13 Types of Software Developers I Have Worked With

Love them or hate them, you can’t ignore them

Photo by Lucas Andrade in Pexels.

During my professional career, I have worked with many different types of developers. I have loved working with some of them, but with others, I only hoped to finish the project and not work together again.

In this article, I will list some of these types.

1. The Smoke Salesman

This kind of developer is always promising things to everyone — customers, your bosses, or other developers. But when something really needs to be done, if they can, they jump to another project or try to delegate all the work to other developers. It is very dangerous because it can get you into serious trouble. They sell a product that they are not going to build with technologies they have never used.

If you don’t know them, you think that they know everything they’re talking about and that they can help you, but soon you will realize that this is a lie and that you can’t count on them.

2. The Multi-Tasking Developer

They’re not a bad developer. They usually have great technical skills, but they’re so busy that they never focus on anything and you can never count on them for a medium-sized project. It’s tough to get their attention, and though they sometimes have brilliant ideas, it takes a lot of effort to get them to finish something or commit to something.

3. The Specialist With Certificates

I have not had a good experience with this type of person who bases all their merit on having certificates. I think it is necessary to have a good base with solid knowledge of the subjects you are going to work with. I am not against certificates. But in most cases, having a certificate doesn’t do much if it is not accompanied by real experience.

A few years ago, a client I used to develop software for hired a software architect. His role was to organize and lead all the external developers working with the client.

At first, I was fine with it, but I soon realized that all he did was listen to other people’s solutions and pretend they were his own.