Here’s what I look for with software engineers II hire.
Pragmatism: pick the right solution for the right problem. And your work should create minimal work for others.
Thirst to learn: there is always something new and exciting and there’s always a better way to do it. Look for that. It also means being open to feedback.
Collaboration instead of execution: I need my team to challenge me. For that, they need to get as much of the bigger picture as they can. That means always being able to answer “why” you do things. It also means that I expect healthy conflict with my teams. If you go from being taught to teaching me, you immediately get a bump in my list of top teammates.
No excuse: we acknowledge problems and deal with them together. (Requires a good work environment though).
As you can see, nothing I wrote is purely code related. Only thing I ask tech wise is: know your shit, where to find it, who to ask.
Also, my top resource to get people started with what it means to become a software engineer is solidbook.io.
Just think about all those administrative tasks you’ve been neglecting which are piling up. And remember, a few even require you to phone a hotline.
You’ll get back to deep cleaning in no time.
Also, have assigned/labeled boxes for everything. And a big bag for whatever doesn’t belong to any of them. It’s way easier to deal with mess if your brain doesn’t need a lot to figure out where to put said items.