Job Opportunities and Skill sets in Software Engineering

What does a Software Engineer Do?

Software engineering:

• Engineering

• Mathematics

• Computing

  Types of Software:

• Desktop and web applications

• Mobile Applications

• Games

• Operating Systems

• Network controllers

  Types of technologies:

• Programming languages

• Development environments

• Frameworks

• Libs, databases, and servers

  Categories of software engineer:

• Back-end engineers or systems developers

• Front-end engineers or application developers

  Software engineering teams:

• Off-the-shelf software

• Bespoke software

• Internal software

  And within the teams they might work on:

• Data integration

• Business logic

• User interfaces

  Software engineering tasks:

• Designing new software systems

• Writing and testing code

• Evaluating and testing software

• Optimizing software programs

• Maintaining and updating software systems

• Documenting code

• Presenting new systems to users and customers

• Integrating and deploying software

Responsibilities:

Skills Required in Software Engineering

What are hard skills?

Commonly required hard skills in software engineering:

• Programming languages
• Version control
• Cloud computing
• Testing and debugging
• Monitoring
• Troubleshooting
• Agile development
• Database architecture

What are soft skills?

• Hard to define, quantify, or certify
• Easily transferable

Hard skills for software engineers

Analysis and design:

• Analyze users’ needs

• Design solutions

  Development:

• Computer programming

• Coding

• Languages:

  • Java
  • Python
  • C#
  • Ruby

• Frameworks

Test:

• Testing

  • Meets functional specification
  • Easy to use

• Debugging

  Deployment:

• Shell scripting

• Containers

• CI/CD

• Monitoring

• Troubleshooting

Soft Skills for Software Engineers

Teamwork:

• Different teams

  • Project-based
  • Role-based

• Squads

• Pair programming

• Take advantage of strengths

• Learn from each other

  Communication:

• Peers

• Managers

• Clients

• Users

  Time management:

• Time-sensitive projects

  • Meet deadlines
  • Avoid delays

• Teams across time-zones

  Problem-solving:

• Design an appropriate solution

• Write an effective code

• Locate and resolve bugs

• Manage issues

  Adaptability:

• Client changes

• Management request

• User needs

  Open to feedback:

• Peer review

• Mentor

• Stakeholders

Careers in Software Engineering

Job Outlook for Software Engineers

Employment options:

• Employed roles:
  • Apprenticeship/internship
  • Part-time
  • Full-time
• Self-employed/independent:
  • Contracting/consulting
  • Freelancing
• Volunteer on open source projects

Career Paths in Software Engineering

Technical

• Coding and problem-solving

  Management

• Leadership and soft skills

Career progression:

• Junior or Associate Software Engineer
  • Develop small chunks of software
  • Supported by a team leader or mentor
  • Gain new skills and experience
• Software Engineer
  • Break tasks down into sub-tasks
  • Learn new languages
  • Understand the software development lifecycles
  • Mentor junior software engineers
• Senior Software Engineer
  • Work across a project
  • Mentor software engineers and review code
  • Solve problems efficiently
• Staff Software Engineer
  • Part of the technical team
  • Develop, maintain, and extend software
  • Ensure software meets expectations
  • Ensure software uses resources efficiently
• Technical Lead
  • Manage a team of developers and engineers
  • Responsible for development lifecycle
  • Report to stakeholders
• Principal Engineer/Technical Architect
  • Responsible for architecture and design
  • Create processes and procedures
• Engineering Manager
  • Support team
  • Encourage career progression
• Director of Engineering
  • Strategic and technical role
  • Determine project priority
  • Identify hiring needs
  • Define goals
  • Define new projects
  • Specify requirements
• Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
  • Oversee research and development
  • Monitor corporate technology
  • Evaluate new technology and products

Other career directions

• Prefer interacting with clients:
  • Technical sales
  • Customer support
• Prefer working with numbers and data:
  • Data engineering
  • Data science
  • Database administration
  • Database development
• Prefer finding and fixing bugs:
  • Software testing

Software Engineering Job Titles

Job Titles:

• Front-end engineer

• Back-end engineer

• Full-stack engineer

• DevOps engineer

• Software Quality Assurance Engineer

• Software Integration Engineer

• Software Security Engineer

• Mobile App Developer

• Games Developer

Code of Ethics

Origins of the code of ethics:

• Developed by the Joint Task Force on Software Engineering Ethics and Professional Practices
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS)
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
  • Championed the need to hold software engineers accountable

About the code of ethics:

• Pertains to the analysis, design, development, testing, and maintenance software cycle
• Dedicated to serving the public interest

The 8 principles

1. Public

2. Client/Employer

3. Product

4. Judgement

5. Management

6. Profession

7. Colleagues

8. Self

Supplemental guide to behavior

• Use in conjunction with conscientious decision-making and common sense
• Knowing where to apply principles is at the discretion and wisdom of the individual