Interview: The Life Of A Software Engineer

3. What kind of education and experiences did you need prior to starting your current job?

I got a bachelor’s degree in Embedded Software Engineering, which is comparable to Computer Science, but with a focus on microcontrollers. Eventually, I felt that Embedded Software Engineering wasn’t for me: a little too much right-brain and not enough left-brain. However, the fundamentals that I learned during this study have been very valuable to me. A solid basis in requirements analysis & specification, software architecture, software design, design patterns, data structures and algorithms, separates software engineers from programmers. To me, Software Engineering is so much more than writing code. I really like the mental exercise of creating a framework or architecture for an application or software that spans multiple systems. Making sure that it’s maintainable, robust, scalable and modifiable, while adhering to the requirements. For me, this is the true art of Software Engineering.

5. How does your typical day at Mediaan look like?

When I am working from home, I start my day with a 25 min jog. After freshening up and having breakfast, I log into the projects I’m working on. I use this time to check the status of my current project and plan my day. This also includes supporting other team members or doing code-reviews. In the morning, teams usually have their daily stand-ups, where we discuss the progress of the projects we’re working on. We also discuss any impediments and see if we can resolve them at a later time. I try to plan my meetings in the morning, to make sure that after lunch I can get a stretch of ‘uninterrupted’ time to work. During lunchbreak, I go for a walk or find other colleagues or friends for an online game or chat. Or when I’m at the office, we usually take a stroll to the local supermarket and when returning we’ll go for a few rounds of Super Smash Brothers on the big screen. After lunch is focus time.

On the organizational level, thanks to the agile processes, but also a paradigm shift in how we view work in general, software engineers are now at the forefront of innovation with the rest of the team and everyone’s expertise. Personally, I’ve come to enjoy this dynamics a lot. I think the team and the way it functions is the most important thing and supporting others is extremely important.

8. What attributes make a Software Engineer successful?

Obviously, the type of switches in your mechanical keyboard! I personally use Cherry MX Blue switches. The louder my keyboard is, the better my code is going to be. Gotta give it the credit!

No, all jokes aside, I think some communication skills and a cooperative mindset are very valuable. This might sound a bit counter-intuitive because I’m sure we all have this stereotypical image of a programmer in our heads. So why? Well, for many reasons: working within a multidisciplinary team, asking for requirements and clarification, communicating with non-technical people – the list really goes on and on. Good news! All of this can be learned, and these skills will last you forever. My personal challenge right now is finding the balance between pragmatism and perfectionism. I think healthy perfectionism is a desirable trait but once you get stuck in perfectionism-mode, things can spiral downhill quickly. I’ve found myself working overtime on tweaks and little things that only I would recognize. Great software engineers have the ability to make both quick & dirty hacks, elegant & robust solutions, and the instinct to choose which is appropriate at a given time.

Software engineers have become very diverse over the years: there are people who are hardcore analytical, people who have a creative side, and people who had a recent career switch, let’s say someone who moved from psychology into engineering. I feel this diversity is very complimentary to the products we build today because a lot of different fields are now involved. Everyone brings something unique to the table, and therefore the company should nurture everyone’s individual ability.

As someone new to the field, focus on building software, and working on your programming skills. Trying to keep up with every new kid on the block, will result in not developing your skills as best as possible. The true danger is the cycle of ending up believing that a problem can only be solved if you just had this new technology available. Another tip for new programmers on this topic is that a framework’s main purpose is to provide a mental model to us humans. It is a way to divide a complex system into logical parts that make sense to us, so that we can keep developing, maintaining, extending, or changing the system. Keep that in mind when exploring new frameworks: “Does this mental model make sense to me, my team, and my project?” (Also: KISS!). The conclusion? It’s all about a healthy balance. Designate that time to explore because it’s important, but work on those fundamentals. There are new technologies, frameworks or paradigms that are solid and worth finding. But in the end, it’s not about the tools itself. It’s about what you can do with them.

It’s also good to have a passion project or maybe even do micro-hacks. The goal? Simply have fun. You will find different challenges than in your day-to-day coding and hopefully find yourself totally immersed. Doing something you love as a job can sometimes make you forget why you started in the first place. It’s important to stay in touch with that feeling and your intrinsic motivation.