A couple that come to mind: - Learn to learn. This touches every facet of being a SWE. There's a clear difference between a SWE who has spent their entire care

A couple that come to mind: - Learn to learn. This touches every facet of being a SWE. There's a clear difference between a SWE who has spent their entire career in one language and one domain and a polyglot engineer who just has a taste for understanding things in the world and implementing them. Of course, this generates a lot of shallow knowledge, so know yourself and seek improvement where possible. - Listening and understanding. You're going to hear a lot of inaccurate things from users, peers, etc -- learn to ask the questions that bubble the core concerns up and listen for the things that aren't being said. - Know your audience. The other day my friend sent me a screenshot of a network technician asking her (a teacher) about a demarcation point. Although technical (and often mathematical terms) are appropriate for use between engineers you know with a common understanding, they're not appropriate when dealing with people outside of the scope of technical work.