than no communication.
Because when you communicate or over communicate, you make sure that everyone is on the same page, you make sure that everyone is clear on what you’re working on.
And you make sure that no one is wondering, oh, I wonder what Luba is working on. I wonder if she completed that thing that I asked her to implement a couple of days ago.
So communicating effectively, clearly and potentially over communicating is extremely important. Also, by communicating with your teammates, you can potentially recognize whether you can help them out or you can unblock them,
and communicate in in general, in your team in your org, in your company, just interacting with people can open up opportunities for you,
you might hear about something that another team was working on that fits in or helps out your product, your team or your project, And that will open up opportunities and doors for you
6. Recognizing Opportunities
Successful Software Engineers recognize opportunities for improvements, and impact. And what I mean by that is that Successful Software Engineers do not just focus on their projects or feature at hand but they’re working on but they’re able to see and follow beyond that they’re able to follow what their teammates are working.
And why that is important is because when you’re able to see that big picture, as opposed to being very narrow, focused on, okay, this is what I’m working on, And this is the only thing I care about, you’re able to potentially recognize opportunities for impacts and improvements.
Quesiton, why people are doing things a certain way you might learn new things that are relevant to you, you might also potentially recognize what faults they have in their systems, and improve them,
talking to people asking people what they’re working on, thinking about how their work fits in with what you’re doing, where your team is doing are great examples for recognizing opportunities.
7. Growth mindset
Consistently learning asking and being open to feedback, making sure you’ll learn from your mistakes, and reflection are all great examples of growth mindset.
growth mindset is the difference between thinking that your skill is absolutely set and is defined by talent, versus thinking that you can learn and grow and improve your skills and your growth is defined by the amount of work you put in.
To be a Successful Software Engineer, as well as being Successful in any profession. Acts you must acquire the growth mindset.
Your skill is not fixed, You’re constantly improving and learning and you need to absolutely own that and recognize that Successful Software Engineers are constantly learning and constantly asking for feedback.
In fact, feedback is also a huge thing, If someone has given you feedback, do not be defensive about it. That means that they really care for you to improve.
So you should be open to constantly learning and constantly recognizing what you could do better, Successful Software Engineers are open to learning are constantly open to grow and are absolutely okay, recognizing that they might be wrong.
guys, thank you so much for Reading This article. I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you learned something new about habits of Successful Software Engineers.
please leave your comments down below as well. What do you think makes a Successful Software Engineer I would be really curious to hear your thoughts.
Obviously, what I mentioned is just a couple of ones in the myriad of things that makes a Successful Software Engineer but please share your thoughts and I hope you have a fantastic week. Bye for now.
