What is Software Engineering to me?
21 Jan 2020
Personal interests
Software engineering used to be a foreign term to me until I began my school career in computer engineering. I knew there were careers out there where people created websites, created applications, and did programming for a living but I did not know the name of that career until recently. Before starting my computer engineering degree, I was scared to learn programming because of how complicated it looked. After my first year in my degree, I understood how programming worked and with determination it could become fun to do. Once I found my interest in programming I understood the growing demand for software engineers and how interesting the career could be. It is a possible career path I looked into in creating my own application but my first path/dream is in cybersecurity. If cybersecurity ever fails I will definitely go into software engineering. Programming has become one of my passions and has opened my eyes to the many possible careers there are related to programming.
Skills to develop
After learning about software engineering and the many different paths that are open to me if I choose to go with that career, I realized there are many different skills I can develop. One skill that I can develop would be writing. In an article by Shubhro Saha, “Software engineers should write”, Saha explains how a key skill software engineers should have is writing because it promotes many other skills required for programming such as to think clearly. Writing is a valuable skill to develop from software engineering because writing is a skill that is required in all aspects of life. Hopefully by practicing programming and learning new languages through software engineering I can improve my writing skills to a level I am proud of. Another skill I hope to develop through software engineering is my communication skills. In software engineering, people are put into groups to work together on a specific project which involves communicating effectively with others. Communication is not one of my strongest skills but through software engineering I hope to develop this skill. By working more in groups and talking to my peers in class it will hopefully improve my communication. Without effective communication, a project may not be finished the correct way or group members will have arguments. Through the many group activities and projects it will improve my communications skills in a way that I am able to communicate effectively.
Experiences to develop
Experiences are what drives a person’s passion and motivates them to keep on going. An experience I would like to develop would be positive experiences that encourage me to continue with programming and maybe go into a career involving software engineering.