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What career path do most software engineers take and how do they normally end up?

I am in 10th grade and have some experience with software engineering. What career path do most software engineers take and how do they normally end up?

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Jasen’s Answer

I started programming by taking a "Introduction to C++" class at a community college while I was in high school to see if I would like it. That was my only exposure to programming before I pursued it further.

Most software developers that I have met usually go to college and focus on getting either Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering. This is true for any software industry they're in whether its video games, mobile, back-end, web, etc. My understanding is that it was typically the only major that's usually offered at universities.

In my experience, I wanted to get into game development so that's what I focused on. After college, I started at a game company where I working on tools for the game developers. I eventually worked on consoles and and mobile games. I have since then moved on towards mobile apps where I then got more into engineering management.

A key thing to keep in mind while you're learning is you'll enjoy working on certain aspects of software more than others which tends to guide you into a certain career. In my case, I wanted to work on video games so I focused on that first. After a few years, I transitioned into mobile app development after making a small app and seeing it being used. It required learning new tools and new languages but I really enjoyed the feedback I got from users. After all those years combined, I wanted to start mentoring other developers which the skills and knowledge that I've learned so I wanted to get more into management.

Jasen recommends the following next steps:

What makes you interested in Software Engineering? Any favorite apps or websites you really enjoy using?
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Sumeet’s Answer

Great question!

Having a strong foundation in software gives you opportunities that are much broader. As a software engineer, you get to work on products or solutions for many industries across many functions. If any of those industries or functions catch your imagination, you can leverage your relations to branch out into those fields.
I will give you my example. I completed BS in Computer Science and started working as a Software developer for a consulting firm. I started with working on a solution for Retail (automating the back-end). From there I moved on to working to automating billing for a gas utility. Neither of these engagements caught my imagination. I moved on to working for a wireless provider - building the back-end system to activate devices on network switches, front-end systems to help employees service customers. This industry really caught my imagination and I decided to join full-time as an employee. I got to work on lots of great projects as a Software developer, and later as an Enterprise Architect. I loved the industry and company so much that I wanted my own ideas implemented and I leveraged my contacts to start working in Marketing organization. I have now moved across multiple roles from Marketing to Corporate Strategy, to Business Intelligence and have enjoyed every role.

Sumeet recommends the following next steps:

Train yourself ... through school or on your own
Implement your ideas or work/volunteer to develop software for someone
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Brock’s Answer

I don't personally code or produce software, but have more then a few contacts who do. Getting your foundations in coding in current languages is a great start. Python etc. The advice I would have is grow your learning skills. The thing about working in tech is that what you learn today or next year , or in college, could be outdated just a few years down the line. So always being connected to what the industry is moving to and learning at least a small amount before you need it puts you ahead.

Build and develop yourself to always be learning. That's primarily done with reading. Lots of reading. One place you can often get coding books and educational software is call the Humble Bundle. They sell heavily discounted packages of all sorts of things and I've gotten a number of good resources to help me in the aspects of IT I encounter with IOS and Android software support.
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Rodrigo’s Answer

Hi Jason

here are some examples of what you can be:

Data scientist
IT security specialist
Software engineer
Computer scientist
Database administrator
User experience designer
Network engineer
Systems analyst
IT technician
Web developer
Quality assurance tester
Computer programmer
Support specialist
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Ritu’s Answer

As a software engineer, you can work for companies or can work in other areas.
Please check a few open options.
1) Work for Information Technology or other departments in banking, telecom, pharma, retail, etc. domains.
2) Once you gain good experience, you can open your own business/start-up company, provided you have innovative ideas.
3) Work as a professor in colleges
+ there are more open options

If you are working for a software company, you can work as:
UX Designer
Web developer
Software Architect
Database administrator
Project Manager/Business Analyst
Support Specialist
Data Scientist
Cyber security analyst
Quality Assurance tester
IT Infrastructure Engineer/ IT Technician
and more...
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Bhaskar’s Answer

Software Industry is quite large and the skill tree and progression is almost like an RPG. You can enter it under a related job profile and move around until you find your passion in a particular task. Most software engineerings will carve out a career but being introspective and looking out for opportunities. Most of them find a liking to a particular technology ( coding in Swift iOS , Devops , cloud architecture ) and during the mid career ( software Engineer 3/4 at about 5 -10 yrs in the industry ) they would have figured out the technology they want to master, they challenges that are passionate to them and the work culture they want to indulge in.

Most of them end up in either technical track or management track. The culmination of which depends on the person and their abilities. The technical track is where you hone your skills in a particular technology (ex: creating mobile apps for gaming usually in front end (UI) or back end business logic implementation ) or getting into architecting bigger blocks and connecting systems . The management track is about working and leading the folks in the technical track so a lot of people skills required along with knowledge in the engineering field to help them navigate and find solution.
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Jolanta’s Answer

There are many areas you can pursue in engineering and technology. The trick is to find out which one(s) interest you the most. Is it creating back end servers? Database design? Working on the user interface (such as a web application)? Or graphic design? There are also support roles, testing roles, and more! I would recommend playing around with some front end and back end technologies to see what draws you in. For example, set up a home network, or build your own computer, or download different software and try it out. I started out creating an HTML page using notepad and a browser. From there I added CSS and javascript. This led me to a career in web application development using ASP and Java.
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Vineeth’s Answer

The number of efforts it will take you to get into that role combined with preferred experience that companies look for in those roles.

* Web Frontend Engineer
* Web Backend Engineer
* Full Stack Web Engineer
* Mobile Engineer
* Game/Graphics Development
* Data Engineering
* Machine Learning

Then there are roles in the Software Engineering Industry but are not exactly ‘Software Engineering’ like QA, DevOps. These roles are definitely valuable and no company can survive without them, but they aren’t actively around building Softwares
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