How to be a good software engineer?

The most important thing you need to be a good engineer is to love programming and have a burning desire to learn the newest technology even if you are not using it. If you do that you will always be marketable. Software engineering takes a lot of dedication to two things. 1): Quality (Bug free programs) 2): Timeliness (Project completed on time). You can develop the most bug free program ever but if it is not in time for the need it is useless. And you must understand that this profession demands constant learning. Nothing ever stays the same. When you think you master a language or concept there is always another that will be better or you must know to do a given job. I was a programmer/analyst for a company from 1978 until 2001 when I retired. Over that timeframe I learned 7 languages not all of which I used. However now most are considered obsolete and would not be very impressive on a resume. If you are right for this kind of work you will love it. If not it can be quite stressful at times.

1) dont change companies often, stay in one company and learn all process from that company. 2) follow as much as possbile policies like quality, management and terms of the company 3) if u have no work in any of ur working days try to learn any new technologies which are related to your skill sets and domain.

you need to be determined, then have discipline cos when u wrote a code and it has error, you might be discourage from trying again. you must be able to try out new ideas