Being open to new things
Two qualities that I think super useful for a software engineer are their ability to be agile and proactive in the environment they evolve in.
I have been working for a few months now in one of the largest public administrations in my country. And I understood that what is expected from an « IT Guy » is not the number of technologies he masters, but his ability to provide accessible solutions for concrete needs.
I learned that you have to be able to see beyond the tools and think more about the « process« . I also learned that reinventing the wheel is not necessary in most cases and that the solution can be found right in front of our eyes.
Beyond all this, I have learned that you have to be ready to learn, to be « permeable to new things ».
I don’t remember exactly where I saw that sentence, but it comes very appropriately here:
Tools are tools, don’t be one