In both cases, this article is for you! From a junior specialist to a senior, there is a certain set of technical and soft skills to become or to hire software developers.
Contents
What is a software developer?
Microsoft defines a software developer as a person or a company that develops and manages a software product. Software development skills and responsibilities often include modification, re-engineering and maintenance of the product.
How much do software developers earn?
The salary of the software developer mostly varies depending on their level of seniority or the amount of tasks assigned to them. In 2019, the highest annual salary surpassed $105.000 in the States, the lowest being $80.000.
How to hire a software developer? First of all, understand what skills a good software developer needs to have!
Technical skills
1. Mathematical thinking, data structure, and algorithms:
A computer program works when the given instruction performs a certain task. For that, the computer program needs data to restore, reclaim, and only tafter that to function. Data structures and algorithms are used to write efficient computer programs as the data structure stores and organizes the data, while the algorithm is a sequence of steps to solve a particular problem. Therefore, there is no way you can escape learning data structures and algorithms if you want to become a competent and skilled programmer.
2. Programming Languages and frameworks:
Well, programming languages are the core of informational technologies. To find a job, you will have to know at least one programming language thoroughly. However, remember, that the number of developers is growing annually, therefore to stay relevant and compatible, you had better learn new languages occasionally. If you have a difficult time making up your mind about what language to focus on, simply visualize what you desire to build and what kind of job expectations you have, and based on that, choose the language(s) and skills you need to master.
3. Cloud computing skills
Microsoft Azure defines cloud computing as the delivery of computing services such as servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and artificial intelligence. Many organizations are gradually turning to cloud computing, hence they all crave to find developers with respective skills able to utilize at least one Cloud Server Provider like AWS, Azure, and others.
4. Containers, version control tools (GitHub)
Along with cloud computing, the programmers should also be familiar with containers. Containers let engineers optimize the website for various operating systems. With tools such as Docker or Kubernetes, developers build virtual packages optimized to speak to multiple operating systems.
When a team of software engineers works together on the same product or application, version control tools such as Github control that their codes do not interfere with each other to avoid further complications.
5. Database and SQL
SQL is the most popular domain-specific language, as it has proved its efficiency for 30 years already. There are a great many databases, but whichever you choose to learn, it’s important to be well aware of initial database concepts such as normalization and design.
6. Computer networks
There are mostly four types of computer networks: LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), MAN(Metropolitan Area Network), PAN(Personal Area Network).
If you want your application to be used all around the world, you will need to understand the basics of computer networks, and have the minimum skills to optimize the appliation for each of the networks.
7. Object-oriented programming vs scripting languages
Firstly, it is important to recognize the difference between scripting and programming languages.
Scripting languages are immediately interpreted, while programming languages need to be compiled before interpretation. Knowing either of them will already path your way into the tech world, however, if you wish to be more sought after as a programmer, you will have to have a solid understanding of both of them.
Soft skills
1.Curiosity and Desire to grow constantly:
Well, the technology world is changing rapidly. Things like curiosity and willingness to learn new methods are more than essential for programmers to keep up with the quickly evolving digital world. Informational Technologies are based on experimentation and testing to find better solutions. Without curiosity and a piece of risk-taking, it will be impossible to survive in IT.
2. Interpersonal and Communication skills
Remember, it is just like in football. Programming is all about teamwork. Even if you are a freelance developer, working on a project on your own, there still needs to be teamwork with your client, or project manager, or whoever visualizes the project thoroughly. Developing communication skills is important to avoid misunderstandings and provide the best results.
3. Business-oriented, teaching skills
Regardless you are the CEO or not, you should have the business vision of the product you are developing. What is it for, why the product needs this particular feature, recognize your audience, and so on? Only in that way, you will be able to build a quality product. On top of this, you should be able to share your knowledge with others even if you do not consider yourself an “expert”. Once new members join the company, it will be expected from the experienced programmers to monitor them.
4. Watchfulness
Even though quality assurance is responsible for finding bugs in the code, the working procedure is efficient when the programmers remain attentive throughout the whole coding process. Attention to detail results in better work, therefore the QA finds fewer errors and the product automatically keeps on developing.
5. Leadership skills
As mentioned above, programmers mostly have project managers or clients who lead and monitor the overall development of the product. However, developers should be leading in software engineering, suggesting better ideas, more optimal solutions as after all it’s them who are the builders and they know the best.
6. Time management skills
As most digital projects get developed based on the agile methodology, programmers need to follow certain scripts to finish their tasks. Project managers usually implement certain project management tools such as Jira, Asana, or Trello into the workflow to control the programmers’ progress, however, developers themselves need to be able to divide their time fairly and get the job done on time.
To sum it up, to be the perfect software engineer, one needs to be both technically and operationally proficient. Do not feel stressed over all the requirements listed above, contribute considerable time to developing each of the above-described time management skills and you will eventually achieve your dream perfection.
Wonder how to hire a software developer?
Take the above described skills into consideration while interviewing the candidates and choose the person who shares the most skills.
