Are you flirting with the idea of becoming a SharePoint developer? Do you have what it takes? Contrary to common perceptions, it takes a bit more than just fantastic programming skills to be a great SharePoint developer. You’ll need some business savvy too, and of course be able to work with end-users effectively.
Still keen on becoming a SharePoint developer? See if your skills and qualities match the top six qualities listed in this post.
1. You Have Excellent Communication Skills
No, you are not going to sit in the back room and answer IT calls. As a SharePoint developer, you’ll be working with loads of different people from all over the world. This includes business owners, employees and others all wanting to communicate their needs. You will have to be able to communicate effectively to deliver the goods and keep the end-user happy.
2. You Can Develop Web Parts to suit End-Users’ Needs
That’s right. You will have to be some Jedi at.Net programming. As a SharePoint developer you’ll have to be able to develop web parts that accommodates the needs of end-users. If you don’t know this already, web parts are key units of SharePoint web pages and the building blocks of SharePoint. If you can’t develop web parts, you should start looking into it.
3. You Have a Good Knowledge of Industry Specific Processes
Developing is one thing, but understanding business needs and being able to build a collaboration platform that is specific to an industry’s needs is another thing altogether. As a SharePoint developer, you’ll need to know and understand how businesses work and use the platform to their advantage. This will allow you to create truly useful and flawless SharePoint platforms.
4. You Have a Firm Grasp on Basic Web Design
You won’t be building corporate intranets alone, you’ll also be responsible for building and maintaining extranet portals. This is to ensure businesses have access to a portal where everyone can communicate and collaborate no matter where they are. If you have basic web design skills it should go a long way when you become a SharePoint developer.
5. You Have Microsoft Certification
Okay, this is not a prerequisite, but it can help a lot. As a flagship Microsoft product, Microsoft offers loads of SharePoint courses which will allow you to become a certified SharePoint developer. This is offered to authenticate those who can customize SharePoint to accommodate end-users’ needs. Having one of these certificates may come in handy.
6. You Have Programming Skills
This one goes without saying. To develop and maintain SharePoint collaboration platforms you’ll need a sound understanding of programming and programming languages. You’ll also need to know how SharePoint admin and servers work. Specific programming languages you should have fair knowledge of includes HTML, CSS.Net, Jquery and JavaScript.
Still interested in becoming a SharePoint developer? We sure hope so. At the end of the day it can be a very rewarding job that enables you to make the lives of large corporations much easier. We wish you the best of luck in your endeavors!