Coding Soft Skills a Result of Constant Reading
As a career person, I have two separate jobs which a very strong needs for soft skills. They include communication, problem-solving, empathy, stress management skills, and many others. Most of the time, we place a lot of attention on the hard skills of coding.
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In a matter of months in my career as a software engineer, it became clear to me that all my attention was focused on writing code which was only one aspect of productive software engineering. It will take many skills to be a member of an engineering team and you will need this skill as well.
Communication
This is one of the skills one needs to acquire not only as a developer but for all professions, especially in coding. Communication is very crucial, know that communication has two ways that are listening and speaking. You need to be a good listener, listening to your fellow colleagues, clients or users will make a big difference. When you listen, you end up getting an advantage over those who only do the talking and helps you to excellently execute your task.
When speaking, do it with confidence and accuracy. With persuasion, try your best to achieve a result when communicating, remember that your ability to speak fluently is your weapon and a very useful tool so make good use of it. Be polite and never interrupt the other person this shows that you are patient, keep your composure while listening, keep in mind that communication is not only verbal.
Reviewing of Codes
Being aware of what your code does is very easy, after all, it is you wrote it. Reading another person’s code is a different thing altogether as it takes a deeper and a higher level of understanding, and expertise to be able to follow what is taking place and be able to catch potential bugs.
Decision making
This all depends on your role, you may be involved in managing people and projects and maybe a project team. It helps to complete a task faster. Software engineering decision includes time management, organization skills and apprehension of the ecology at a higher level, deliberation on business growth.
The Importance of Reading
There is a never-ending variety of resources available for use, they are Blogs, YouTube, documentations, and number one is the good old book.
Be a Sponge
Being a sponge means, the ability to absorb a lot of information, and this type of learning comes in two folds.
a. Completing every circle.
it is hard to tell you the countless times I read a piece of work and a week later it becomes the topic for discussing at work, it feels good to be ahead and know more to be on top of the conversation. Whenever I have realized that I had not read anything, on that day I would contribute much less to the conversation. Most of the time, I seem lost about what they are discussing. So, I do my best to read more and broader.
b. Pushing beyond your limit
Honestly, I always don’t feel like I have understood what I read on the first attempt but it depends on the kind of book. I am going for something new and technical, and it feels too difficult for me to understand it constantly though, as long as I keep on repeating the reading, and find the meaning to difficult terms.
Then it means the mind of “I can’t do it” will be pushed away, sometime ago I felt like none of the things I’m studying made sense and I have realized that not knowing is having something new in-store. As for engineering, you will never know everything.
But if you are learning something confusing, if you are not learning something that is confusing in the first place, you are not challenging yourself and the aim is to move a bit higher from your comfort zone. The only solution is to read to more. It does not matter if you feel like it makes sense or not just keep on reading.
c. Be comfortable when talking about code
Talking about code most of the time comes less naturally compared to writing it You might have known it in your head all you need to know is, it is only kept in your head. You have to open up and share it with your colleagues. Reading more books opens your mind when it comes to discussing your work, it helps you to see how others introduce theirs and you familiarize yourself with the kind of conversation and exposes which help in making the conversation flow and be flexible and to flow with time.
d. Know the “why” Concept
It is very important you understand always the “Why” beyond the code (and the one you are reading). This is the idea that will allow you to enhance your program, expect possible issues, debug all errors, and adjust to all changing conditions. To understand why something was done, you can use your own understanding to build a precise solution rather than a multipurpose patch.
Reading all code samples and analyses
As mentioned earlier, the skills to read other people’s code and get meaningful feedback is very important to being part of the engineering at first, and you may know where to begin. Most book on engineering books that are language-based which includes code examples with additional analyses which:
i. provides an opportunity to gain the skills of reading others code in a good space (there is no risk of missing a bug that gets into production)
ii. it helps to learn code that is already analyzed. This shows that you are able to get an idea of what kind of things to look for, where to begin and to ask yourself and the team a useful question.
Learning the code language
Each and every technology has its own custom language that they use to talk about you from your conversation with your colleagues. Reading can also provide the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the language in a much safe space(that means without committing an error in the presence of your colleague). Constant tautology is important to strong communication and knowing this is an important foundation.
I cannot emphasize how important it feels to be reading to your own growth as an engineer. Read a few pages every day. even if you have to reread it, stick to it and you will see that both your conversation and approach will change.
