Show Them What You Got: 5 Values Every ServiceNow Developer Should Have
What 5 things do I value in any ServiceNow Developer.
- Eager to learn
- Great communication
- Documentation!
- Community - Are you part of one
- Portfolio.
Eager to learn
This is something I think is hard to teach someone. indeed.com has a blog about the willingness to learn. I’ll sum that up here.
Keeping your skills up to date, being a motivated and quick learner, and being a good long-term investment are all important qualities employers look for in employees, as they demonstrate dedication to staying on top of industry trends, show drive and determination to learn new job responsibilities, and make it easier for managers to promote them to higher positions.
How to show this
- I find that sharing what I’ve learned over time is the best way to share this.
- Just say it and talk about the kinds learning you’ve done and how you’ve used it.
Great Communication
When I started working on a helpdesk I was not good a communication. I ended up buying two books in 2011 to help me learn to be a better communicator. This was after I learned LOADS of things from my friend and boss Lynnisha.
- Keep your emails to. the. point. Unnecessary words are just that, unnecessary.
- Smiling believe it or not, makes a difference in how you communicate, so in the words of Buff, “Talk less, Smile more” is something I’ve really taken to heart.
- A big part of communicating is listening. Being present and actively listening cannot be understated. There’s this great TED talk by Celeste Headlee on the topic.
There is no reason to learn how to show you’re paying attention if you are in fact paying attention.
Documentation
Documentation is amazing when it’s clear, but many folks don’t contribute to documentation or create their own but if you have you’re standing out from your peers! Fedoruk has some opinions on this too
Community
There’s a strong community around ServiceNow, but I’d argue any software you work on should have a community of some sort. The more you’re involved in that community means the more you’ve invested in it. That’s telling. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t come up for me. Without the community there’s many people I wouldn’t be connected to. The thing is, you have to invest the time to make this happen.
Portfolio
If you have made anything that you can share that stuff is a fantastic prop to point to when speaking about how you’ve created a thing, or designed it or documented it. I have loads of examples of my own stuff but this week Christopher Carver shared this “BreakGlass” project he made. This project would be a fantastic item in anyone’s portfolio to show how they communicate via issues, and their documentation. Not to mention you’ll get a peek into how they made this by looking at the code.
