What is the most rewarding aspect of an engineer work place?
I interned last summer at an software engineering company, and I found it difficult to appreciate the work that went on there. I'm interested to know if this work environment appeals to certain people. #computer-engineering #software-engineer #data-engineer #interns
4 answers
Amanda’s Answer
This is a really great question. Also, your transparency is wonderful. Thank you for sharing your less than stellar experience!
I spent years thinking I had chosen the wrong field of work. The work was confusing and chaotic. I did not feel like I was appreciated nor was my work appreciated. And I was starting to feel dumb, despite having graduated valedictorian of my high school class! Long story short, I had to learn the difference between "work" and "work culture". My work was fine but my work culture was not.
Do you like engineering? Do you like details and stringing them together? Do you not mind significant research, testing, reading/learning, and intellectually-focused time? If so, most likely the work (engineering) is for you!
The work itself will differ little from job to job, company to company. What will differ is the work culture! That can make or break your experience. You can even think you chose the wrong field! You may start thinking you hate engineering! You probably don't. At least, I found out that I had confused the work culture (of some of my jobs) with the work itself.
You mentioned "this work environment". Could you describe that? I do not know what you experienced. But I can guarantee you that there's a wide range of work cultures within software engineering.
I love collaboration, conversation, human-to-human contact, the learning process, teaching and explaining, and also coding! But not all coding environments really encourage those things! In fact, some of them will encourage none of the things in that list except for the last one! I've found working on teams with female engineers is frequently different because they've tended to be more verbal which is a fantastic experience. (Although I can think of one male engineer who might be the most verbally gifted engineer I know!)
Before writing off engineering, I encourage you to try a few more jobs. In the interviewing process, make sure you are interviewing them! Ask about the work culture! Do they work you to the bone or do they have work/life balance? Do they encourage/allow mob or pair programming? (If they do, they definitely are into collaboration which can be a lot of fun and a tremendous way to learn!) Are there other female engineers or will you be blazing a trail? Here's one of the most important questions to ask: do they allocate time during the work day to learn OR do you have to learn new skills on your own time (which is very, very stressful and not conducive to high quality work ... and high quality work is so much more fun!).
Test out a few more work cultures and make sure you can differentiate between the work itself and the work culture.
Engineering is fun! Best of luck to you!
Oh, in answer to your actual question (what is the most rewarding aspect): collaboration, creativity, and seeing your work come to life!
Wael’s Answer
I think the most rewarding thing about engineering is to see your work come alive and function the way you wanted it to. Have you worked on a program and experienced it working properly?
Agree with Wael. Working with network design engineers to create a network solution, and integrating to hardware into the field, and seeing the "lights" come on is exciting/rewarding.
Kevin Miller
Pete’s Answer
Adding to Wael's and Kevin's comments, it can be extremely satisfying simply going trough the creative/collaborative experience of working as a team on challenges. Having quiet time to focus uninterrupted on a specific problem certainly is necessary sometimes, but the best ideas often come from collaboration.
Kevin’s Answer
A couple examples of network deployment I've supported are Verizon FIOS and AT&T U-verse.