Beyond Coding: Non- Technical Skills Developers Should Opt For

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One particular thing about coding is that it is an ongoing learning process. A developer would never stop learning new technical concepts from libraries, frameworks to platforms.

While climbing the ladder of professional life needs an enthusiastic personality that is always open to learning more about coding, other skills are also vital for success as a developer.

Critical Skill #1: Promoting Your Work

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Unfortunately, ‘Your Work Will Speak For Itself’ does not always work. Indeed, much excellent work goes unnoticed all the time. We need to be proactive when it comes to our work and aim to make it visible. Developers need to make sure that the different stakeholders in the company acknowledge their contributions to the different projects.

Communication skills are highly valued here, and the latter can be developed by practising reflective listening to avoid miscommunication and stay in context.

Besides, preparation is critical, and programmers must take some time in advance to think about the issues that may be raised and have a prepared speech where they go through the projects and highlight their contributions.

Critical Skill #2: Time Management

Time management is all about the ability to prioritize tasks, controlling the temptation of working on the more exciting ones while ignoring the ones that may be more important but seem dull.

Procrastination is an issue that can threaten your workflow and productivity. It is very easy to lose yourself while scrolling on the internet for memes and watching random videos. Also, while there’s no harm in watching some videos for fun, if the action is done routinely, it would consume much of the time necessary to finish a specific task or project.

As deadlines approach, they can cause panic attacks and anxiety, which distress the software developer and worsen the quality of their work. As a result, developers may be pushed to spend an all-nighter.

Critical Skill #3: Stress Management

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Stress is a normal reaction that we use as a protective mechanism when we are faced with an unprecedented amount of pressure. It warns us that our body may crash and that we need to take a break.

Sadly, the majority of developers don’t listen to their bodies and continue to work. This behavior leads in most cases to a burnout. The whole body shuts down, and it is no longer able to function or conduct the most basic tasks.

Luckily, there are simple yet very effective methods/approaches you can follow to manage stress.

First, Action-Oriented Approaches, where you take actions to face and change the stressful situations by breaking down the tasks and pushing yourself while maintaining a certain minimum level of energy.

Second, Emotion-Oriented Approaches, this is the case where the stress comes from the way you perceive a certain situation or a project. Here, you have to work on changing your perspective.

And the final approach is to accept the situation and this is critical when you have no power to change it so you aim to mitigate the risks but fully accepting the situation.

Critical Skill #4: Teamwork

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Most development projects are done in groups as a result, it is very important to be familiar with teamwork and how you navigate its politics. Teamwork skills include but are not limited to active listening, collaboration, micro-management…

This set of skills can be improved through training and practice, a person needs to always be open to interact with others and learn more.

Effective teams can be more effective than the abilities of all the individuals combined, this is synergy.

Synergy is critical to the success of a project and results in a higher rate of efficiency and productivity.

It also allows the developer to grow on the professional and personal level.