A career as a software engineer
Hello everyone!
I apologize in advance if this ins't the right place to ask this question.
Well, let's get started with a brief introduction. I'm a high school student who has always been fascinated by computers and how they work. I've decided that when I attend college I want to get a degree in software engineering. I've been learning the basics of C++ as of recently and I've learned a decent amount of things in a short time. Also, I've completed a couple of courses at the Code Academy (HTML/CSS, JS, PHP) which gave me knowledge of web development.
My question is, what is it like to work in the software industry, and what does it take to make it in the industry? Also, what are something things that I can do to be the best software engineer I can be?
Thank you for your time.
I apologize in advance if this ins't the right place to ask this question.
Well, let's get started with a brief introduction. I'm a high school student who has always been fascinated by computers and how they work. I've decided that when I attend college I want to get a degree in software engineering. I've been learning the basics of C++ as of recently and I've learned a decent amount of things in a short time. Also, I've completed a couple of courses at the Code Academy (HTML/CSS, JS, PHP) which gave me knowledge of web development.
My question is, what is it like to work in the software industry, and what does it take to make it in the industry? Also, what are something things that I can do to be the best software engineer I can be?
Thank you for your time.
Last edited on
Be pragmatic. When you face the problem, focus on it and try to get it done. If you aren't willing to face the problem, even if you don't like it or find it hard, you will fail as software engineer.
Be curious. Learn new things, play around with technology. Software and programming knowledge are your tools, so you'd better expand your toolset as much as you can. ( here I can recommend you learning emacs and GNU/Linux + coreutils. With knowledge of shell(let's say bash) and coreutils you can complete many jobs that would otherwise require you to write some program from scratch and debug it, while with proper knowledge it takes few minutes).
Read what others have to say, criticize others, but first of all criticize yourself. Improve. As a side note, while it's not mandatory, don't be an asshole - try to write readable code, put comments where appropriate.
You can find more good tips at (google it): sloperama gamedev blog, or Joel's blog. These two are quite good.
And last thing would be rtfm and do your homework. Unfortunately programming is broad and sometimes hard, and many people don't want to go over some things many times when it can be quite easily found in manual or google. Also people are more likely to help you if you prove to them that you tried solving problem but failed, instead of just asking(something like "Hey guys, I'm trying to do X. I tried to use Y, but it didn't work, then I came up with idea that I could do Z, but I'm not quite sure how to use it, so I didn't succeed either. Any tips?" can make difference and help people approach your problem).
But last paragraph is purely informative, since you already seem kind, so I don't think it will be problem.
Good luck!
Be curious. Learn new things, play around with technology. Software and programming knowledge are your tools, so you'd better expand your toolset as much as you can. ( here I can recommend you learning emacs and GNU/Linux + coreutils. With knowledge of shell(let's say bash) and coreutils you can complete many jobs that would otherwise require you to write some program from scratch and debug it, while with proper knowledge it takes few minutes).
Read what others have to say, criticize others, but first of all criticize yourself. Improve. As a side note, while it's not mandatory, don't be an asshole - try to write readable code, put comments where appropriate.
You can find more good tips at (google it): sloperama gamedev blog, or Joel's blog. These two are quite good.
And last thing would be rtfm and do your homework. Unfortunately programming is broad and sometimes hard, and many people don't want to go over some things many times when it can be quite easily found in manual or google. Also people are more likely to help you if you prove to them that you tried solving problem but failed, instead of just asking(something like "Hey guys, I'm trying to do X. I tried to use Y, but it didn't work, then I came up with idea that I could do Z, but I'm not quite sure how to use it, so I didn't succeed either. Any tips?" can make difference and help people approach your problem).
But last paragraph is purely informative, since you already seem kind, so I don't think it will be problem.
Good luck!
Thank you for your response and advise. Also, I've been using Linux (Ubuntu) as my main OS for months now, I've learned to interact with it through basic commands, though it has been nothing really complicated; I'm still reading up on commands though. Sorry, for the late reply, I've been really busy and didn't get a chance to get to read this until now.
Last edited on
I think you'll find that a computer science degree will be more useful than a software engineering degree. Computer Science teaches the algorithms, computer architecture, etc.
Recognize that most programming jobs are programming in some field. For example, I program in the communications field. Some work in games, some work in pharmaceuticals, some work in aerospace, some in the automotive field etc. etc. My point is that if you have another interest, then it's easy to combine the two.
Read other people's code to see other ways to solve problems. This can be especially helpful in school if you can convince other students to share their code after an assignment is turned in. That way you can see how several other people solved the same problem.
This is important: if you get stuck on something in school for more than 30 minutes, seek out help. Otherwise there's a good chance that you'll bang your head on the wall for hours trying to work out something that you just aren't seeing.
Keep it simple. In C and C++, it's possible to write really complicated statements that gets lots done all at once. Sometimes that's great, but more often it just makes the code hard to read and opens you up to subtle bugs.
Good luck! I started programming at about your age and I've been doing it for about 35 years now.
Recognize that most programming jobs are programming in some field. For example, I program in the communications field. Some work in games, some work in pharmaceuticals, some work in aerospace, some in the automotive field etc. etc. My point is that if you have another interest, then it's easy to combine the two.
Read other people's code to see other ways to solve problems. This can be especially helpful in school if you can convince other students to share their code after an assignment is turned in. That way you can see how several other people solved the same problem.
This is important: if you get stuck on something in school for more than 30 minutes, seek out help. Otherwise there's a good chance that you'll bang your head on the wall for hours trying to work out something that you just aren't seeing.
Keep it simple. In C and C++, it's possible to write really complicated statements that gets lots done all at once. Sometimes that's great, but more often it just makes the code hard to read and opens you up to subtle bugs.
Good luck! I started programming at about your age and I've been doing it for about 35 years now.
Topic archived. No new replies allowed.