What makes a good software engineer

A good engineer cares about all the aspects of coding as well as the complete SDLC, they should be extremely passionate about and proficient in at least one area.  Writing good code is important but is only a small part of what makes a good engineer.  A good engineer will be knowledgable and care about the following:

• Testing
• Coding
• Analytics
• Monitoring
• Deployment
• Operations
• Performance
• Scale
• Patterns and Best Practices

In addition to caring about all aspects of coding and the SDLC, a good engineer stays up to date on the latest trends in the industry.  You can tell a lot about what a developer cares about by who they follow on twitter, their RSS feeds, and the podcasts that they listen to. Also, a good engineer should care and be knowledgeable about the products and business that their efforts are serving.

Lastly a good engineer takes pride in everything that they do, remembering that whoever can be trusted with little can also be trusted with much.