Coding and collaboration skills a junior developer should have to get hired – Part 1

What coding and teamwork abilities should a junior developer possess to land a job?

I’ve been posing this query to numerous well-known developers lately, and the responses are generally similar. While having technical skills (coding skills) is important, they all agree that it is not the only skill you need. You also need to work on your teamwork skills.

Today, I have come across Simon Maple, who is a Director of Developer Relations at ZeroTurnaround, Java Champion, JavaOne Rockstar, Duke’s Choice award winner, founder of the VirtualJUG and co-leader of London Java Community.

I asked the same question to him, and what he said was powerful.

I think people can focus far too much on technology and not enough on their personal skills. Yes, of course being able to do your job and code are important, but I think it’s harder to find people who will collaborate well within a team well and I find those who are a good addition into a team tend to offer more to that team. Companies aren’t a collection of individuals, so it’s important when hiring that you’re not just trying to hire a talented individual. So what are the skills? Being able to communicate to your team. Making sure others don’t get surprised when things unusual happen or go wrong. Helping and supporting others while feeling able to ask for help when needed. Writing maintainable code and being sympathetic to others that have to read your code. These are all extremely important skills a developer can have. In terms of attitude, it’s wonderful to interview people who are excited to learn new technologies and people who are not frighted to experiment, trying new ways to improve. Now let’s switch over to tech. It’s great if you can write some code as a junior software developer, but the other skills will not just see you through but will be the building blocks you need to create your career.

So if I break down his answers, you get the followings-

  1. Collaboration skills
  2. Communication skills
  3. Coding skill( to be able to write maintainable code)
  4. Interest in learning new things, urge to improve

As you can see, developing your career solely through technical knowledge is ineffective; personal skills are just as important and serve as your career’s foundation.

In order to advance your career, I hope this will help you concentrate on developing both your technical and collaborative skills.

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