1. Grit - being able to slog through a tough problem for weeks or months with few signs of success or progress. Sometimes you are going to need to bang your hea

1. Grit - being able to slog through a tough problem for weeks or months with few signs of success or progress. Sometimes you are going to need to bang your head against the desk for a long time before you get answers. 2. Humble - as a software engineer you are going to fail at something most days. Most of the the time you will experience failure multiple times per day, perhaps even hundreds of times. A proud or arrogant engineer will waste time and calories being frustrated with failure. A humble engineer will start looking for help anywhere they can find it, and doesn't let constant failure impede their workflow. 3. Team player - the industry loves to idolize 'rockstars'. However software engineering is rarely a one man job, everyone has off days, and a team can move only as fast as its slowest member. Helping other engineers when they get stuck, even in little ways, is essential to the progress of yourself and the team. 4. Chops - software engineering is a multidisciplinary craft that requires knowledge, judgement, and implementation. Knowing what to implement, how to implement it, and whether or not you should / if there's a better way takes years of practice and training. Having a habit of building your skills, improving a bit every day is part of what makes a decent engineer into a great engineer.