Software Engineer Like Qualities

The Indian armed forces look for 15 qualities, dubbed the Officer Like Qualities (OLQs), in its potential Officer recruits. They are:

Based on the OLQs, I would like to coin a new set of qualities — Software Engineer Like Qualities (SELQs). It is comprised of the qualities that I have repeatedly bumped into while perusing the job descriptions of Software/Fullstack/Backend Engineers for startups (mainly in the EU).

The following are the Software Engineer Like Qualities along with the job description points hinting at them:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• You like to continuously challenge yourself by finding new and better ways to solve complex problems

• Be a self-starter and possess a strong sense of self-motivation.
• High personal productivity and excellent time management.
• You don't take "no" or "that'll never work" for an answer.

• You communicate effectively (listening, presenting, and questioning).
• You give and receive open, direct, and timely feedback.
• You have strong organizational, written, and communication skills.
• You are clear, proactive, straightforward, and a good listener.
• You aren't afraid to ask for clarification.

• You can quickly adapt to changing priorities.
• You can work in a fast-paced environment and meet changing deadlines/priorities in simultaneous projects.
• You can remain calm under pressure in a frequently changing environment.

• You are able to work with diverse team members with different levels of experience.
• You believe that you can achieve more on a team.
• You lead with humility and empathy, respecting and learning from the perspectives of others.
• You are always looking for ways that you can help others.

• Ability to quickly learn new technologies.
• You don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions.
• You are constantly evolving with the technology trends, and willing to embrace change. You don’t mind learning new technologies if it means getting you there sooner.
• Ideally, you have published your own app, contributed to an open-source project, spoke at a conference, and/or published blog posts :)