- Read Tutorial
- Watch Guide Video
Jordan Hudgens: And so Stephanie we're going to start off by talking about strengths. And specifically, the strengths that everyone that's going through this course has. So can you address what strengths are as a developer or what they are for a developer and tell them to me as I've never heard of them before.
Stephanie Conley: Absolutely. So this is one of my favorite parts. I have our students take a couple of tests at 16 personalities.com and that is to find out the personality types so where they sit in the introverted range versus extroverted, what their tendencies are.
There's another really great test out there called strength's finder. So what that one does is it focuses more on an individual's strengths, what you value as a person.
The reason this is so important is that you can bang your head against the wall all day fighting against your tendencies or you can learn about yourself and direct yourself in a career where you're able to utilize your strengths.
Jordan: It also makes a lot of sense to me to be able to go through a test or something like that so that you can identify those strengths. Because some of the most popular interview questions revolve around what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are so you don't have to just look at them with wide eyes trying to think of what your strengths are out of the blue.
If you actually have gone through that list you'll be able to already have that identified and I think that would be a pretty powerful thing to explain to someone that's interviewing you. Oh not only will I tell you what my strengths are I'll explain how this could help your organization as well.
Stephanie: Exactly. And that's the point of it.
Jordan: And so now say that you've gone through one of these programs you've taken a student through and they've identified their strengths, can you give some examples of strengths that were good? Because there are all kinds of them, you could have strengths as just a regular business person or in management or in all parts, everyone has their own set of strengths.
What specific ways can strengths be used as a developer? Can you name a few of the examples you've seen and how they've been able to be applauded?
Stephanie: Yeah absolutely. So, front end developers, they are usually more extroverted they have stronger communication skills. They don't mind giving presentations, usually, and a lot of them are really excited to learn new things.
When you get a really great backend developer and they are nine times out of 10 introverted and they're very much they look at all sides of the puzzle so they look at what happened in the past. They try and predict what happens you know what's going to happen in the future. And they are able to solve those puzzles.
Jordan: That makes sense, do you think that by using tools like this and identifying your strengths. This can also not only help you in interviews it can help you narrow down what your focus is, so if you're a little bit confused on if you feel better building out front ends or if you feel better working on the back end if you take one of these it may actually help make the decision up for you.
Stephanie: So one of the benefits of understanding your personality types is understanding where you fit in the job market. So there's been a lot of data, a lot of studies over the past 20 years about software developers and the tech industry and who fits where.
Now it's not correct for every person of course, but we have a pretty good general idea and we can break it down by personality types so a full stack developer there the type of person who wants to see how much they can get done, and they want to be not the jack of all trades, but they want to specialize in more than one area and really master several areas, it's important to them.
Someone working in the front end they are very great with communication, they are normally great at presentations, they're used to being a client-facing developer so they can go in between the more technical developers who work in the backend and who don't want to talk to so other people and they can make everything make sense for it.
Jordan: And that goes to also a really important part of the entire job search process, not only when you're looking for the job but also once you get it, in understanding that if you're going and working for a corporation it is a team environment.
So you're not going to be expected to do everything from beginning all the way to end. Sometimes you may feel like you are but really if you're part of a team then your communication skills are absolutely critical.
When I talk myself with hiring partners that's one of the top things they'll bring up to me, is they want to make sure that not only are these individuals being taught how to code but also how to interact and do things like recognize strengths in others.
So if you're working with a front end developer who's very good at communication then you are a very fortunate person and if you're a backend person because then you can go and build out your systems have someone that you can interact with and hopefully end up with a better product at the end of it by leveraging their strengths.
Stephanie: Right absolutely. Another strength that really translates over very well in the developed world is coachability, you codes not always perfect although you know we all think that our work is the bomb. There are always changes that can be made, there's always different software that could be better for one reason or another. And you need to learn to pick your battles.
Jordan: Absolutely.