3 answers
Eldana
Student
Rochester, Minnesota
2
Questions
Asked
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Questions for Software Engineers!
Hello! I am conducting an Interview towards software engineers for school. Please feel free to answer them!
-Question 1: What led you to want to be in the IT field?
-Question 2: Going off the first question, how would you define software engineering and why did you choose Software engineering?
-Question 3:What does your day look like as a software engineer?
-Question 4: Would you say the job of Software Engineering is as you expected?
-Question 5: what would you say is the most difficult part of software engineering?
-Question 6: What has helped you in your journey to software engineering?
-Question 7: Is there anything you personally think the IT field should improve on?
-Question 8: Is there anything you would like to say to incoming people in software engineering or IT in general?
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3 answers
David Daudelin
Software Engineering / Management
5
Answers
New Jersey, New Jersey
Updated
David’s Answer
-Question 1: What led you to want to be in the IT field?
My Dad introduced me to computer programming when I was young by telling me, "With computer programming, you can tell a computer to do whatever you want and it will do exactly what you tell it." I thought this was the neatest thing and that was reinforced when I got into coding video games in High School.
-Question 2: Going off the first question, how would you define software engineering and why did you choose Software engineering?
Software Engineering is distinguished from just coding in that you aren't told exactly what to do. You are responsible for sussing out what your client actually wants and architecting a sustainable long term solution to it.
-Question 3:What does your day look like as a software engineer?
Talking with product, design, or stakeholders directly to identify or clarify requirements, writing technical proposals, doing research both within and outside the company for the best way to implement solutions without unnecessarily re-inventing the wheel, handling on-call duties for addressing bugs that have come up with past features, and of course coding the solution.
-Question 4: Would you say the job of Software Engineering is as you expected?
Yes
-Question 5: what would you say is the most difficult part of software engineering?
Navigating chaos and uncertainty - it's not always clear how to interact with other systems and teams, particularly in a large company.
-Question 6: What has helped you in your journey to software engineering?
More than anything, just by getting my hands dirty and trying things out in personal projects and hackathons. In my opinion, it is absolutely best to learn by doing vs trying to wait until you're "qualified" and "know enough" to get started.
-Question 7: Is there anything you personally think the IT field should improve on?
Interviewing - the current process is really bad at consistently identifying excellent candidates.
-Question 8: Is there anything you would like to say to incoming people in software engineering or IT in general?
It's a brutal job market out there right now for entry level software engineering roles. Really focus on getting experience you can list on your resume in the form of a personal project you've published and gotten real customers in, freelance work (paid or otherwise), or equity only work for a startup. Also AI is going to be an integral part of software development moving forward so try out tools like WindSurf and Copilot.
My Dad introduced me to computer programming when I was young by telling me, "With computer programming, you can tell a computer to do whatever you want and it will do exactly what you tell it." I thought this was the neatest thing and that was reinforced when I got into coding video games in High School.
-Question 2: Going off the first question, how would you define software engineering and why did you choose Software engineering?
Software Engineering is distinguished from just coding in that you aren't told exactly what to do. You are responsible for sussing out what your client actually wants and architecting a sustainable long term solution to it.
-Question 3:What does your day look like as a software engineer?
Talking with product, design, or stakeholders directly to identify or clarify requirements, writing technical proposals, doing research both within and outside the company for the best way to implement solutions without unnecessarily re-inventing the wheel, handling on-call duties for addressing bugs that have come up with past features, and of course coding the solution.
-Question 4: Would you say the job of Software Engineering is as you expected?
Yes
-Question 5: what would you say is the most difficult part of software engineering?
Navigating chaos and uncertainty - it's not always clear how to interact with other systems and teams, particularly in a large company.
-Question 6: What has helped you in your journey to software engineering?
More than anything, just by getting my hands dirty and trying things out in personal projects and hackathons. In my opinion, it is absolutely best to learn by doing vs trying to wait until you're "qualified" and "know enough" to get started.
-Question 7: Is there anything you personally think the IT field should improve on?
Interviewing - the current process is really bad at consistently identifying excellent candidates.
-Question 8: Is there anything you would like to say to incoming people in software engineering or IT in general?
It's a brutal job market out there right now for entry level software engineering roles. Really focus on getting experience you can list on your resume in the form of a personal project you've published and gotten real customers in, freelance work (paid or otherwise), or equity only work for a startup. Also AI is going to be an integral part of software development moving forward so try out tools like WindSurf and Copilot.
Kiana Komatsu
Systems administrator for developers.
1
Answer
Rochester, Minnesota
Updated
Kiana’s Answer
Question 1: What led you to want to be in the IT field?
Answer 1: The IT field is a dynamic environment, and there are always different ways to encourage improvements in processes and products.
Question 2: Going off the first question, how would you define software engineering and why did you choose Software engineering?
Answer 2: To me, Software engineers are people who have strong coding skills and take an engineering approach to problem-solving and creating products. They systematically examine how to run code from the simplest components.
I wouldn't consider myself a software engineer, though much of what I do is considered software engineering work. With that in mind, I want to help bridge gaps between highly skilled users and new users. I like making technology accessible to all types of users and developers.
Question 3: What does your day look like as a software engineer?
Answer 3: I generally have a very flexible day for the type of work I do. It usually consists of the following work list with varying amounts of time.
- testing packages for incompatibility issues
- User tickets (many different user issues vary)
- Documentation of processes/code
- Client communication of outages/environment changes.
- Automation improvement to old processes.
- Education on new technology or Coding skills
Question 4: Would you say the job of Software Engineering is as you expected?
Answer 4: Yes, but I underestimated all the skills you will need to learn in the field that college didn't prepare me for. Lots of companies use different coding languages, and I mean A LOT. Understanding the core principles of coding will be the most helpful when entering the working field.
Question 5: what would you say is the most difficult part of software engineering?
Answer 5: There are many assumptions about what is considered essential knowledge. It is easy to feel down or overwhelmed by the job, but asking questions will get you further faster, so there is no harm in asking.
Question 6: What has helped you in your journey to software engineering?
Answer 6: Ask questions, record meetings, and find a place to take notes about code and/or commands. Looking back on my new hire notes helps when I forget an acronym or a system command, and it has made things significantly easier.
Question 7: Is there anything you personally think the IT field should improve on?
Answer 7: Communication and documentation. Coding or just communicating blockers within a team slows things down. It can cause problems in the future very quickly and can snowball out of control if you are not careful.
Question 8: Is there anything you would like to say to incoming people in software engineering or IT in general?
Answer 8: Similar to what I said in my answers 6 and 5, I have included some advice I suggest for all IT specialists.
-Asking questions will get you further faster.
-Ask questions, record meetings, and find a place to take notes about code and/or commands.
-Refrain from assuming what people do and don't know.
-Keep an eye on your physical health. Even though it is not physical work, if your body is not healthy, your mind might not be feeling the best.
-Be vocal, like the advice above, and avoid assuming other people may know an aspect of a problem. Better to speak up than to hold it to yourself. All views are valid, and problem-solving is a team effort; even if you are not the best at something, you might provide an essential point of view on a problem.
Answer 1: The IT field is a dynamic environment, and there are always different ways to encourage improvements in processes and products.
Question 2: Going off the first question, how would you define software engineering and why did you choose Software engineering?
Answer 2: To me, Software engineers are people who have strong coding skills and take an engineering approach to problem-solving and creating products. They systematically examine how to run code from the simplest components.
I wouldn't consider myself a software engineer, though much of what I do is considered software engineering work. With that in mind, I want to help bridge gaps between highly skilled users and new users. I like making technology accessible to all types of users and developers.
Question 3: What does your day look like as a software engineer?
Answer 3: I generally have a very flexible day for the type of work I do. It usually consists of the following work list with varying amounts of time.
- testing packages for incompatibility issues
- User tickets (many different user issues vary)
- Documentation of processes/code
- Client communication of outages/environment changes.
- Automation improvement to old processes.
- Education on new technology or Coding skills
Question 4: Would you say the job of Software Engineering is as you expected?
Answer 4: Yes, but I underestimated all the skills you will need to learn in the field that college didn't prepare me for. Lots of companies use different coding languages, and I mean A LOT. Understanding the core principles of coding will be the most helpful when entering the working field.
Question 5: what would you say is the most difficult part of software engineering?
Answer 5: There are many assumptions about what is considered essential knowledge. It is easy to feel down or overwhelmed by the job, but asking questions will get you further faster, so there is no harm in asking.
Question 6: What has helped you in your journey to software engineering?
Answer 6: Ask questions, record meetings, and find a place to take notes about code and/or commands. Looking back on my new hire notes helps when I forget an acronym or a system command, and it has made things significantly easier.
Question 7: Is there anything you personally think the IT field should improve on?
Answer 7: Communication and documentation. Coding or just communicating blockers within a team slows things down. It can cause problems in the future very quickly and can snowball out of control if you are not careful.
Question 8: Is there anything you would like to say to incoming people in software engineering or IT in general?
Answer 8: Similar to what I said in my answers 6 and 5, I have included some advice I suggest for all IT specialists.
-Asking questions will get you further faster.
-Ask questions, record meetings, and find a place to take notes about code and/or commands.
-Refrain from assuming what people do and don't know.
-Keep an eye on your physical health. Even though it is not physical work, if your body is not healthy, your mind might not be feeling the best.
-Be vocal, like the advice above, and avoid assuming other people may know an aspect of a problem. Better to speak up than to hold it to yourself. All views are valid, and problem-solving is a team effort; even if you are not the best at something, you might provide an essential point of view on a problem.
Thank you so much!
Eldana
Gwenever Enns
Software Engineer
1
Answer
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Updated
Gwenever’s Answer
-Question 1: What led you to want to be in the IT field?
Answer 1: I loved computers and writing programs from a young age, when my father brought home a Commodore 64 computer. Programming was one of my best subjects in highschool. In college I took an interdisciplinary program in Cognitive Science, but after school I worked as a cook instead. I loved that but it's very stressful for very low pay. A friend of a friend suggested I apply for a job making iPhone apps where she worked and I've been bouncing around as a programmer ever since. It's a much more comfortable career than cooking, lol :)
-Question 2: Going off the first question, how would you define software engineering and why did you choose Software engineering?
Answer 2: Software engineering is just building stuff with software. It would be cool if it were more like other engineering disciplines with standards and stuff. But the reality is that software changes so quickly that standards would often be out of date before they were even published. That said, I chose to be a software engineer because I like creating things, the technical challenges are stimulating, but you know what? The interpersonal challenges have been even harder, and that's where I've grown the most as a person in this industry. Just learning to communicate better and be good to the people you work with, that kind of thing. It's hard!
-Question 3:What does your day look like as a software engineer?
Answer 3: Each day varies, but each week is mostly the same. We decide on what changes we want to make in the product, like adding this feature or fixing that bug, as a team. Then each team member picks one of those things and works on it. Every day we share what progress we've made, and when you finish working on one ticket you start working on whatever is most important to the team. There are a lot of meetings throughout the week, with my immediate team, with the other teams working on the same product, and with even larger groups working on other more different products. Sometimes we will need to do a lot of planning, and so instead of writing code I might write up a plan for it to be reviewed before we start work.
-Question 4: Would you say the job of Software Engineering is as you expected?
Answer 4: Honestly, not at all. Planning and coordinating with a large team is so much harder than writing code. Most of the code we write is very simple, but planning how to work together to achieve our goals is very hard. It's hard in a different way as well. It's hard learning to listen to each other and communicate more effectively, plan effectively, give feedback productively. Once in ten years have I written what I would call an algorithm. Mostly it's simple stuff like fetching data and validating it and transforming it so that it can be presented. But code evolves as you have to handle more edge cases and fix bugs, and making sure it doesn't become a total mess is just one hard part of working together in a large team.
-Question 5: what would you say is the most difficult part of software engineering?
Answer 5: Learning how to change the way you work and communicate as a team so that problems become easier to solve as a team. It's easy to write code. It's easy to see what mistakes were made in the past. But learning how to agree on what we should do next and how we should do it is very hard. Many companies do this very poorly. You can tell because planning meetings involve a lot of frustration and sometimes yelling. Very few companies do it well, but the important part is being able to reflect on and change the way you work together. Perfect communication is impossible, but constantly improving is totally possible. That ability to reflect on and improve is the mark of a company I want to work at, personally.
-Question 6: What has helped you in your journey to software engineering?
Answer 6: My first software job involved a lot of pair programming. This is where you work together, two people writing code on the same computer. You take turns typing, talk about what you're doing and why, and discuss different approaches to try to come to a better solution. This allowed me to learn incredibly quickly, and I was leading projects in my first six months on the job. But, conversely, adjusting to workplaces that don't do pair programming has been very hard for me, since my attention deficit makes it so much hard to focus and make the right choices working on my own.
-Question 7: Is there anything you personally think the IT field should improve on?
Answer 7: Standards for handling of private information. Data breaches are almost inevitable and the impact on users can be devastating. Frequently companies only learn how to do this well when bad things happen, and I think the industry could get better at solving this before the bad things
-Question 8: Is there anything you would like to say to incoming people in software engineering or IT in general?
Answer 8: Don't burn out! It's very easy to think you can work long hours forever, and for many of us that's not realistic. Learn early on to respect your own time. Take breaks, log off, take vacations. Learn to care for yourself early.
Answer 1: I loved computers and writing programs from a young age, when my father brought home a Commodore 64 computer. Programming was one of my best subjects in highschool. In college I took an interdisciplinary program in Cognitive Science, but after school I worked as a cook instead. I loved that but it's very stressful for very low pay. A friend of a friend suggested I apply for a job making iPhone apps where she worked and I've been bouncing around as a programmer ever since. It's a much more comfortable career than cooking, lol :)
-Question 2: Going off the first question, how would you define software engineering and why did you choose Software engineering?
Answer 2: Software engineering is just building stuff with software. It would be cool if it were more like other engineering disciplines with standards and stuff. But the reality is that software changes so quickly that standards would often be out of date before they were even published. That said, I chose to be a software engineer because I like creating things, the technical challenges are stimulating, but you know what? The interpersonal challenges have been even harder, and that's where I've grown the most as a person in this industry. Just learning to communicate better and be good to the people you work with, that kind of thing. It's hard!
-Question 3:What does your day look like as a software engineer?
Answer 3: Each day varies, but each week is mostly the same. We decide on what changes we want to make in the product, like adding this feature or fixing that bug, as a team. Then each team member picks one of those things and works on it. Every day we share what progress we've made, and when you finish working on one ticket you start working on whatever is most important to the team. There are a lot of meetings throughout the week, with my immediate team, with the other teams working on the same product, and with even larger groups working on other more different products. Sometimes we will need to do a lot of planning, and so instead of writing code I might write up a plan for it to be reviewed before we start work.
-Question 4: Would you say the job of Software Engineering is as you expected?
Answer 4: Honestly, not at all. Planning and coordinating with a large team is so much harder than writing code. Most of the code we write is very simple, but planning how to work together to achieve our goals is very hard. It's hard in a different way as well. It's hard learning to listen to each other and communicate more effectively, plan effectively, give feedback productively. Once in ten years have I written what I would call an algorithm. Mostly it's simple stuff like fetching data and validating it and transforming it so that it can be presented. But code evolves as you have to handle more edge cases and fix bugs, and making sure it doesn't become a total mess is just one hard part of working together in a large team.
-Question 5: what would you say is the most difficult part of software engineering?
Answer 5: Learning how to change the way you work and communicate as a team so that problems become easier to solve as a team. It's easy to write code. It's easy to see what mistakes were made in the past. But learning how to agree on what we should do next and how we should do it is very hard. Many companies do this very poorly. You can tell because planning meetings involve a lot of frustration and sometimes yelling. Very few companies do it well, but the important part is being able to reflect on and change the way you work together. Perfect communication is impossible, but constantly improving is totally possible. That ability to reflect on and improve is the mark of a company I want to work at, personally.
-Question 6: What has helped you in your journey to software engineering?
Answer 6: My first software job involved a lot of pair programming. This is where you work together, two people writing code on the same computer. You take turns typing, talk about what you're doing and why, and discuss different approaches to try to come to a better solution. This allowed me to learn incredibly quickly, and I was leading projects in my first six months on the job. But, conversely, adjusting to workplaces that don't do pair programming has been very hard for me, since my attention deficit makes it so much hard to focus and make the right choices working on my own.
-Question 7: Is there anything you personally think the IT field should improve on?
Answer 7: Standards for handling of private information. Data breaches are almost inevitable and the impact on users can be devastating. Frequently companies only learn how to do this well when bad things happen, and I think the industry could get better at solving this before the bad things
-Question 8: Is there anything you would like to say to incoming people in software engineering or IT in general?
Answer 8: Don't burn out! It's very easy to think you can work long hours forever, and for many of us that's not realistic. Learn early on to respect your own time. Take breaks, log off, take vacations. Learn to care for yourself early.