What Makes a Great Software Engineer?

What makes a GREAT SOFTWARE ENGINEER? besides a USB rocket-launcher What is Mixtent? Mixtent.com pulls information about you from your LinkedIn profile to establish the most relevant skills. Mixtent also estimates how well you know certain contacts and who are your most direct peers. Then, it asks your contacts to compare you and your peers about specific job-related skills. Mixtent chomps up all this data, and spits out how you rank relative to your peers. Considering this data across all of its users, Mixtent analyzed when being good in one skill indicated that a person was good in another skill. Also, Mixtent looked at matchups between people from different companies. What follows are the results. Results of the study ... Finding #1 PYTHON AND JAVA ENGINEERS WERE CHOSEN OVER OTHER SOFTWARE ENGINEERS When Mixtent users were presented with two LinkedIn profiles and were asked "who is a better software engineer," the profiles of python and java engineers were chosen more often than the profiles of PHP, Perl, and Ruby engineers. Who is a better software engineer? Michael Landau Craig Fratrik or Python Engineer "X" Engineer Better Engineer Michael Landau Python Engineer In a face-off between a python engineer and an engineer of any other kind, Mixtent users selected the python engineer as the "better engineer" 82% of the time. 82% How do other software engineers rank? 79% 61% 56% 21% Java Engineers win a face-off 79% of the time Perl Engineers win a face-off 61% of the time PHP Engineers win a face-off 56% of the time Ruby Engineers win a face-off 21% of the time Finding # 2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERS WITH GOOD TEAMWORK SKILLS WERE CHOSEN OVER THOSE WHO DIDN'T Using the same "which one is better" model, Mixtent also concluded that their users had a tendency to choose software engineers who were considered to be good team players. Who is a better software engineer? Timothy Colston Charles Denis or above average average team player team player Better Engineer Timothy Colston above average team player In a face-off between an engineer with good "teamwork" skills and an engineer who possessed other skills, Mixtent users selected the engineer with above average teamwork skills as the "better engineer" 64% of the time. 64% How do other skills rank? 51% 50% 43% 33% Software engineers with above average Software engineers with a good work ethic win a face-off 50% of the time Software engineers with above average creativity win a face-off 43% of the time Software engineers with good communication skills win a face-off 33% of the time dedication win a face- off 51% of the time Finding #3 RUBY ENGINEERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GOOD FRONT END PEOPLE THAN OTHER ENGINEERS The study done by Mixtent concluded that their users had a tendency to choose software engineers who specialize and are exceptional in a particular area. Additionally, the study found that, as a general rule, back end engineers who rank high will rank low as front end developers (ruby engineers were the only exception). Correlations between back-end and front-end rankings Y Axis = Front end ranking X Axis = Back end ranking -4 -3 Python Engineers correlation (-)o.20 PHP Engineers correlation (-)o.27 Java Engineers correlation (-)o.45 Ruby Engineers correlation (+)o.27 -6 Finding # 4 SOFTWARE ENGINEERS AT FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE WERE MORE POPULAR THAN THOSE AT MICROSOFT The study also found that Mixtent users were more likely to select a Facebook or Google engineer than a Micosoft engineer. Who is a better software engineer? 77% 67% 56% Facebook Engineers are chosen over Google Engineers 67% of the time Facebook Engineers are Google Engineers are chosen over Microsoft Engineers 56% of the time chosen over Microsoft Engineers 77% of the time The Winner's Circle the most top-ranked software engineers are working at . Facebook Google Amazon Microsoft data provided by mixtent designed by OKISSmetrics