Software engineers are in high demand these days. They
generally command comfortable salaries, and can have a good work-life balance.
But what do software engineers do? And how can you become
one yourself?
In this article, I will explain the tasks and
responsibilities of software engineers, and I will go over some of the areas
they most commonly specialize in.
I will also list some of the most important skills needed if
you want to become a software engineer yourself.
Here is what we will cover:
- What
is software engineering?
- What
does a software engineer do?
- What
are the software engineering specializations?
- Why
should you choose a career in software engineering?
- How
to become a software engineer
Let's get started!
What Is Software Engineering? Definition of Software
Engineering
Every day, you likley visit various web pages and use web
and mobile applications.
These modern tools have hundreds or even thousands of lines
of code behind them. And those lines of code have been written by a software
engineer.
Software engineering is the process of designing, building,
testing, deploying, and maintaining customer-facing software products, complex
computer information systems, and useful tools. Software engineers do this using
software engineering methodologies, computer science principles, and
programming languages.
Software engineers write code for hardware, operating
systems, embedded systems, networks, enterprise applications, websites, or
video games.
They come up with strategic solutions that meet the needs of
end-users and the business they work for. The code they write solves a
particular real-world problem.
What Does a Software Engineer Do? Tasks and
Responsibilities of Software Engineers
In general, here are some of the tasks and responsibilities
of software engineers on a day-to-day basis:
- Gather
and analyze the needs and requirements of users and understand how they
use the software.
- Organise
user requirements into individual categories to implement the user suggestions
and feedback.
- Use
programming languages to design and build software systems and
applications that meet user requirements.
- Create
efficient, reliable, secure, accessible, and easy-to-use software.
- Test,
debug, troubleshoot, and maintain existing software systems.
- Optimise
code for quality, performance, speed, and scalability.
- Solve
problems that will arise and help the business achieve its goal(s).
- Create
flowcharts, documentation, and technical specifications that outline the
whole process from start to finish to help share findings and solutions
with other team members.
- Consult
with members from different teams in the organization.
- Present
new features and updates to stakeholders and customers.
That said, the tasks and responsibilities depend on the area
the software engineer specializes in.
What Are The Software Engineering Specializations?
Software Engineering Specialization Areas
Software engineering is a diverse field, meaning there are
many areas a software engineer can specialize in.
Here are some of the most common specializations in software
engineering:
Front-end web development
Front-end
web development is an area that involves designing, building, and
testing the User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), and the parts of
websites and web applications users see and interact.
Front-end developers use use languages such as HTML, CSS,
JavaScript and their associated frameworks and libraries.
Back-end web development
Back-end
web development, also known as server-side development, is an area that
involves building and maintaining the parts of websites and web applications
that users don't see and interact with – essentially, the behind-the-scenes
functionality of websites.
It deals with databases, web architecture, servers, user
authentication, authorization, handling and processing user requests,
Application Programming Interfaces(APIs), and ensuring the appropriate logic is
in place for the front-end to have what it needs to perform efficiently.
Full-stack web development
Full-stack
web development is an area that involves designing, building, testing,
and deploying both the front-end and back-end of websites and web applications
from start to finish.
Mobile development
Mobile
development is an area that involves designing and building software
applications that work on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets
running iOs and Android operating systems.
Game development
Game
development is an area that involves designing and building games that
run a variety of platforms, such as PCs, game consoles, web browsers, and
mobile phones.
Desktop application development
Desktop
application development is an area that involves building software
applications that run on your local desktop computer and have a graphical user
interface (GUI) such as a word processor or image editor.
Operating system development
Operating
system development is an area that involves developing the hardware
and platform for other software applications to run on such as Linux, macOS,
and Windows.
DevOps
DevOps is
an area that involves using processes, methodologies, and tools that automate,
manage, and improve the infrastructure and operations of software applications
throughout the software development life cycle.
Cloud computing
Cloud
computing is an area that involves designing and developing
cloud-based services to build scalable and reliable systems.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is
an area that involves ensuring the security of software applications and
systems and protecting them from hacking, malware, threats, vulnerabilities,
and different types of cybercrimes.
Why Should You Choose a Career in Software Engineering?
Reasons to Pursue Software Engineering as a Career
You might want to choose a career in software engineering
for a few reasons.
First of all, technology evolves at a fast pace and is
constantly changing – there are new developments pretty much every other day.
Software engineers constantly learn new things to stay up to
date with the latest changes. They are life-long learners.
If you are curious and enjoy learning new skills and ways of
doing things and don't like remaining stagnant and doing monotonous tasks, you
might enjoy playing around with the new technologies and tools that emerge.
Another indicator that software engineering might be the
right career choice is that you enjoy solving difficult problems.
Software engineers are problem solvers. They use logic and
creativity to solve the problems of their employer or client.
If you are rational, analytical, and methodical, you might
enjoy the process of solving complex logical problems and building useful
things.
You might also want to choose a career in software
engineering because software engineers are in high demand.
The U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 25% increase in growth for the
job outlook until 2031, which is much faster than average.
Many industries need software engineers, including
government agencies, nonprofit organizations, startups, consulting firms,
educational institutions, finance and healthcare companies, as well as retail
and entertainment businesses, to name just a few. Almost all companies are tech
companies nowadays.
Software engineers also generally command comfortable
salaries.
According to the U.S
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for software engineers is
$109,020 per year.
That said, the salary will depend on your location and years
of experience.
Google the average salary for software engineers in your
location who have the same level of experience as you to get a better idea.
Another reason you might want a career in software
engineering is that it allows for remote work, flexibility in where you work
from, flexible working hours, and a good work/life balance.
To learn more about finding a remote developer role,
give this
article a read.
How to Become a Software Engineer – Key Technical and
Soft Skills for Software Engineers
In the following sections, I will go over how to become a
software engineer and list some of the technical and soft skills you will need
to learn. I will also provide some resources for you to get started.
Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of
the skills you will need, but serves as some key suggestions of what might be
helpful for your learning journey.
Choose Your Education Environment – University Degree VS
Bootcamp VS Self-Directed Learning
Software engineering requires a lot of studying and
learning.
So, the first step to becoming a software engineer is to
think about your education options and what route you want to take.
Computer science degree
One of the options, and the more traditional one for
becoming a software engineer, is to obtain a four-year university degree
and major
in Computer Science or a related math and science degree program.
A Computer
Science degree from an accredited university is highly respected by
certain employers and considered an impressive (and for some, still necessary)
credential on your résumé.
With that said, getting a degree is an investment and a
pricy route to take – university degrees are not cheap.
But according to the Stack
Overflow Developer survey for 2022, most developers (87%) have a
post-secondary education of some kind, having some college or more.
While you
don't necessarily need a degree to become a software engineer, and
employers care whether you have the necessary skills and experience, it may be
a worthwhile investment and open up more job opportunities.
Coding bootcamp
Another option is to enroll in a software
engineering bootcamp.
Bootcamps are intensive training programs and learning
environments that teach you the necessary technical skills to land a software
engineering job. The average duration of a bootcamp is around twenty to thirty
weeks.
It is typically project-based learning, and by the end of
the program, you will have a portfolio of work to showcase to prospective
employers.
With that said, it is still an expensive route to take. Some
bootcamps charge up to five-figure sums just for a couple of months of
training, and it also may not be the right environment for you and your life
circumstances.
Teach yourself to code
Another option is to learn
to code on your own and create your self-directed learning plan using
either free or paid resources such as books, video tutorials, and interactive
courses.
Learning on your own is a great option if you are busy, have
life responsibilities such as taking care of family, or cannot quit your
full-time job to pursue a career change.
You can learn at your own time and pace and create your
individualized schedule according to the spare time you have.
You can get started with freeCodeCamp's curriculum, which is
free and project-based.
In summary, while for many years getting a formal degree has
been considered the standard way to work as a software engineer, there are
other avenues these days to choose from, such as attending a bootcamp or
self-teaching.
Learn How To Learn – Develop Effective Study Habits
No matter what style of education you choose, you will need
to learn how to learn effectively to make the most out of your studies and
solidify your learning.
Learning how to learn allows you to pick up anything faster and make it stick,
which will serve you well as a software engineer. The profession requires
constant learning on the job.
There are learning techniques that, despite feeling
intuitively right, do more harm than good and are ineffective since they
require low cognitive effort.
Those ineffective techniques are passively re-reading,
taking notes, and highlighting/underlining.
The two most effective and cognitively demanding learning
strategies for retaining information are active recall and spaced repetition.
Active recall involves quizzing yourself and recalling the
main ideas of what you just read/learned.
The brain makes stronger connections when it retrieves
information, not when it receives information – the retrieval process enhances
deep learning.
Spaced repetition is a practice that flattens the forgetting
curve we naturally have as humans. You are bound to forget the things you
learn.
Spaced repetition involves frequently reviewing what you
learned – this helps build your knowledge over time.
A good tool for practicing spaced repetition is using Anki, a flashcard app with an algorithm
behind it that surfaces the content at intervals – just when you are about to
forget it.
To learn more about learning and creating effective study
habits, check out the Learning how to
learn course on Coursera.
As a software engineer, you will need an in-depth
understanding of at least one or sometimes two or more programming languages.
You will need to understand concepts such as variables, data
types, conditional statements, boolean logic, loops, arrays, operators, and
input/output, to name just a few.
There are hundreds of programming languages to choose from.
And each one has its specific use cases.
The programming language you choose to learn will depend on
the area of software engineering you want to specialize in.
Some of the most popular ones are the following:
- JavaScript,
– a scripting language that runs in a web browser and is used to create
both the front-end and back-end of web applications.
- Python –
a general-purpose server-side language, commonly used for back-end web
development.
- Java,
– an all-purpose language commonly used for developing applications for
various platforms, including Internet and Android applications.
- C++ –
a popular language for developing operating systems, applications, and
games.
To learn more about those languages, check out the following
resources to get started:
- Full
JavaScript Course for Beginners
- Free
Python Programming Course
- Learn
Java – Free Java Courses for Beginners
- Learn
C++ Programming for Beginners – Free 31-Hour Course
Learn Data Structures and Algorithms
Data structures and algorithms are topics that will likely
come up often during your software engineering job interviews.
A solid foundation in data structures and algorithms allows
you to become better at problem-solving, find the most efficient and practical
solutions to problems, and write more scalable and maintainable code.
Data Structures are storage areas for storing and organizing
data elements so that computers can perform calculations with those data
elements more precisely and efficiently.
An algorithm is a series of well-defined and precise
step-by-step instructions. These instructions tell a computer how to perform a
particular task that will solve a specific problem.
An algorithm receives some input and produces some output
that solves the problem at hand.
To learn more about data structures and algorithms, check
out this
course.
Learn Database Architecture and SQL
Knowing how to store, maintain, manage, and design the
architecture of a database will come in useful as a developer. You'll need to
know how to perform database operations, namely CRUD operations (which stands
for Create, Read, Update, Delete), and write basic SQL queries. After all,
complex and large-scale software applications need to handle large amounts of
data.
You may want to learn about the different types of
databases, such as the differences between relational databases and
non-relational (also known as NoSQL databases).
And you may want to study SQL as well. SQL, which stands for
Structured Query Language, is a query language for querying and manipulating
data in relational databases.
To learn more about handling databases and writing SQL
queries, check out the relational
database certification by freeCodeCamp.
Learn How to Use Software Engineering Tools
As a software engineer, you'll use various tools in your
day-to-day work.
Some of the ones you will use the most are the following:
- Git is
a version control system and collaborative tool. With Git, you can work
with other developers on the same project and track changes in the code.
- GitHub is
a popular hosting service that allows you to share your code with the world.
- The command
line is an application that allows you to interact with your
underlying operating system and your filesystem using text-based commands.
- An IDE
(or Integrated Development Environment) is a software application
that allows you to write code efficiently and productively. Specifically,
it is where you write, edit, run, test, and debug your code. IDEs offer
features like syntax highlighting that make code easier to read and catch
errors and keyboard shortcuts that save time.
Build Your Non-Technical Skills
Although developing your technical skills is necessary to
become a professional software engineer, you cannot neglect your non-technical
(often referred to as soft) skills.
The stereotype of software engineers working in isolation,
alone in a room, and not talking to anyone is far from reality.
As a software engineer, you will typically be collaborating
with others and be a part of a team. You need strong social and interpersonal
skills to be a valuable team member.
Effectively
communicating your ideas in a way that is clear and easy to understand
is necessary, as you will often work with other team members who won't have the
same level of technical knowledge as you.
And as you will build software applications for a diverse
audience, you need to empathize with your end users and understand the kind of
problems they may face. Having empathy is
about putting yourself in other people's shoes and being able to see other
people's perspectives. This helps you become a more effective problem-solver
and developer.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you found this article helpful and have a better
understanding of what software engineering entails.
In this article, we went over the tasks and responsibilities
of software engineers and some of the reasons why this career might be a good
fit for you. You also saw some of the skills you will need to develop to become
a software engineer.
Thank you for reading!
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