A day in the life of a software engineer

What's like to work as a software engineer? In a nutshell you'll write code to solve problems and collaborate on meetings. Of course it's more complicated than that.

There are plenty of videos and articles on the internet about what the day of the a software engineer looks like. Instead of going doing yet another of those, I want to share what key aspects for me.

Your mileage may vary

Although there are constants, software development jobs are all different. Some companies have more meetings than actual development time, some only communicate through documents (like Gumroad), some emphasize the social aspects while others are just about work.

Solving problems

Software engineering is about solving problems. That's it, that's the Tweet.

Technical problems like how to make a build tool work for your project's setup or optimizing the performance of an algorithm to be fast enough and product problems which always revolve about making a better experience for your users.

Communication is key

Computers are the easy part. Humans and communication are the hard part. Learn to communicate. You will never work in completely isolation. There are clients, managers, colleagues from all sorts of domains, candidates to interview.

Communication involves listening and understanding what others are trying to say, and expressing yourself clearly so other can understand your point of view.

Learning

Technology is always changing. That's a constant. Which means you'll never be able to stop learning. Those that embrace the constant learning do better. Learn how to learn.

Flexibility & Opportunities

Software engineering, and tech in general, is a very flexible industry. Although some jobs lean more on the traditional 9 to 5 approach.

Maybe you want to only work 4 days a week, or prefer to start your day super early and have the afternoon free. You might want to work for a company that is doing some good impact in the world and resonates with you, you might want to move to another city, country or continent. There are plenty of opportunities in this field, find what works for you.

Formalities

It's not all fun and games, there are boring parts of the job as well. It's a job after all. Filling reports, attending meetings that could've been and email. But since you are getting paid to do it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯