We work hard to improve our technical and soft skills, but we often take our character traits and mindset for granted. We assume that they are innate and fixed parts of who we are, and as a result, we allow them to run on autopilot.

This way of thinking is detrimental. Your mindset is not only critical for a successful software development career (perhaps even more so than your skills), but it is also within your control.

Successful software developers acknowledge that character traits are malleable. They are self-aware of their mindset and deliberately work on improving it. This is the superpower that makes them stand out from the crowd and accelerates their career.

Every successful software developer needs 3 things

Professional software development is a complex discipline that requires a diverse set of abilities to succeed. These abilities can be grouped into three main categories:

1. Technical Skills - This is the most obvious group. To be a successful developer, you need to be proficient in your trade, including programming languages and frameworks, clean code principles, architecture, testing, and debugging. Additionally, you need to have skill with your tools, such as IDEs, version control, and the command line.

2. Soft Skills - To work on large commercial projects, you need a solid set of soft skills, including teamwork, communication, project management and planning, remote work, self-organization, learning, and personal productivity.

3. Mindset - Mindset is similar to soft skills, but its components are more fundamental core traits, such as curiosity, patience, empathy, grit, and adaptability, among others.

Ignoring your mindset can jeopardize your career

Software development is a complex and fast-moving field that can be frustrating at times. To learn, grow, and stay relevant as a developer without burning out, you need a specific mix of character traits. It's also important to note that software development is a team game, and lone-wolf hackers have no place in professional software development, no matter how technically skilled they are. Functioning well in a team requires a seemingly opposite set of traits.

Mindset is different from skills. Understanding Agile development principles, for example, is not the same as being adaptable and open to frequent change. Similarly, knowing debugging techniques is not the same as having the curiosity and persistence to enjoy chasing a problem for several hours without getting burned out or discouraged. But, just like skills, these traits can be learned.

Without understanding which traits are critical for a programmer and deliberately honing them over time, you'll never reach your full potential. True senior developers are self-aware of their mindset and continuously work on improving it. This is what differentiates the best developers from the crowd.

The 10 traits of successful software developers

Curiosity

If I had to summarize in one sentence what software development is about, I'd say it's about learning. You need to stay up-to-date with constantly evolving technologies and software development processes. You need to learn the deep details of complex business domains (several ones throughout your career). Analyzing and clarifying requirements is learning. Research is learning. Performance optimization and debugging - in other words, poking deeply into the inner workings of code - is a kind of learning as well.

Software development is also about working with people (and for people). You'll be working on cross-functional teams, with a diverse set of people from different specializations and backgrounds (nowadays, in the age of remote, most probably from multiple countries and cultures). You'll have to understand "business". You'll have to understand and solve user pain points and problems.

Problem solving

Software development is like a giant puzzle with an infinite stream of problems to solve. As a developer, your role is to solve your company's and customers' problems. This requires addressing both organizational problems (such as how to function as a team, how to organize your workflow, and what processes to use) and technical problems (including logic, architecture, and performance). These problems can be broken down into smaller, nested problems, all the way down to atomic problems like how to design and name a specific function or unit test.

Patience

Becoming a true senior developer requires years of deliberate practice. Along the way, you'll experience setbacks that may slow your progress. Developing your career is a rewarding but sometimes slow and painful process. To achieve excellence and reach the top, you must be prepared for lifelong dedication, which requires a lot of patience.

Grit

Software development requires a lot of persistence, including hunting bugs, deciphering poorly documented APIs and libraries, untangling legacy code, and tracking down performance bottlenecks. It also requires sustaining a deep focus for extended periods of time.

No matter how senior you are, you will struggle, fail, get stuck, and become frustrated a lot. You will need a lot of grit to push through and avoid getting burned out.

Emotional intelligence

Software development is centered around people and teams. You will work closely with your colleagues at an individual level, which includes pair programming, debugging together, and code reviews. Additionally, you will work with your team to brainstorm, plan, and make decisions together. This collaboration can be messy, as your work may overlap or conflict and you may have differing opinions. You will also need to negotiate your roadmap with management. Ultimately, to build a great product, you must put yourself in your users' shoes.

Ego

Software development, and working in a team in general, requires balance. On one hand, you're hired for your expertise and expected to have strong opinions and guide less tech-savvy or junior team members. On the other hand, you'll work with equally experienced and opinionated teammates who will challenge your point of view, and with whom you'll need to make group decisions.

Your ego may be hurt in the process, so it's important to keep it in check. However, try not to completely withdraw or disengage.

Adapatibility

Software development is constantly evolving. Technologies change rapidly, new methodologies gain popularity, and companies pivot to adapt to the market.

Throughout your career, you will also change projects, teams, companies, and business domains. Even a single project involves constant inspection and adaptation, especially in agile approaches. Additionally, your team will self-reorganize frequently.

Reliability

I know I'm repeating it, but software development is a team game. Your colleagues, manager, and company all count on you to do your part. No matter your technical expertise, nobody will ever consider you a true senior developer if they can't rely on you to take care of your work and deliver on your promises without being micromanaged.

Pragmatism

Professional software development requires striking a balance between tradeoffs. It involves constant compromise between development speed and quality, balancing new and promising solutions with proven and stable ones, and walking a thin line between under- and over-engineering.

Positive outlook

As a programmer, your life is not always easy. You will encounter annoying customers and tight deadlines. Your project may even get canceled. You may have disagreements with your team or management, but still need to commit and execute. Additionally, you will have to work with ugly code. Yes, every codebase has good and bad parts, even at top companies like Google.

You will become tired, frustrated, and upset.