How to recognize the potential in engineers

My TOP 3 traits for recognizing potential are not what you may think!

Intro

There is a common misconception in the engineering industry that technical skills are what differentiate engineers between them. Either a person who knows more programming languages, frameworks or has experience building various different projects.

Well, technical skills certainly are important, but what really makes a big difference to me is something different! Let’s get into that next.

I value attitude and mindset over technical skills when recognizing the potential in engineers

My top traits for recognizing potential in engineers have nothing to do with technical skills. They have everything to do with the attitude and the mindset. I’ll tell you why.

With the right attitude and mindset, you can learn all of the necessary technical skills needed. And not just that, you are a great person to work with and you are making others around you better because of it.

That’s very important because I am looking for people who will be able to inspire others and help others grow, not just contribute with their technical knowledge.

Remember, if you get better at coding for 20%, you will provide 20% more value. But if you help 5 other people to get 20% better, you will provide 100% more value!

My TOP 3 traits for recognizing the potential in engineers

I believe that with these 3 traits, you can be a great engineer. Also not just that, you can be good at anything you put your mind into.

These are the top 3 traits I am assessing:

• sense of ownership and responsibility,

• drive and motivation to improve,

• team player and making others around them better.

You can also be good at any of the specific paths as well. Architecture, management or IC route, but there are certain nuances, to which path might be better suited for you.

You can read about my personal recommendation for specific career paths here: Which is the right engineering career path for you? (paid article).

How I recognize the sense of ownership and responsibility

There are a number of different indicators which showcase a good sense of ownership and responsibility, here are the most prominent ones for me:

• They are volunteering for projects when nobody wants to take the initiative

There are always recurring issues coming up and they may be hard to tackle. The person that will tackle them and put in the effort to resolve them, will provide a lot of value to the team and overall organization. Not just by resolving them, but because that person inspires others to do the same.

• They are making suggestions for improvements and then take the initiative to implement them.

It shows that a person wants to make things better across the team and organization and not just focus on their own tasks.

• They are proactive

They don't wait for tasks to be assigned to them but they are proactively searching for the most impactful things to work on. Also, they don't need detailed requirements but they can tackle the problem and find the best solution to it via communicating with the right people.

• They are the one who actually writes down the plan when the team is discussing about it

That’s very important because it shows to me that the person actually was able to gather all opinions together and formulate a plan, which the whole team agreed upon.

How I recognize drive and motivation for improving

What’s great about our industry is that there is always something new to learn. Great engineers are continuous learners and they understand how important self-improvement is.

Here are the main indicators for me:

• They are passionate about new technologies or new concepts

You can just feel it talking with them, that they like what they are doing and are always on the lookout for how they can improve their knowledge and skills in various of different areas. That kind of behavior is contagious and everyone in the team naturally becomes more prone to learning new things.

• They are regularly sharing their knowledge with others

They love to do good code reviews and they are teaching, helping others and sharing their knowledge. That can also be via organizing learning sessions for the team or across the organization.

• They like to read or listen

They are always looking for a new book to read or a new conference to attend in order to learn and improve.

• They like to write

A great indicator is if they are writing a personal blog or a newsletter. It tells me that they love sharing their knowledge and helping others to grow as well. Especially because they are taking their own personal time to do it.

How I recognize a team player and that they are making others around them better.

If you missed my previous newsletter article called "Great teams build great software”, I definitely recommend reading it. I’ve noted down why good teamwork is very important in our industry and why I value engineers who show great teamwork a LOT. You can read it here: Great teams build great software.

Here are the most prominent indicators for me:

• They have the give first mentality

They understand that great relationships start with giving first. They are always looking for ways to help others and they are offering their help when they see people are in need.

• They are always thinking what’s going to be the best for the team

They are not just blindly building things based on requirements, but they really want to understand the problem and motivation behind it and find a solution that would provide the most value to the team or the overall organization.

• Others like working with them

They have a “magnetic” type of effect where others are just naturally prone to like to work with them. They are able to inspire and others feel like they are growing around them.

• They put effort into building good relationships with people in the team and overall organization

They understand how important good relationships are and how much easier is to collaborate with people when you have been able to build a great relationship with them.

Last words

It’s very interesting that in the engineering industry the main traits I look for are not related to technical skills. Well, that’s because building software is a social activity and just people working in silos would provide more issues than benefits.

Be a great person to work with and focus on helping others - it will drastically increase your value in our great industry that we all love and enjoy being in!

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