Software Engineering Jobs

The Software Engineer

What Types of Jobs Can One Get as a Software Engineer?

If you’re interested in getting a computer science degree, you probably want to know about the types of jobs one can get as a software engineer. This term is a modern way of referring to the practice of computer programming, as opposed to its theory, which is referred to as computer science. Software engineers use established engineering practices to ensure that software development is rigorous, practical, timely and cost-efficient.
As a software engineer, you may work for a large corporation or a small business developing, analyzing and testing software. Other software engineering roles include infrastructure maintenance, product support, configuration management and systems testing. All of these roles are combined together into a development team that works with IT and marketing departments to produce software that meets customer demand.
When you first start out as a software engineer, you’ll work under the supervision of a senior developer who analyzes the customer demands laid out by the marketing department and then delegates responsibility to the members of the team. You’ll most likely work as a developer at this stage, and after you gain some experience, you may be promoted to senior developer or quality assurance specialist.

How to Become a Software Engineer

In addition to receiving a bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineers must have excellent programming skills and a strong understanding of software design practices. During your computer science education, you’ll learn programming theory, discrete mathematics, formal language theory, software design and the basics of C++ programming. During your senior year, you may develop applications using C++, but most of your programming experience will probably come from an outside source.
The programming experience you receive during college will establish the fundamental aspects of compiler design, appropriate use of data structures and basic object-oriented programming. You can gain application development experience by working on open-source projects, taking on freelance jobs and applying for internships.
When interviewing for a software engineering job, you will need to show that you fully understand the concepts you learned in college. Be prepared to solve programming problems such as converting a looping function to a recursive function, reducing the complexity of a function and proving that your program runs in polynomial or linear time and produces the correct output.

What Is the Job Outlook for Software Engineers?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, software engineers can expect above-average job opportunities. As the demand for software grows across the world, the need for software engineers continues to increase. However, many companies reduce costs by outsourcing these jobs to countries with lower wages. This practice isn’t expected to severely impact the U.S. job market because of the close relationship software engineers must have with consumers.
As well as developing and testing applications, software engineers can find employment in cyber security, healthcare systems development, mobile application development and embedded software development. Embedded software is also referred to as firmware and is used to control the behavior of electronic appliances such as cars, toasters and GPS devices.

 Computer science has grown exponentially from its beginnings as a simple, mechanical method for solving arithmetic equations to its current dominance over everyday life. With the proper education and training, there is almost no limit to the types of jobs one can get as a software engineer.