Many at times many people might have wondered what makes someone a good software engineer. In most cases, there's a tendency to think that having an intelligence way above the average is the only way to be a good software engineer which is totally wrong!
Intelligence gives you the ability to solve problems quicker
than others, seeing things that others won't see, or maybe being able to foresee
some problems earlier than others, but that won't make you good at writing
code. Let’s say that all the benefits that someone could get by being
intelligent could be largely overshadowed by all the disadvantages brought by
not being a good developer: writing ugly and unmaintainable code, poor design
choices, and poorly tested code.
The following are the factors that make one a good Software
developer.
Becoming a good software developer
Read at Least 30 Minutes Every Day. This is one of the most
important pieces of advice you could ever take in this sector. The IT sector is
a fast-paced environment where things are in constant change and evolution, so
you have to keep moving as well. If you stop for just a few months and
disconnect completely, or if you move slower than the market, I guarantee you
will notice the difference and will need to catch up when you’re back in the
market.
Avoid Copy and Pasting at Any Cost. The problem with Copy
and Paste is that you’re actually not learning much. You just grab some code
here and duplicate it there and you miss all the important details within those
chunks of code that you copy everywhere. One more thing to keep in mind is that
it also leads to code duplication.
Do Pair Programming With More Experienced Developers. Pair
Programming should be encouraged but not enforced. It should happen in a
spontaneous manner among those members of the team with the right mindset. The
bad news is that some people are too individualist or they just avoid human
interactions in general. So they don't like Pair Programming at all. Don’t
try to enforce Pair Programming on those individuals and focus on those that
could enjoy it and bring results to the team.
The main objective is that you become fluent with the
language and gain speed and agility when writing code, and the only way to do
this is by practicing frequently.