

Top Developer Skills That Will Get You Hired or Promoted - Baustin
http://blog.smartbear.com/software-quality/bid/167278/Top-5-Developer-Skills-That-Will-Get-You-Hired-or-Promoted

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up_and_up
How could I read/skim that entire article and not take home anything? Seems
like linkbait.

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tbrooks
It's important to note there IS a difference between smartbear.com and
asmartbear.com

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zacharydanger
Mostly fluff, non-actionable advice here. :-/

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islon
Here's my list keeping the same spirit of the article:

    
    
        - put 'rockstar', 'ninja' prefix in every skill you have.
        - use sunglasses and a leather jacket all the time even indoors.
        - learn every rad technology like rails, node, etc.
        - refuse to use old and boring technologies like enterprise java and C/C++.
        - have an aura of superiority around everything you say and do.
        - write many blog posts about expensive programmers vs. cheap hardware and slow cool languages vs. fast boring languages.
        - rant about java.
        - evangelize agile techniques.

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Baustin
In case you'd like to check them out - [http://blog.smartbear.com/software-
quality/?Author=Danny+Kal...](http://blog.smartbear.com/software-
quality/?Author=Danny+Kalev)

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andruun
_"Of course, the old standbys apply across the board: good personal hygiene,
people schmoozing skills, and excellence in sucking-up techniques. But by and
large, the skills that earn you the big money can be summed up in one neat
little bumper-sticker: “Be First. Be Fast. Be Right.”_

This is disgusting. Big Money? Be First? Did I choose this field to win a
popularity contest?

 _In our office, foosball is a key for any new hire; winning the monthly
tournament is a big deal and delivers instant cred,” said one developer._

Wasn't sure if this was a joke or not.

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whiskeychaser
seriously, social media participation will demonstrate how good of a
communicator I am? I don't think I would hire based on that.

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troygoode
I agree that random tweets will be of dubious value. Other ways of engaging in
social media (blog posts, Google+ posts, etc) _do_ help showcase your
communication skills. It doesn't mean that using those communication channels
is a requirement, but you typically have limited interaction points during the
hiring process to illustrate your communication skills. Think of blog posts et
al as a communication "portfolio" you can use to help prospective employers
get a larger preview of what they could expect from you.

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whiskeychaser
I don't mean to come off as dismissive but the article seemed to be talking
about communication within a team or with customers and users in a face to
face environment. Being able to post on a blog well is not going to get you
very far talking to project owners/users to understand business problems. I
think social media has an extremely limited usefulness when it comes to
determining how well someone can communicate within a real world face to face
business environment. I would rather rate a potential employee's ability to
communicate on the 15-30 minutes I have to talk to them rather than their
social media footprint.

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mikle
Jason Cohen's blog is at asmartbear.com and I love it - I missed there is no
"a" in the domain of the op and now I feel tricked.

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Baustin
Not a trick. Jason was actually one of our founders. Although he's no longer
with the company, we still do have videos and content that he created in our
archives.

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Baustin
Sorry if you don't agree with all of the points she makes here. It's
definitely meant to hit on those extra, outside the box skills that could give
you the upper hand. Really wasn't meant to be linkbait.

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nollidge
I don't think anybody disagrees with any of those points, but they're
blatantly obvious. Which would be fine if there was useful advice for how to
improve at those areas, but there isn't.

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cgh
Surprised I didn't see the term "rock star" here.

