The 10 qualities that great developers share

At Code-Garage, we increasingly get this question via private message or in the comments:

"How do I know I'm cut out to be a developer, what qualities are required?"

If you've ever asked yourself this question too, I'll try to answer it today! Note that this list is drawn solely from my experience, from the people I've met, from the developers I admire, and from those I've had the chance to work with — it in no way constitutes a general truth.

Spoiler: Being quick to learn to code is not on the list, because it's not the most important thing!

1 - Passionate

If you only have this one quality out of the nine others I'm about to list, you've already done 80% of the work.

The best programmers aren't necessarily the ones who understand fastest, but those who are passionate, who spend the biggest part of their day (and sometimes their evenings) coding new projects, experimenting, learning and training!

2 - Curious

When you learn a technology, and little by little manage to master it, it's easy to stay in your comfort zone.

It's very satisfying to build applications faster and faster over time, but having a taste for adventure to always look further, trying out new tools and trying to understand how everything around us works, is the key to a number of endless opportunities!

3 - Organized

Knowing how to order tasks, putting them into perspective within a project, and tracking their progress, even when working alone will be extremely useful to you, and above all will save you from many mistakes.

Being organized also means knowing how to organize your code, your files and all the internal components of the project — in short, it's a time saver, and time is money!

4 - Meticulous

Seeing a task through to the end, taking the time to test every corner of it, by writing automated tests for example, is the only way you'll be able to sleep soundly while working on large-scale projects!

5 - Persevering

Not stopping at the first bug. Reading and re-reading documentation, tutorials, but above all rereading your own code to find the flaw is essential.

You should never give up, but without forgetting to clear your head regularly all the same!

6 - Methodical

When you're methodical, you don't have to be persevering.

Something doesn't work? Then I'll take the time to break down the entire part of my code that isn't working until I find the problem.

Generally, someone who is methodical won't even have time to get frustrated, they'll have already started building their plan to trace the source of the error.

7 - A Good Teacher

How do you work on technically complex projects while being supervised by someone who's never touched a line of code?

By gradually helping them understand our world, by explaining basic concepts to them, by making your profession accessible!

The best working relationships are built on teaching.

8 - Humble

If you know that you know nothing, then you know everything there is to know!

9 - Realistic

The expression "Aim for the moon so you land among the stars" is bullshit. The stars are far away and space is empty and cold, that's certain death.

You shouldn't sell dreams, nor swallow a dream sold by someone else: reality always catches up with you eventually, and its nickname is often "Burnout".

10 - Enterprising

If you come across a problem that no one has noticed, don't wait to be told to fix it, flag it and find a solution yourself.

Everyone will be grateful to you for it!