No one is perfect, and that is the most honest truth. Talking about software developers, there is a lot of good, great, growing up and not really the best software engineers, actually, the same as are the other fields of life. But no one is perfect, as everyone makes mistakes. Additionally to faults, there are some bad habits, which may seem innocent, at first glance, but in fact, may cause a lot of difficulties. In this article, we are going to talk about 10 bad habits, which are better to avoid for every software developer.
Not taking enough breaks
Ohh, how many people in the world can be judged for this kind of behavior. At first glance, it looks like not being a big deal, as each not taken break increases working time, so much more work can be performed. The truth is, working without breaks is not a healthy thing as it decreases the working productivity. And when a person takes enough breaks, goes to the kitchen, drinks some coffee and talks to the colleagues – it gives a possibility to gain more knowledge, find some fresh ideas and just clear the mind to be more inspired for work.
So, our advice is to take care of yourself, get some brakes, talk to colleagues, so the work you perform will be more productive.
Never ask for help
No one knows everything, and this is one more truth, which not everyone wants to admit. Doesn’t matter whether you are the most senior software developer in the company, or just starting the career – asking for help is always a good deal. Some people may think that doing it, may just show that they are helpless, and actually have the lowest level of knowledge than they pretend to have. There is no need to believe in such sayings, as there is always a need in the “fresh look”, which is helping a lot. All high-level managers of huge international corporations always show their presentations to interns, just to make sure those are understandable for everyone.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, doesn’t matter how senior you are, and how junior is the person you ask!
Stop being a student
We live and we learn, they say, it is never too late to start learning, at the same time it is always too early to stop studying and pretend that you know everything. The world doesn’t stay in the same place, together with technological development, every field of our life is rapidly changing, each day. That is why, the importance of learning is so high, especially for software engineers. As those people are responsible not just for the code, but for development of all fields of daily life.
It is extremely important to visit training, read articles about the implementation of the latest technologies and stay up to date!
Dirty code
As mentioned above – no one is perfect, but that is not justification for dirty coding. The code you write should be clean, efficient and secure. At the end of the day, you never know what kind of bugs may appear, so the code should be easy to check and rewrite. As well as, it happens that with time, the application is being rewritten by another developer or even companies, and here it is even more important to keep the code clean and clear.
Be responsible for the work you perform, save your time and the time of your colleagues!
Bad work/life balance
I am sure, you have such people in the office, who come to work in the early morning and stay there till the late night, or even overnight. That is an example of the bad balance of life and work. One of the mine managers was always repeating one phrase: “I work to live, and don’t live in order to work”. It gives a clear vision of the fact, that work is really important for life, and well being, but personal life is what we work for. Of course, there are a lot of situations, where it is crucial to perform extra work, as otherwise the project will be just crushed.
During a standard working week, set up clear priorities and enjoy your personal life, together with productive working periods.
Bad relations in the office
There are many situations, which may happen during office work, and that is crucially important to handle those with a clear mind. Unfortunately, many of us wish always be right, and admitting the mistakes is way too hard. But this is very important, as everyone does something wrong, and here it is crucial to not blame others for their faults, admit your ones and together look for a perfect solution.
Working in the team means being able to cooperate with any kind of conflicts, be polite to others mistakes or queries, and admit if you have done something wrong!
Not learning from mistakes
Again, we are coming back to the importance of learning, the same as in everyday life, it is important to learn from both, your own and the other’s mistakes. As this provides you with a possibility to grow up, be more successful, improve the performance level and it makes the team stronger. An important thing, when the mistake is performed, is to clearly figure out the source and reason for it, learn it deeply and find possible solutions.
Admitting and learning from the mistakes – one of the most important ways to make work performance the way better.
Giving up too fast
Never give up, they say. This saying is partly true, and giving up is the last thing you should do, especially during software development. Our advice is, if something goes wrong, if you are not able to finish the code, and think that you are just not good enough for the level of coding, and such work, at all? Then, try to abstract for some time, and the decision will come over. Here all the above points are important, take a break, ask for help, talk to colleagues or family, and only after that, having a fresh mind, come over again, and for sure you will face a success!
You will always have time to stop trying, but better try over, again and again, only this way you will face a success.
Being sure that you know everything
As already mentioned, it is impossible to know everything, and there is not a single person who does. And this is one of the worst things to work with such person, who is never responsible for the mistakes, blaming the others, never asks for help, and just behaves like a “king/queen of the IT world”. Now it is time for you to think if you are not one of those? If not – just keep working as you did before, in case you recognize yourself – read again the article, and correct your behavior.
Just behave with the others the way, you want everyone to behave with you – this is the right way to success!
Not accepting constructive criticism
Being criticized is not the best thing to face, but in real life, we cannot go anywhere without it. Constructive criticism is something which should everyone do, and face, as since childhood it is a normal thing to do something wrong and to get true feedback on the action. Of course, when you are grown up, the respectful person you don’t have a desire to listen to something bad about the work performed. But life is such, you cannot go on without it. In each field of life that is important to accept it, learn from own mistakes, and perform much better the next time.
Remember the most important thing – being criticized stimulates your professional growth and runs you to success!
Summing up
We have mentioned 10 short pieces of advice which are important to remember not only for software engineers but for people working in all fields of life. Hopefully, this article is useful not only for you but also for the team and the company you work with. In the future, we will definitely touch upon this topic again, and provide you with even more useful bits of advice.
