alejandro
why did you decide to become a software engineer?
#computers #technology #computer-software #engineer #software
20 answers
Zhu Qin
Zhu’s Answer
I'm interested in and good to the abstract logic things from my childhood. The output of that feature is that I'm extremely enjoying in my programing works. When doing it I will unstoppably focus on the work and feel so great about what I created. I believe that's the biggest reason that I choose Software Engineer as my position.
Christos Markou
Christos’s Answer
Let me share my very personal view on this:
When I was in highschool, I really found interesting spending time on the computer, downloading music, movies, games etc. In addition to this, I can recall myself during one afternoon to be self motivated to solve as much CS class exercises as possible. These exercises had to do with arrays, calculating avgs etc. I really found it to my liking! So then I decided that I can think programmatically and I could do this for a living but as well as for my personal interest.
During college I met a lot of inspiring professors and laboratory assistants and I was really well mentored to create a good engineering background with various skills.
Today I find myself to be a software engineer in big opensource company, being able to work with brilliant people from all around the world and in the same time to support he opensource community. In addition I really enjoy creating a product that other people use!
karthik M
karthik’s Answer
Dina Patel
Dina’s Answer
Hector Magnanao
Hector’s Answer
Shawn Zhang
Shawn’s Answer
When I built something using scripting or programming language, I feel I accomplished something which I or other ppl will benefit it from.
Also in computer science, things keep changing. You are not repeating yourself . The result of your work and code you wrote are different every day.
With more and more jobs can be automated or moving to online, it's a skill which can keep you up-to-date with others.
Hector Magnanao
Hector’s Answer
Ramesh R
Ramesh’s Answer
I am answering this question mostly generic way and i hope you get my point of view.
Jay Hurst
Jay’s Answer
For me it was a mix of a couple of factors. First the technology space interested me because it was a constantly evolving and changing space. It felt like every month there were new things to learn and explore. Second, it gave me a great chance to help people. This is something that may be a little harder to imagine, but this industry is ultimately focused on solving a problem that someone is having.
These two things in combination has made the role extremely rewarding for me.
Best of luck
karthik M
karthik’s Answer
Naomi Nayve
Naomi’s Answer
Nivetha Rajkumar
Nivetha’s Answer
Rahul Anand
Rahul’s Answer
I wanted to be a swimmer but my parents didn't allow me to pursue my carrier towards saying it can be your hobby but not profession specially when you are jacked up with very less options in your country.
There was a time when my sister was gifted a new computer by my parents during the time of internet and booming IT sectors.
She used to learn some good programming stuff on that computer and I used to play games being a gaming freak at that time. But that gradually helped me develop my interest in languages too.
Which is when I thought to persue my carrier playing around computers and operating systems.
To talk about all the good sides I found to be true is that software industry is wide and have lot of options to be creative.
There is great demand of good programmers as well as quality software and it pays you well.
Number of software companies are increasing with time and also the number of software developers.
Many software companies provide application development solutions but important is quality assurance and customer satisfaction.
We can achieve success in this profession if we actually enjoy our work.
Ariane Manalo-Fajardo
Ariane’s Answer
Was being a software engineer my first choice ? The answer is no. However when I was studying in the university the computer science field is mostly dominated by men and not a lot of students were able to graduate. The opportunities are pretty good and there's less competition after you graduate. So I decided to take up the challenge. I'd say it wasn't an easy ride. I literally put extra effort and hard work in my studies. I was lucky to pass and graduate and everything paid off in the end.
Because there are so many areas to explore and learn within the IT field, you can have the flexibility to move and experience different job opportunities.
Stephanie VanDyke
Stephanie’s Answer
When I went to college, I wanted to double major in physics and aerospace engineering. I loved physics in high school and my aunt had worked for NASA; she advised that I choose these majors if I ever wanted to be considered. One year in, I was miserable. I kept telling myself it would get better after college once I was in the field, but I talked to my aunt about it and she told me to expect a similar life outside of college. Although I love science and technology, I also love having a life. My advisor at college suggested looking into computer science because it had the same core courses I had already done, and this way I could still graduate in four years. I honestly knew very little about computer science at the time but decided to look into it. I talked with professors in the program who told me I should excel with my background, saw the ample job opportunities online, and researched the work-life balance. The last one really did it for me. Although it varies by company, many tech companies now lean towards a casual workplace and have the attitude of "work when you want, as long as you get your work done". This sold me. I loved the idea of having a STEM career and the ability to continue learning as I worked while still having the flexibility to do other things I enjoy. I added Java 1001 to my schedule the next semester and after just a few weeks in this class, I knew it was time to switch. Writing code just felt like following instructions and it was so satisfying to build something tangible in a short amount of time. At this point, switching to a computer science major was the obvious choice. Once I got to my software engineering classes, the workload was large enough to be unbearable if it had still been physics work. But with software engineering, even with all of the hours I had to put in to finish my projects, I always felt capable and like I could figure it out. I thought it was fun to try to make my code perfect. Because I had fun writing code and helping others understand their own code, I quickly became the top performer in my class. Basically, I decided on a software engineering career because coding doesn't really feel like work to me. I was able to find a match with a company by being honest about my priorities - although I love coding and will always put in time to make my code better, I want to be able to give time to my family and other hobbies. I now work on a team where I get challenging work but a flexible work schedule. I remember feeling so uneasy about the future when I was a phsyics/AE major, but it feels like everything worked itself out once I listened to other peoples' advice and was honest with myself about what I wanted out of my career.
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Dimitrios Athanasiou
Dimitrios’s Answer
I was fascinated by video games as I was growing up. I still am! I think they are a form of art. Games combine several forms of art: visuals, writing, music all come together to create worlds that players can explore and learn so much.
It soon became apparent to me that I did not just want to play games but I wanted to create games too! I asked how I could get to do so and I was advised to study computer science.
Fast forward a couple dozen years later and here I am working as a software engineer. Did I end up creating games? I did not. During my studies I discovered I enjoyed writing and designing software no matter what the application is. Well, that is not entirely true, I still want to be interested in the problem the application tries to solve but it doesn't have to be games.
Working as part of a software team can be a gratifying experience. You get to solve interesting problems every day, together with other people that are equally passionate with you! I can't emphasize enough that software development is, above all, a team effort. Many people imagine writing software as a very lonely job. But in reality, software teams thrive through communication. We talk to each other all the time discussing problems, reviewing each other's code, suggesting improvements, teaching and learning new things.
I wasn't aware of all these back when I decided to study computer science. But I would definitely make the same call now that I am.
Ricky Robinett
Ricky’s Answer
My parents got our first computer when I was in elementary school. I was immediately hooked because I could play games on it (Zork was my favorite). I remember the day we got the internet for the first time, my entire family crowded around our computer for the occasion. It was the days of dial-up, we waited through the sound of the connection and then tried to join a chat room. It was so slow that it took us around 10 minutes to join one. My dad quickly declared that this whole internet thing was a "giant waste of money" and canceled our account.
It was another year or two before I could convince him to try again. During that period, I don't remember how, I got introduced to computer programming. Once we got connected again I built a small game using VisualBasic and e-mailed it to all my friends. I was hooked. I took AP Comp Sci in high school and spent a lot of my free time teaching myself more about code.
In college, I oscillated between Computer Science and Political science. Sometimes switching my major between each semester. I thought that writing code as a job meant sitting in a cubical all day, and that didn't excite me. Ultimately I decided to drop out and pursue my dream of being a rockstar.
Of course, here I am, so clearly that didn't work out :) After my time as a musician ended, I realized that throughout all of my personal journeys, code was a constant in my life. I was always trying to build things that would help accelerate my other passions. Thankfully my girlfriend at the time (now wife) helped me realize that coding could be a career, and encouraged me to pursue it. I couldn't be happier.
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Nick Chung
Nick’s Answer
I asked myself what I wanted in a career and came to the conclusion that at the end of the day, work mostly came down to a paycheck for me. Sure, there were some things that I would HATE to do for work (those I would never do), but most jobs would ultimately be me doing work I didn't really care about for a large organization whose primary purpose is to generate money for stockholders.
After some career research, I found that software engineers make a high salary and work very reasonable hours. Luckily, I had taken an intro CS class my sophomore year with friends and I was a statistics major, so I could apply to data science internships. I leveraged my internship into a full-time offer as a software engineer, and I'm really happy with my career decision! If you find coding to be something you're capable of doing and something that doesn't drive you crazy, I think most people would say software engineer is a great job to have.
Cheryl McMillen
Cheryl’s Answer
After graduating when I was looking for a job in the engineering field but the choices for computer programmers was vast in many industries. So I chose my my first job at an aerospace company as a software programmer and loved it and have now continued in the software field in other companies for over 25 years.
As a software engineer, I have done development in many programming languages After 15 years of doing that I now work as a business/systems analyst and architect designing solutions. It has been a fulfilling career meeting many technical and non technical people along the way.
I am not sure I would choose the same career in today but at the time it was a good choice and its been a fulfilling career so far.
R D
R’s Answer
I didn't decide to become a software engineer until after I had already graduated from college and I was working in my first job. I had taken one computer programming class in college, but I got my degree in electrical engineering. In my first job, much of the work was done by hand and I decided to write some code to automate the work. I realized then that I really loved coding and I was happiest and most energized at work when I was coding. I then took a class at my local community college in Java and started asking around about job openings for Java programmers. I got one of those jobs and I've been a software engineer ever since!
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