How to Become a Great Developer

What does it mean to be a great developer?

Does it mean that you’re the best programmer on the team? Does it mean that you’re extremely successful and famous? While great developers can often answer “Yes” to both of those questions, it takes a much broader skill set to truly be a great developer. Today I’m going to look into a few things that can make a developer great.

Practice Makes Perfect

Being a great developer means that you’re willing to improve your current skills, and possibly learn new ones in the process.

Athletes train their entire career to improve themselves, why shouldn’t you? Developers often learn a number of great skills when they’re starting out but lose them throughout their careers due to complacency. They become secure with themselves and don’t pursue new avenues of knowledge.

A great developer constantly practices things that they know and strives to learn new skills.

Humility is Key

Being a great developer means that you’re willing to be humble. Being a humble developer means that you’re willing to accept that you’re not perfect.

Humility is important because it means that you’re willing to say “I don’t know”. Inexperienced developers will rashly thinking of a solution without thinking about the actual problem; experienced developers will think first.

A humble developer will admit that they don’t know the answer. Once you’ve admitted this, you can study the problem and come up with a solution that is better than any that was thought up on the spot.

Being a People Person not a Code Person

Being a great developer means that you’re just as much of a people person as you are a code person. Most developers don’t have a problem with programming, it comes natural to them; communicating with others is a different story.

Software is not built by one person. For the most part, developers need to communicate with other people in the process of the software being built. Because of this, a truly great developer needs to have good communication skills along with technical skills.

Your Thoughts

Being a great developer means that you practice to keep your skills current, you are humble and know when to say “I don’t Know” and you have strong personal skills as well as technical skills. What do you think makes a great developer? Do you consider yourself one? How would you help others become great developers?