#1 Top 10 Best Jobs - Software Engineer?

[Josh123]

If my wife gets a good paying job after she graduates this month I plan to go back to school and hopefully become a software engineer. /crossesfingers

 

[rh71]

I explained it above. Being a software developer means that you're pretty much just a programmer. Being a software engineer means that you should be able to work in any part of a software's life cycle (requirements, design, development, or test).

wow I can't imagine a developer not having anything to do with design or testing after it's all done (I test as I code, tbh, then do final testing with the customer). Do companies really have only coders who don't even test or have a say in planning? Seems completely inefficient and I'd see that leading to problems. Hello big picture?

I interned at HSBC as a "web tester" and all we did was run through scripts to make sure everything worked as expected. I can imagine your point of view if I were called an engineer then, but if you're a "software programmer/developer", you're also doing everything else start to end, imo. Shouldn't be different than a software engineer. Just a fancy title.

 

[dighn]

it's not bad at all if you like software design and coding. can be stressful though. i emphasize that you gotta like it because 1) it's dry if you don't 2) it's a combination of science and art, so your attitude and skill can make a big difference in the quality of the work you produce.

 

[rh71]

I now do desktop support and fix PCs all day long. It is much more fun because I get hands on with the equipment and always a different learning experience.

I'd have to say support is definitely not for me. When mom calls me and starts describing her problem I already get frustrated just listening to what she's doing step by step. On top of that I have to know how each OS or software menu is different with each version and I end up asking them to "look for XYZ" and it's just a huge guessing game. What I like about coding is how you can attack a problem a few different ways, figuring out how to do things more efficiently, and of course when it all comes together like you planned, it's just beautiful. We work with databases and web so looking at lines of code is maybe only 75% of it. Sort of fell into this kind of work - never took CS classes that would potentially dissuade me from programming work. Besides, web programming is a ton more fun.

 

[purbeast0]

I'd have to say support is definitely not for me. When mom calls me and starts describing her problem I already get frustrated just listening to what she's doing step by step. On top of that I have to know how each OS or software menu is different with each version and I end up asking them to "look for XYZ" and it's just a huge guessing game. What I like about coding is how you can attack a problem a few different ways, figuring out how to do things more efficiently, and of course when it all comes together like you planned, it's just beautiful. We work with databases and web so looking at lines of code is maybe only 75% of it. Sort of fell into this kind of work - never took CS classes (except for SQL) that would potentially dissuade me from it. Besides, web programming is a ton more fun.

yeah we're working on some pretty cutting edge technology right now at my job and we're actually going to be the largest application using this technology once it is out there. it's pretty awesome seeing things come together when you have over a dozen pieces of technology all working together. can be extremely frustrating trying to figure it out though at the early stages lol.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

wow I can't imagine a developer not having anything to do with design or testing after it's all done (I test as I code, tbh, then do final testing with the customer). Do companies really have only coders who don't even test or have a say in planning? Seems completely inefficient and I'd see that leading to problems. Hello big picture?

Sure they do, it depends on the scope of the program. A "simple" webapp or application can be coded and tested by 1 person, but imagine a program like Word, or Windows itself - there are entirely different groups of people that do requirements, code, test/qa, and maintain. If the 1 piece you coded fails at test, then you get called in as the expert, but (hopefully) thats not often. (I don't work for Microsoft, but another large company with complex software).

 

[tfinch2]

You call them software engineers to differentiate them from computer programmers. Those are the plebes.

What on Earth are you talking about?

 

[Aikouka]

wow I can't imagine a developer not having anything to do with design or testing after it's all done (I test as I code, tbh, then do final testing with the customer). Do companies really have only coders who don't even test or have a say in planning? Seems completely inefficient and I'd see that leading to problems. Hello big picture?

It all depends on the scope of the program. For example, at my previous job, I did the majority of the design work (class diagrams, action diagrams, sequence diagrams, etc.) for the team that I was on, and I also developed portions of the software that implemented those. However, I didn't do all of it as there were other developers. Now, you mentioned testing while coding, and developers (should) do that, but it's typically unit testing or something similar to that (maybe not as official with automated tests, etc.). What I'm talking about is something like software verification or software validation (note: those two aren't the same thing). When I'm talking about test, I'm usually referring to the prior, software verification, which is mostly just requirements-based testing. That's a bit crude of a definition since it's really about testing to make sure it meets any applicable specification, and requirements (typically found in the Software Requirements Specification document or SRS) is really just one of those. Another good example would ensuring any message traffic matches the specific ICD (Interface Control Document).

What on Earth are you talking about?

What on Earth are you asking about? I'm merely stating why they tacked "engineer" onto the end. The "plebes" thing is just a joke about assumed hierarchy or a faux sense of importance.