This material was originally published on Codica Blog, as part of the article: How We Hire Software Developers: Finding a Perfect Teammate

It is not the easiest task to choose a brilliant developer from tens and sometimes even hundreds of candidates. You should consider thoroughly their qualifications, both hard and soft skills. It is hard work, but it is worth the effort. As a result, you will get skillful specialists who can build the most scalable, reliable, and fast software solutions.

In this post, we would like to focus on the most important qualities that differentiate the best coders from ordinary specialists. We will omit technical skills the applicants should have - it’s a topic for a separate article. Instead, we would like to talk about personal traits our perfect teammate should have.

Quick learning ability

Being a fast learner is a must-have trait of great developers. They need to grasp the information really quickly to complete the tasks quickly and show high results.

Technologies become outdated in no time. As a result, developers are forced to learn new programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and tools. Good coders know how to learn, but the best ones mastered the skill of continuous learning.

At the same time, it is not enough to use a specific list of programming languages, libraries, and frameworks. It is important to know what tools are the best choice for solving a particular issue. Learning means developing both yourself and your company.

We gathered a close-knit team of highly skilled developers. They specialize in Ruby, JavaScript, Rails, React, and Vue.js - core technologies for Codica. However, our team’s knowledge is not limited to one programming language or framework.

Analytical mindset

Analytical skills mean the ability to collect and process information, solve problems and make the right decisions. This is a paramount quality for a custom software developer.

The best developers are capable of analyzing a situation and facts thoroughly. Thus, they make deliberate decisions and choose tools and solutions for a particular case more wisely.

Also, brilliant coders mastered the art of walking a fine line between keeping an eye on a broad picture and staying focused on the smallest details.

A good sense of humor

There is an opinion that programmers are boring people, living in their own world and speaking only about gadgets. Believe us, that is not true. We can say for sure that developers can throw the most vibrant parties, prepare the most amazing gifts, and tell the funniest jokes.

Our developers are not just sitting at their desk all day coding. They talk with their colleagues, tell interesting stories, make a funny joke or comment. Our guys are on the top of the latest technology trends and willingly discuss them with coworkers over a cup of coffee.

Team player

Brilliant programmers eagerly share their ideas, thoughts, and precious knowledge with other team members who are stuck at some task and need help from more experienced colleagues.

Another must-have quality for developers is strong communication skills. They are constantly interacting with different departments and specialists: designers, project managers, marketers. They have to find common ground with these professionals to make this cooperation successful and beneficial for the company

This is an incomplete list of traits that make rockstar developers. We can also mention involvement, curiosity, initiative, and commitment. However, we decided to discuss the qualities crucial for our company.

Conclusion

There is a good reason why an analytical mindset, a good sense of humor, and readiness for teamwork are so important for our company. Our practice shows that specialists with these specific qualities are both stellar developers capable of building the best software products and great teammates.

At Codica, we have the following hiring principles:
1) Quality is more important than quantity;
2) Developers can show their best qualities and skills only working on real projects;
3) Sometimes, even the most gifted specialists can be not successful in a particular company, if they're not fit.

For more information about our best hiring practices, read the full article: How We Hire Software Developers: Finding a Perfect Teammate.