This evening I came across an editorial posted on Forbes talking about the value of an employee to a company. It listed 15 traits that make an individual a valued contributor to a company and the companies teams. Although intelligence was important, there were a number of other traits that had higher impact on the value of an individual.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kensundheim/2013/04/02/15-traits-of-the-ideal-employee
Integrity, Self Confidence, Resilience and a Strong Work Ethic were all traits that were emphasized in importance. The primary reason they stand out is that these are traits that an individual has or does not have. It is not something you can train or cause them to develop. They have them, or they don’t. And, these traits have extreme value in the workplace.
One trait out of the 15 really stands out for me; Passionate. Being passionate about your work, and the craft of doing your work is an essential trait in my mind. For a software developer it is essential to be passionate. There is so much to know about building software that an individual can spend a lifetime learning and still not exhaust the field of knowledge. A passionate individual wanting to perfect their craft will always be learning new things.
That passion will express itself in the kind of code that is written as well. While there are different definitions we can often recognize code that was thrown together or simply sloppy.
Maybe you will find different traits are more meaningful to you. Share your perspective here, or by email to
btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben