2 Important Skills Needed to Become a Computer Programmer and How to Master Them

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Do you have what it takes?

In the field of computer programming, there are many skills needed to be better than the majority of people you’re competing with for a job.

There may be people that tell you that tens or even hundreds of skills are needed if you want to succeed in programming.

However, what if I told you that there are two skills that can help get yourself ahead of everyone else? Skills that most people probably don’t even know about.

In this blog post, I’m going to tell you about the two most important and overlooked skills that you need to have to become one of the best computer programmers out there. You’ll find out about the importance of determination and teamwork in programming.

Let’s start.

Programming Skill #1: Determination to Keep Going

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You may be thinking that this is an obvious skill that all people know about.

Although this one is pretty obvious, it’s kind of noticeable that people haven’t acquired this skill.

When someone doesn’t have any determination, they let any error they make get them down. This makes all the skills they’ve learned in the past matter less because they let their emotions get the best of them.

For instance, have you ever worked on a project and something didn’t work correctly?

If you have, you probably felt frustrated, angry, and you probably wanted to give up.

When you begin to feel this way, you may have noticed that the quality of your work goes down drastically. This means that all the skills you’ve learned begin to matter less as the feeling of anger and frustration makes it difficult for you to think properly.

That is what happens when you don’t have this skill.

So how do you master this skill?

Understand that mistakes will be made

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Something like this is easier said than done. You have to understand that not everything is going to go smoothly. 

There are two great quotes by Steve Jobs saying, “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.” and, "The most precious thing that we all have with us is time." 

These both mean that instead of getting angry at the mistakes you make, sometimes it’s better to admit that you did something wrong and move on to the next thing because time is important when you have to reach things such as deadlines.

Programming Skill #2: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

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When some people think of computer programming, the first thing an average person thinks of is someone that stays in a closed office doing work by themselves the entire day.

Though being independent is also an important skill, teamwork and communication is far more important.

This is because there is a lot more to being a computer programmer than just coding.

For instance, when you’re working for a company, you will have meetings everyday where you share ideas, and figure out how you will combine each of your pieces of code to complete a program.

So how do you master teamwork?

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Communication is Key

When I did my first group assignment for a computer programming class, I noticed that the communication happening was non-existent. The only time there was communication was at the beginning where we split the work up into different parts. After that, we ended up doing our own sections of the assignment without talking at all. As you probably guessed, this plan completely backfired as all the parts related to each other one way or another making us have to redo the entire thing.

On our second attempt, instead of working on the project alone, we took the time to share ideas, help each other out, and proofread each of our work. This made it so that we were all on the same page.

This means that communication is key because when people work together to share ideas, proofread, and help each other, the work you do becomes so much easier due to the teamwork and chemistry you develop in the process.

In case you want to learn more about communication and teamwork, wired has a great article on how Steve Jobs viewed teamwork in the industry.

Conclusion

The skills that I’ve shown throughout this post can be the greatest skills you can possibly learn if they are used properly.

 When mastered, these two things can get yourself ahead of everyone else in the field because of how much it can improve your quality of work. 

Before I get to the end of this post, I’m going to remind you of the two skills I showed you:

·      Determination

·      Teamwork

With all of this said, I’m going to end this post with yet another quote by Steve Jobs saying, “Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart.”

This means that as long as you believe that everything is going to be alright, you will gain the confidence to do the things you want in life.

Work Cited

Maxime, L. (2019, July 18). 201 Amazing Steve Jobs Quotes (That Will Motivate You).                    Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://wisdomquotes.com/steve-jobs-quotes/.

Lehrer, J. (2017, June 3). The Steve Jobs Approach To Teamwork. Retrieved November 29,            2019, from https://www.wired.com/2011/10/the-steve-jobs-approach-to-teamwork/.