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Software Engineer Like Qualities

December 23, 2021 at 3:12 pm

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:


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


Initiative & Organizing Ability
  • 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.


Power of Expression
  • 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.


Speed of Decision & Liveliness
  • 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.


Social Adaptability & Cooperation
  • 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.


Passion for learning
  • 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 :)

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