Software industry is growing rapidly so are the programming paradigms and languages. One needs to keep one’s skills up-to-date in order to sustain and grow in this industry. Soft skills are also very important part of career growth. When I was working with Infosys Limited in India, I experienced the importance of soft skills. I learnt that for a project to succeed, all SDLC phases must succeed. Requirement gathering phase needs the developer to have excellent communication skills. Coding and Testing phases need the developer to have outstanding technical skills. Let us first talk about the technical aspect of it.
Technical skills are the most highlighted subject in the resume of a software developer. Knowledge of programming languages, software development life cycle, hardware, operating systems and other computer related terminologies come under technical skills. Since different companies use different programming languages for software development, specializing in specific programming languages is usually the trend (thinkvidya, 2014). Technical skills of a software developer are constantly assessed and tested by their managers and also their co-workers.
I believe that following technical skills are needed for a student to have in order to get a job with good profile.
- C/C++: System level programming is predominantly completed using C and C++. These two languages are needed worldwide. These languages are basic skills to have for any programmer to grow in software industry.
- Hadoop/Map-Reduce: In modern era the data storage and processing requirements are growing exponentially. Hadoop/Map-Reduce skills are required for handling and processing.
- Spark-Shark: This is an in-memory big data processing system which can handle specific applications not being handled efficiently via Hadoop/Map-Reduce.
- I-OS / Android: With mobile gaming industry flourishing, I-OS/Android development skills are needed for one to have. Along with technical skills, developers should possess soft skills. Soft skills are really necessary for developers to have in order to complete a software project successfully. I found following soft skills to be extremely important.
- Adaptability: Diverse environments demand adaptability. One day you are working in in enterprise software domain and next day you are working on open source. According to me, one needs to have adaptability.
- Zeal to keep learning: One should have zeal to learn new things in order to grow in career.
- Business Skills: Marketing and business skills are really helpful for career growth.
- Initiative: I think taking lead and initiative is what makes you different from other people. (Crain, 2013)
In conclusion, one needs to have outstanding soft skills and relevant technical skills in order to succeed in career and life.
Thinkvidya (2014). Top five skills every software developer must have. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1yt9Met
Lap-Trinh (2014). Popular Programming Languages. Retrieved from http://laptrinh123.com
Crain (2013). Top 5 soft skills for success. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1CxkzcY