Five Qualities of Successful Remote Software Developers

The seemingly insatiable thirst for workforce productivity has made employers more open to the idea of hiring remote software developers. This new drive can be primarily traced to a statistic from Bloomberg suggesting that employees that work from home are 13% more productive.

To properly equip themselves with high-quality programmers, employers are heavily outsourcing from organizations like Jaydevs for a top-notch remote workforce that suits both their business and technical needs. As a developer mastering specific skills can place you at the top of the ladder, as a highly sought-after coder in your niche.

Here are some of those qualities:

1. Avid Learners

In this technologically disruptive generation, everything changes in the blink of an eye. New libraries and frameworks are released very often and it’s becoming seemingly difficult for programmers to catch up. Javascript, for example, has evolved over the years, featuring multiple frameworks to support backend and frontend development.

As a remote software developer, staying ahead of the learning curve is crucial to remaining relevant and thriving in the tech sector. Some vital things to regularly update yourself about include programming language updates, essential tools like Git, Markdown, etc.

You may also undertake peer-to-peer reviews with a fellow coder to improve your coding logic, syntax, and data structure.

2. Problem Solver

Successful remote programmers have an apt understanding of the problems they face. In emergencies, there may not be any colleague, team lead, or CTO to consult to debug a code or fix an inefficiency in a solution. There’ll hardly be time to email a colleague to assist with the issues, and where there is, you have no guarantee that they’ll have a solution to the problem.

A successful remote programmer has an analytical approach to issues it faces. Breaks down the entire code structure into units, and identifies potential pain points.

3. Encourage Feedback

An average software development project features multiple feedbacks and corrections. From MVP to fully-scaled products, founders, project managers, and CTOs often request adjustments. These feedbacks are essential to creating a perfect product that aligns with business and technical blueprints and can help the developer improve their coding skills.

A good remote programmer should encourage opinions and have an open mindset to team-members comments, whether positive or negative. Where adjustments are required, modifications should be made as quickly as possible.

4. Apt Management of Time and Resources

As a result of resource limitations in software development, there’s a steady increase in demand for quicker time-to-market solutions, to edge out competitors.

To remain successful as a remote programmer, regularly demonstrate the capacity to meet project milestones, and to achieve this, it’s imperative to appropriately engage time-tracking tools at your disposal.

Common time-saving tools for better effectiveness are: Timecamp, Heyspace, Habitica, etc. Use them right, and you’ll find yourself becoming more productive.

5. Technical Knowledge

The first test most companies give to developers is the ability to write codes per specified requirements. Quite often, recruiters and HR managers will only test for tech stacks they require in their organization, usually a few.

Since the only hard skill, you’re expected to master as a remote developer is your programming language, it’s sacrosanct to have an in-depth knowledge of it. Keep learning as updates, and new frameworks are released daily.

As in the case of full-stack developers, programmers may also need snippets of knowledge in other fields to function effectively. Remember that you’re working remotely, and the capacity to seek help from colleagues is limited. For example, a front-end developer with an understanding of UI/UX designs will convert codes more seamlessly.