Being a successful software developer is not just about technical skills. You also need to have soft skills. It is easy to focus on hard skills (technical skills) and forget about the soft skills. However, soft skills are what affects how others perceive and interact with you.

My goal in this post is to go over seven soft skills that can boost your career in software development. They have been giving me great results so far.

Adaptability

Being adaptable should be second nature to you as a software developer because there are always new things to learn and things to change. You need to be open to learning new skills and taking on challenges you have not dealt with before.

One of the most important aspects of adaptability is how you react to changes. Do you react positively to criticism, bad news, or comments? If the project you have been working on were canceled, would you be able to cope with it? Would you feel angry that your project was canceled? If you can retain your composure then it will become a huge boost to your career.

Attitude

“A bad attitude is like a flat tire. If you don’t change it, you’ll never go anywhere.” – John N. Mitchell

Many software developers are a “lone wolf” when it comes to writing code. While coding you might dislike any types of interruption because it breaks your state of flow. This not a problem, but how you react to the interruption does matter. Do you listen to what others are saying and offer well thought out answers? Do you get irritated and try to “shoo” the person away as fast as possible?

Having a positive attitude will benefit you in many ways. It will make it easier for you to face challenges. A positive attitude makes you approachable, which results in your colleagues being more willing to offer their help when you need it. Your attitude will define how others think about you. Over time, people will forget what you say and do, but they probably will not forget how you make them feel.

Willingness to Learn

Learning is a never-ending process. Learning does not stop after you are out of school. There is always someone you can learn from and abilities that you can improve or adjust. If you are reluctant to learn new things and accept guidance or advice then you will not get too far.

Communication

Communication in technical fields can be hard when you find yourself having to explain highly technical concepts to non-technical people. You need to be able to convey the ideas without relying on industry jargons, which is particularly difficult in software development.

To communicate effectively, you need to know when to be brief, and when to go into detail. You need to balance between technical and non-technical language. This is difficult to do, so embrace any constructive criticism you receive and make note of it.

Listening

Being a good listener is important. It allows you to be able to understand and interpret what you have just heard. In software development, this is very important because you do not want to be spending your time and effort in doing the wrong things.

There are many distractions around us, but when you are listening, focus on only listening. Put down your phone and turn to face the person speaking to you. If you do not understand something, then ask the speaker to clarify. For complex discussions that involve several instructions, repeat them back to the speaker in your own words. When you do this, it shows the speaker that you did listen, and understand what is expected.

Focus

In software development, your focus on the small details can lead to amazing results. In order to achieve this, you must be able to focus only on one task at a time. It is difficult to focus on one task nowadays when there so many distractions around us.

One technique that can help you stay focus is the Pomodoro technique. This technique focuses on one task at a time and this helps you produce more meaningful work. I have done a post about the Pomodoro technique if you want to see how I execute it.

Big Picture Thinking

When you receive a new project, what do you consider first? The code or the user of the product that you will be creating? If you put the user first, then you have a valuable skill that will get you far in your career as a developer. This type of thinking will also help you distinguish between what features are necessary and which are “good to have.” A clear vision on the necessary features will help tremendously in providing a good product for your targeted user-base.

I hope you found this post helpful. If you found this post helpful, share it with others so they can benefit too.

Are you already using some of these soft skills? Are there other soft skills that you are making use of? In addition, if you are interested in the topic of soft skills for a software developer, you should definitely check out John Sonmez’s book, Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual.

Feel free to leave a comment, send me a tweet, or send me an email at steven@brightdevelopers.com. To stay in touch, you can follow me on Twitter.