Technology is rapidly growing. The dependence and reliance on technology for many startups and industries has made most investments shift to software development and engineering. This shift has made the demand for skilled senior software engineers hit a high. They are in high demand in the current market. As a senior software engineer, you need to possess certain qualities to stand out. In this article, we are going to discuss the qualities to prove as a senior software engineer that will make companies and new clients reach out to you.
Software engineering is the use of practical, computing knowledge approaches in the creation, operation, sustenance, and maintenance of computing programs. Any company, organization or an individual will want to employ or work with someone who has extensive and applicable engineering expertise. As a senior software engineer, it’s not just the years of in this field that will matter but how you put into use your skills and expertise. Your approach to problems is important too. Interpersonal skills like effective communication with clients will also play a huge role in ensuring that you are always on demand. Senior software engineers are expected to have good writing codes, able to manage time efficiently, reliable and trustworthy and able to work independently. These are just some of the qualities that will set apart from junior and mid-level engineers software engineers.
That put across, the following are some of the qualities you must have to qualify as a senior engineer.
11 qualities that Define a Senior Developer
1. Strong debugging skills
Debugging is the ability to identify and solve bugs that may be preventing the software from operating normally. It’s almost impossible to write codes that are bug-free one can have the ability and the right tools to run a diagnosis and resolve any bug-related issues. Software systems are constantly becoming complex leading to more debugging skills. The ability to be to do debugging on a complex system depends on the engineer’s skills and his or her experience. Entry-level or junior engineers may find it hard to track bugs in programs and resolve them. However senior engineers do this with little or no difficulties. Hence this one of the looked for among qualities to prove as a senior software engineer. To be able to develop these skills one is expected to work on different projects and different sets of people. These opportunities will ensure that you sharpen these skills.
2. Mentoring and giving others direction
This is the ability to help others through an interactive process. It’s an effective form of transferring skills and knowledge to others at the workplace or in one’s field of work. It’s also one way new leaders are developed. Senior software engineers don’t shy from help others. They know that by sharing the knowledge they are also able to gain something they may be lacking. They achieve this by establishing expectations from the mentors and setting ground rules for them. Mentoring involves listening carefully, asking questions and then advising appropriately.
Senior engineers should always be ready to share information and knowledge with others. This creates a platform where the whole group is at the same level.
A senior engineer knows that to become skillful and great one needs others. Mentor-ship helps in exposing the different strengths and weaknesses in others and working together in tackling them.
3. Good communication skills
Software engineering is far from just depending on written rules and specifications in dealing with problems. Knowing how to communicate by asking the right questions when you are not sure something or while double-checking on issues is important. Senior engineers are expected to communicate efficiently with both his or her technical staff including the non-technical staff.
Senior engineers should be able to communicate clear ideas to others. It doesn’t mean one should be great at speaking publicly but can express and put forward your points clearly to those on board.
One should be able to communicate and put across forward complex and technical points and ideas. A senior engineer should be able to understand anomalies and present solutions coherently.
4. Specialized knowledge
This is acquired through spending more time dealing with complex software. It applies in most technical fields. It’s good to do different things but most important is specializing in one specific area. This what senior engineers do. They have an ability to have a broad knowledge of popular technologies but they also focus on one area to be an expert.
5. Team players
To be to work and achieve set targets, it important for a senior engineer to work in a team and also be a team player. Working as a team ensures that the players can get to know each person’s strengths and weaknesses and help them to improve. A senior engineer should be able to understand that he or she can’t know everything and needs others. Working as a team ensures that those that don’t know are advised and taught new skills. Working collectively as a team ensures that the problem at hand has been resolved on time. This helps others be better at what they do.
6. Trustworthy and reliable
Senior software engineers need to be trusted with the different projects they handle. Some projects may contain confidential and sensitive information hence they should be trusted not to tamper or give out such a project. Senior engineers are people that can be relied upon when called upon and won’t give excuses on not completing tasks. If you are a trustworthy person you have integrity and even no one is around. Reliability means you are always available when needed and offer the necessary support.
7. Vast experience in a particular field
To become a senior software engineer one must have worked with a handful of other senior engineers or experts and technologies. An experienced engineer will be versed in all the ways and approaches to problems. They can combine different technological experiences and arrive at the best-fit solutions as they have worked in different environments. They know what to do and apply in different circumstances
8. Ability to write good codes
The ability to write good codes comes from vast experience. This well-written codes can be read and understood with ease by all developers from the team. They organize and structure the code well and document the code making them intuitive. Senior engineers make write codes that are consistent in style, operational terms, and readability. A typical Well written codes from senior engineers are code that is easy to be managed.
9. Efficient time management
Time management ensures one can be relied upon to do a task within the given time frame. Time management calls for strong work ethics by finishing tasks and showing to meetings and seminars on time. One should be able to estimate the time required to finish a particular time, communicate that and deliver the task as per the said time. Seniors software engineers are good and efficient time managers and require minimum supervision from their superiors.
10. Ability to work independently
To be a senior engineer one must pose the ability to take an initiative of doing things without being asked to do. They can see the wider picture. This is one important quality to prove as a senior software engineer. A senior software engineer is expected to work independently under no or minimum supervision until the task at hand has been completed.
Being independent also calls for owning up mistakes and not giving excuses always since most of the work either to be delivered is on a personal basis hence there are no blame games arising.
11. Ability to learn faster
You must develop the ability to learn about new technological trends on your own. They are always on the lookout of new resources of knowledge. By admitting that they don’t know certain things, senior engineers learn from others easily instead of pretending to know everything.
Conclusion
There are no set steps for becoming a senior software designer. It has nothing to do with your level of education. It all about practicing skills learned or acquired until you have mastered them. It also depends on the opportunities and experiences one has had throughout his or her career. This will depend on your interpersonal skills, attitude, and training. While junior engineers know one or only a few solutions to a problem mostly as per what they were taught at school. Mid-level engineers will have more but not all solutions and will develop a degree of care to maintenance and issues like quality of code. Senior software engineers understand that all problems have possible solutions as well as risks. They tend to have a holistic approach to issues no matter the risks. Enough time and practice need to be put in place to develop and perfect them.