Shameless plug, but I’ve written a book about what differentiates a good programmers from great ones. [0] In my opinion the soft-skills far outweigh a person’s

Shameless plug, but I’ve written a book about what differentiates a good programmers from great ones. [0] In my opinion the soft-skills far outweigh a person’s technical skills in terms of importance when it comes to identifying whether is a good programmer and should be promoted to a senior position. Obviously the programmer needs to have strong technical fundamentals, but the essential soft-skills are things like: * good communication skills (speaking, writing, and also listening) * Reading and understanding unfamiliar code * Recovering from mistakes * Understanding how to add value * Understanding how to manage risk * Dealing with conflict in a professional way * Managing your time efficiently * So much more A lot of those things can be learned over time, but historically I’ve seen junior engineers put these things off until a few years into their career when they’re ready to make the jump to a senior role, only to find that they’re lacking in one or more of those necessary soft-skills needed to get the promotion. I’ve always advocated for juniors to start working on these skills as early as possible in their careers, because it will make you a better programmer in the long run. [0]: https://www.holloway.com/b/junior-to-senior https://www.holloway.com/b/junior-to-senior