If a hiring manager is comparing two resumes of programmers with almost the same skills and experience as well as the same educational background, there still would be some specific indications that would give a signal to the manager to recruit one of them.

The question is: What exactly made the hiring manager choose a candidate over others?

The matter of fact is that experience, and technical skills are only good for taking your CV to the recruiter’s table. Highly successful programmers often retain important behavioral characteristics and habits that differentiate them from others.

We questioned a number of developers concerning the habits and characteristics which distinguish great programmers from the rest. We have concluded that these seven habits play a vital role in the success of a programmer.

1.  Write Reusable, Readable and Clean Code

There are various ways to write clean code that is easy to test, read, and use, but it is an increasingly important aspect of high-quality software development regardless of the method. Successful programmers give only one goal to each function.

When you begin coding, you usually start writing line by line into an increasingly larger function or method. It may seem at first simpler, but it causes other problems. The code is difficult to test, more difficult to use again, and more difficult to read. One thing and one thing only should be done by a function. You don’t focus if it does more than one thing.

It’s a common practice to give specific and valuable names to variables and functions, which should be easier if you write each function for a specific purpose. Use a code beautifier to make your code more easily readable. It is important to understand quickly and easily what you are supposed to do when you come back to your code weeks after you write it.

2.  Listen Carefully Rather Than Speaking

If you’re with other developers in a meeting, first listen, then speak about it because this is the easiest way to learn.

Humility is needed, especially when you believe you are the most intelligent person in the room. Good developers are able and happy to confess if they don’t know.

You should not be the programmer who sprays a lot of technical jargon instead of acknowledging that he may not be aware of the solution to a certain question.

3.  Discipline – A Must-Have!

Talent is not everything, except perhaps in vast numbers. Talent or ability is indeed only part of the performance process. Another part is discipline. A professional software engineer or programmer without discipline is like a veteran navigator without a map.

Quality should not be sacrificed for speed. But you are mindful of the technological obligations you generate and seek to repay in the future if you sacrifice the quality for speed.

You should take steps, as you know, that you have been set up to help developers achieve. During code analysis, you should be fully involved. The importance of time for development work should also be understood.

4.  Focus on The Right Thing At The Right Time

Successful programmers have the willingness to concentrate on the common goal of a specific project without being sidetracked by lazy optimism that doesn’t really get them closer to their goal.

Many programmers work on different things even if they know the proper solution is something else. You might know when you step back a little that you are putting a lot of effort into something which really isn’t important to the larger objective that everyone tries to achieve.

It is certainly good to look ahead at times, as long as you can focus on what you know, you need to do over what you may need to do. Much of this is to ensure that your wavelength is the same as the rest of the team.

Effective programmers acknowledge that teamwork leads to innovation.

5.  Seek Assistance on The Internet Using Various Platforms

Don’t mix modesty and determination. Successful developers do not allow their ego to turn a project into the garbage, mainly when a solution can be readily available online. When they stuck in a problem, they don’t hesitate to Google it or search the solution on various platforms.

You should be good at searching for a solution on the internet. About every computer programming problem, you are going to face has been solved.

Whatever problem you are facing, someone in the world may have faced it already, and the chances are that he/she may have posted it.

As most of you know about Stack Overflow. Don’t think online support simply means that a stack overflow thread should be copied and transferred in the file. Good engineers and programmers take the time to understand every aspect of the solution.

A successful programmer will look at what the code is and why the bugs are fixed with this code. You could copy and paste, but it can continue to trouble you if you don’t have background knowledge about it.

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6.  Acquire New Skills with Time

A further condition is to be flexible and to embrace new things if necessary. Highly successful developers and programmers actively read about and apply new developments happening in the market.

New frameworks, methodologies, and languages are constantly being developed, which are being filtered with by successful software engineers, which enable them to do their best and to evolve.

The key to a successful software engineer is undoubtedly the ability to acquire new skills.

With the completion of a computer science degree or a specific language course, the learning process doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop if you get hired. A successful programmer should be learning whenever he can and whenever necessary.

You should not focus on learning only one language. You should equip yourself with the latest frameworks and languages that are trending in the market.

7.  Use A Perfect Editor

You are perhaps an outstanding programmer, but using a perfect editor is also an important trait of a successful programmer. We cannot specify one best editor because there are a lot of them. It depends on each programmer according to their type of work.

Visual Code, Sublime Text, and Notepad++ are some of the popular editors that the majority of programmers use in their daily routine work.

Among the three, Visual Code is used by most of the programmers, and it offers several exciting features that others lack.

Final Words

To be sure, a few hours of switching off your phone will not help you because it is simply a way to reflect on real progress and development. You should work on things that are tough for you to get better. You may not want to develop skills in a way that will help you to evolve as a professional programmer if you do not deliberately stretch the boundaries of your abilities