Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (Full Version)

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cih92 -> Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (4/20/2008 4:18:03 PM)

Are the computer programs that you wrote for school, the same level of difficulty as the computer programs that you write at work?

Did the computer science or software engineering classes that you took at school adequately prepare you for your job?



ta_mosquito -> RE: Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (4/20/2008 5:22:32 PM)

Hubby says:

Not really the same level of difficulty. In some cases he might work on the same program for a LONG TIME, longer than on any given assignment at school, for example.

There's different kinds of programming, so what you learn in school might not be exactly what you use at work.

He took computer engineering and is now in software engineering but also works with hardware, so while relatively few of his courses were programming, he does also use the hardware knowledge at his job.

Those are his thoughts as I took them down - he's playing a computer game, so he's not deeply into answering. [;)]



ta_mosquito -> RE: Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (4/20/2008 5:24:17 PM)

"As with a lot of things, you have to be interested in the material outside of the courses. A lot of university classes are more theoretical than practical."

(Just typing as he talks.)

"I'm not sure that any college course will adequately prepare for programming on the job. It's something you have to work up to. It depends on what company you work for - big, small... in my case I started working for a company in which I was the only software engineer, so I had no one to fall back on if I couldn't figure it out. In bigger companies you probably would have a project with well-defined parameters to work on. If you went to work for Microsoft you wouldn't be the one that makes big decisions on how Windows runs; you'd be working on some silly little thing like the color of the paper clip that annoys us when we're working in Word. But that's probably more in the art department..."



cih92 -> RE: Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (4/21/2008 12:28:22 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ta_mosquito

"As with a lot of things, you have to be interested in the material outside of the courses. A lot of university classes are more theoretical than practical."

(Just typing as he talks.)

"I'm not sure that any college course will adequately prepare for programming on the job. It's something you have to work up to. It depends on what company you work for - big, small... in my case I started working for a company in which I was the only software engineer, so I had no one to fall back on if I couldn't figure it out. In bigger companies you probably would have a project with well-defined parameters to work on. If you went to work for Microsoft you wouldn't be the one that makes big decisions on how Windows runs; you'd be working on some silly little thing like the color of the paper clip that annoys us when we're working in Word. But that's probably more in the art department..."


Thank you for answering my questions. I appreciate it.



cih92 -> RE: Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (4/21/2008 12:29:25 PM)

How steep was the learning curve when you got your first software engineering or programming job out of school?



Auben -> RE: Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (4/21/2008 3:58:09 PM)

Warning: I am not a software engineer...I'm just married to one.

Since dh got a BS in Computer/Business his projects weren't nearly as complicated in school as they were in his job. There was a learning curve. What helped is that he got an internship at a large corporation in the testing department. He did very well there and was hired on as an engineer when he graduated. Being a tester he had time to see the product he would be working on and get to know the code from the other side. He also had time to impress his boss but being very thorough and hardworking.

One thing I do know is that he has never stopped learning. Being a software programmer requires constant learning. You are always learning a new language, a new way of doing things. Dh spent the first few years learning applicable languages, then ones he thought were interesting (or going somewhere) before he slowed down. All of that was at home, not at work.

I would research internship possibilities or companies you might be interested in. Some (mostly larger but not always) companies have very good training and are willing to take the time for someone they see as promising.



iwillfearnoevil -> RE: Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (5/1/2008 11:42:19 AM)

i'm a software engineering consultant and school programs are nothing like what you'll be working on in the real world. unless you've worked on group projects spanning weeks i guess. for the most part, in school most of my programs were self contained and had limited contact with outside data (maybe txt files as input). anyways in the real world, data often can come from everywhere and frequently there is communication between multiple applications that must be considered. it's very important i feel for you to ask questions. yes google is your friend if you get stuck programming something syntax wise and there's lots of sample code on the web but don't just spend a whole day stuck on something if there are people to help you. ie) in the long run, you'll look more foolish to have been stuck on something for a whole day than by asking what you think might be a foolish question.



mrtigger -> RE: Questions for software engineers/computer programmers (5/1/2008 8:32:54 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: cih92

Are the computer programs that you wrote for school, the same level of difficulty as the computer programs that you write at work?

Did the computer science or software engineering classes that you took at school adequately prepare you for your job?



School programs are normally written starting from nothing and you write the whole thing.

Work programming is more often making changes to existing programs. It's rare that you get to start with a blank slate and write a whole new program yourself. Being able to look at a piece of existing code (often poorly documented) and quickly figure out what it does and how you might be able to reuse it for what you need is much more useful work skill than being able to bang out a lot of new code quickly.

School programs you get to forget as soon as you get done. Work programs you may have to deal with for years or decades. Much longer life cycles for work programs.

I wouldn't say work programs are harder than school programs -- just different.


My degree was BSEE. They didn't really have a computer science program when I was in school and the computer classes were offered through the BSEE program.

I work closely with HW. I do boot firmware, device drivers, -- code that directly interfaces to HW. I think my BSEE helps with that as I understand HW better than most computer science degree types seem to. But my degree would probably make me mediocre at application level software. (which I don't want to do anyway).



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