10 easy steps to becoming a better software engineer
There’s much more to a great software developer than just the ability to code, and your journey to becoming a better engineer starts with that realisation. While writing code is the output, what sets the best engineers apart is a willingness to measure, evaluate, and improve the performance of the code, as well as strive to continuously learn and grow as an individual.
So, how exactly can you go from being a capable engineer to a great engineer? Here’s how:
1. Be open to learning new things
The technology industry is constantly evolving which can be intimidating sometimes. However, you can make the most of the learning curve with the right mindset. Learning never happens in the comfort zone. Challenge yourself and keep building new and different things — be that trying new tools, learning new languages, or experimenting with different approaches.
2. Break out of the tutorial mindset
Once you start your professional journey as an engineer, you will be expected to take ownership of your work and deliverables. Break out of the tutorial mindset and strive to figure things out yourself; this way, you will have a concrete understanding of how things work.
3. Learning to debug is inevitable
You can save hours of your precious time resolving errors in your code by familiarising yourself with the debugging tools in the code editor to verify your code at breakpoints.
For example, you can use debugging features like Run and Debug within Visual Studio Code for Node JS.
4. Develop an in-depth understanding of the code
Try to avoid simply copying and pasting the code; taking the time to really understand what you’re writing, and why you’re writing it, will give you a deeper understanding of the process, and help you build your knowledge and expertise. It also makes it easier to refactor, diagnose or debug when things go wrong!
5. Do not skip writing tests for your code
Writing tests encourages you to focus on the ‘why’ element of the code you’re writing, helps you optimise what you’re writing (you only have to write enough to ensure your tests pass), and ensures you’re able to find problems with your code before you deploy it.
Having robust tests in place will also save you hours when it comes to debugging, refactoring and maintenance, and regression testing. It forces you to think of all possible outcomes — which is the best way to ensure you’re writing robust code.
6. Look at the bigger picture
It’s easy to get so engrossed in writing the code itself that you forget why it’s being written in the first place. Ensure you take the time to understand the problem you are solving for the customer, and make sure you’re creating something that focuses on the users’ needs.
7. Pair with and learn from other developers
The best resource at your disposal is other engineers. To be a great coder, you should get a second pair of eyes on all but the smallest of changes. Code reviews provide a great opportunity for others to feedback on your code while pairing with other developers is a fantastic way to share knowledge, spot things both of you may have missed otherwise, and ensure better code quality and resilience. It can also be a surprisingly fun way to tackle a challenging problem!
8. Practice efficient communication
Communication is an often overlooked skill for software engineers, but is crucial to clearly and efficiently solve the problems you are facing and working on. Ensuring you have healthy two-way communication with your team, your users and your stakeholders means you can always stay focused on what’s important — be that understanding requirements, solving a problem, or getting support.
9. Make refactoring a habit
Over time, all but the most well-maintained codebases will experience some degree of bloat. Technical debt will inevitably build up, redundant code will start to slow things down, and everything will get more painful to run and maintain. Building a habit of regularly refactoring and clearing down tech debt is a great way to prevent this from happening — as well as providing an opportunity to revisit and optimise legacy code. Always ensure that your contribution to an existing code leaves it in a better place.
10. Always document your code
One of the best practices for becoming a great software developer is to be a coder who’s easy to work with. A well-documented code with sensible comments that are easy to read and understand can be easily updated and helps others to work efficiently on the code. Always ask yourself — if someone were to look at my code in five years, would they understand why I’ve written it in this way? On top of this, always remember to read others’ documentation as well!
Beyond this, always try to be genuinely curious about the work you do or are going to do. Anything you learn out of genuine curiosity will stay with you for a lifetime and will help you continuously learn and grow.
If you are a software developer looking to work in an environment that will challenge you to excel at coding, look no further!
DP World is constantly on the lookout for intelligent, capable, and hungry-to-learn software developers to build impactful solutions that make a difference in global trade. If you wish to work with global leaders and be a global trade enabler, check out our careers section.
