Opportunities and growth of software engineering is currently in high tide wave and chances to proliferate in future are high as everything nowadays is running on the software. People are highly addicted to the software application throughout the day. Computer science educational degree at times fails to give experience in all the programming languages and technical skills, ignoring the soft skills.
Skills of Software Developer:
Technical Knowledge
“A programmer does not have one 30-year career, but has 30 one-year different careers”
To have technical Knowledge is vital but also having the experience is important in the technologies like Web Developing, MVC, ORM, JavaScript/jQuery, Ajax, Patterns, HTML and SQL, .Net and Oracle.
The trend of the market demands one be specialized in the specific programming language.
If you are skeptical about learning different languages then better is to focus on learning one particular language based on the company or the job profile.
It’s important to specialize in one and remain flexibly open for other languages. The time invested should polish your technical skills which will be tested and accessed by the managers.
Learning the latest technology isn’t the best strategy, additional Knowledge of programming languages, software development life cycle, hardware, operating systems and other computer related terminologies must be possessed.
Having the strong base of the Technical Knowledge is the most highlighted skill of the software developer throwing some light on tools, data structures, algorithms, big-o-notation, understanding the infrastructure and defects ,knowing the use of library functions, and understanding computing problems, researching ,design patterns, and frameworks are other skills that are valuable to have.
Refactoring and Testing skill
The ability to improve the code without changing its basic functionality is known as refactoring.
The key factor is that original code should not become the master, making programmers slaves and dependent on it. With time, changes needs to be done as the old code can become unstable and incompatible over time. So it is necessary to be able to manipulate the original code, and show the power of owning the code rather than the inverse situation.
Prior to the modernization in the Computer’s , the former engineers thought testing was not their cup of tea, but with the advancement in the technology and with layman becoming the king of the market, it has become important to learn the testing because everyone demands a working system.
The best way to develop stellar code is to expose bugs and eliminate them making sure no to write trivial and redundant test. It is better to focus on important components of the test.
Patience is quality that should be nurtured because redoing the same task is annoying but being obsessed about your code is not dangerous here, it will lead to perfection. The vision behind the code should be strong enough that it should sustain for a long time.
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Code Manipulation skill
Why invent the wheel when it already exists?
It becomes tedious to continuously invent new codes and libraries again for the same task. Reuse of internal infrastructure, use of third-party libraries, and leveraging web-scale services, are marks of a software genius.
Software should be developed keeping the user as a center point making it well designed along with the well-defined. Good engineers work hard to make the system simple and usable. They think about customers all the time and do not try to invent convoluted stuff that can only be understood and appreciated by geeks.
A disciplined engineer thinks about the maintainability and evolution of the code from its first line, as well.
Writing fortran in any language is just the tip of the iceberg. Just like a person who can speak several languages, an engineer who isn’t tied to one code language can think outside the box and is a more desirable hire. It is one kind of skill to be able to write code in various languages without harming the basic logic of code.
Problem solving skills
The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.
Problem Solving is the base skill, because the principle thesis of software development is to solve some kind of problem.
We develop something in order to solve the problem; it is purely about solving problems. The products made are domestically useful and economically beneficial invented to ease people’s life solving their daily problems!! To solve a problem, you need to first gain some insight about the problem. There is no cynical manipulation in the public opinion that each and every human is now dependent on the robot.
Problems are at the center of the software development are large or small, simple or complex, and easy or difficult. The role can be of solving problems of client, supporting those who are solving problems, or discovering new problems to solve.
The approach used for a problem at times solves them quickly and effectively while other time it can be ineffective or produce null output giving painful consequences. The confidence to use the optimal solution comes with the practice.
Being curious and inquisitive about the problem and objective towards is solutions is a complement.
One should be wise enough to understand the problem and state definition of problem clearly. He should be witty enough to generate alternatives and must evaluate and select alternatives, finally implementing solutions.
Without knowing the problem and having ability to solve it, it would tend to fail giving undesired outcome. If you are not aware of the required solution, it is strongly advisable to talk to people involved, experts and experienced.
Business skill
It is a judging parameter to differentiate between the good and great software developer, marking a border between them.
Any skilled software developer can develop software applications, but a great software developer is the one who apart from mastering the skills, also understands the business significance of the software application. It is not a skill to overlook. To make a product is important but what counts is the selling of the product. Understand the business of customer and accordingly plan your product.
Every product is manufactured keeping in mind the requirements of the client and the business. We thus need not justify that a software application developed with the real understanding of both the business and clients can come out as an excellent advantage for any company.
Negotiation strategies and team dynamics would also help in the better product development. Having the strong sense of business demands one to be in discipline maintaining the legal terms and conditions pre-defined and pre-decided while signing the agreement.
Naming skill
The main purpose of naming things correctly and in clean and precise manner is to make it readable for users. Expressive names for methods and variables can make the code self-explanatory.
An ideal developer candidate is also a critical thinker. It is beneficial to name the work you are doing! To promote your product, you need to name it, and understand what it is and how does it work and apart from work, it is quite significant to know the things you are doing. To endorse your product, important it becomes to name it properly. Naming helps in better understanding of code and improves communication.
A developer who lacks the ability to give good names to concepts and data in their code is like a mute translator. It doesn’t matter if you can understand something, if you can’t adequately explain it, the moment it leaves your head it is gone. The clean, neat, organized work is the need of hour.
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Enthusiasm to learn
“Don’t hire people for what they know, but what they can learn.”
Software development is the field that keeps changing on the regular basis with the advancement in the technology.
It is not possible for one to learn everything!!! Everything can’t be done by everyone!! If one tries to learn each and every language, thinking that he would become expert than the efforts would be futile, because by the time he would gain perfection, the new inventions would have taken place in each and every language adding up some more languages!!
Only the passionate professional will strive hard for learning new technologies and languages! For others, it’s always beneficial to invest time wisely learning things which are needed.
If you can quickly adapt to the rapidly changing software development market and technologies and platforms associated with it, you will have skills that will always be in demand.
A willingness to learn new languages, new libraries and new ways of building systems goes a long way to creating a great software engineer.
Communication and Interpersonal skill
“The best communicators will always get the nod”.
It is most in demand skill having fundamentals of emotional challenge. Software Development is all about understanding and knowing the problems of people, which includes the communication with the involved people, i.e. client or business firms.
Not only knowing their problems, but it is critical to explain them your point too! The long codes written by a programmer are of no use if they fail to convince the client.
Not everyone is same; some are practical thinkers while the rest are emotional creatures. Fragile nature can’t be deal with aggression and heated minds cannot be tackled softly. One should have smart skill to pick the right key for door.
One needs to have ability to identify, assesses, and controls the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups which is helpful in effectively dealing with managers, clients and other developers. Its important to be in other’s shoes and think accordingly,acting wisely.
Team work is most needed. Connection can be verbally or has to be in written thus these skills need to be garnished!!