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Top Advice for Future Software Engineers

We think that software development is a pretty exciting career path to choose and we want to help you out by answering any burning questions you may have, like: What does a Software Engineer actually do?

Choosing a career is never an easy thing,  so if “Software Engineer” is on your list, we think you are the Beez Kneez! Even so, we bet you have tonnes of questions about what the job actually entails.

To get the answers from the proverbial horse’s mouth, we asked our team of Software Engineers about what they think it’s like to be a Software Engineer.

SOLIDitech has been successfully building Business Automation Software for the last 12 years and have a large team of Software Engineers who collectively have over 200 years of development experience. We build some pretty cool software for real-life businesses where we get to help our customers solve real operational challenges.

What is a Software Engineer?

“A thinker with the ability to take the requirements of a software related nature and produce results to satisfy these requirements.”
– Pierre Madzikapita

“A biological reactor that transforms coffee into code that meets customers desires.”
– Fabien Zablocki

“A person who thinks logically, is meticulous in process, and can see not only the current problem but can anticipate future problems and opportunities.”
– Gary Lee Shong

“An engineer is a person with contextual empathy for real world problems, an objective and logical mind capable of filtering and distilling these problems to their purest and simplest form and a keen problem-solving nature that seeks the most efficient and effective solution to these problems. A software engineer just uses software as a part of the toolset to deliver these solutions.”
– Christopher Hamman

“A software engineer is a person who will do their best to gain a fundamental understanding of a problem and apply the most simple and effective solution possible to address it.”
– Rayne Martin

What does a Software Engineer do on a daily basis?

Again, this is pretty company specific as each business has their own way of managing and running their offices and teams. For instance, our office mainly runs on coffee and the occasional doughnut (more like every Friday). In between that, our teams have daily standups before getting stuck into a day full of problem-solving.

Rayne Martin

“My morning starts with a cup of coffee and a catch-up with the team on the progress of the current projects. Next I will get stuck into any high priority features or bugs that may have been raised since the previous day. Once any urgent work is addressed, I will work alongside my team to design and develop our software in the most effective and efficient way possible, with plenty of room left for creativity.”

Fabien Zablocki

“A software engineer uses tools to apply a set of design principles to software-based systems. In other words, the systems are designed, created, tested, deployed and maintained on a continuous basis making sure that the evolving user’s requirements are always met.”

What are your Career Prospects?

“From writing your own digital calculator to writing software that assists the launch of a space rocket – the possibilities of careers are endless and in many cases merely limited by your imagination (and coding ability). Want to create your own websites? You can do that. Want to write an app that integrates your alarm with the coffee machine? You can do that. Want to write an artificial intelligence that takes over the world? You can do that! Although you probably shouldn’t.”
– Eduard van Wyk

“A typical senior position that a software engineer might grow into is the role of a ‘Solutions Architect’. This effectively means applying the engineering principles at a high level and leveraging your experience to design large scale solutions.”
– Rayne Martin

 

Alternatively, working in software can give you insight into multiple industries and grows an empowering knowledge base for an entrepreneur. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world come from a software background.

What can you study to help you become a Software Engineer?

“While formal study can be a fundamental part of a software engineer’s education, I believe that simply going out and trying to write code and build software (even if it’s just for yourself or your friends) is a great way to learn and will give you valuable experience and insight into the problem solving nature of the industry and help develop your skill set.”
– Rayne Martin

There are also professional qualifications you can add to your CV that helps build your skills like an Oracle Java certification.

Some common degrees that you could study include: Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Mechatronics, or Computer Engineering

what does it take to be a software engineer

Interested in finding out more about what it's like to work at SOLIDitech?

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