Naveed Yaseen replied on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 08:14 PM
Following are some traits of software engineering as profession
• introverted personalities are usually more successful in this profession
• must have strong mathematics aptitude for excellence (i.e. staying on top) in career
• must keep learning fast changing technology for successful career
• for reason above, actually there is risk of getting career burnout if one cannot or does not keep up for some years, say 4-5 years
• for same reason, institution of degree (or even degree itself) doesn't matter much after some experience. one's previous work and current skills become his/her accreditation
• very diverse field. actually the term 'software engineering' alone is insufficient to encompass it's diversity. there are several tens of specialties. practitioners of one specialty usually cannot perform in others without some specific learning and experience. and thats one reason of career burnout. when one cannot or does not keep up-to-date with his specialty, he is not likely to get mid-career jobs in other specialties either
• every day is a new day in terms of work, no repetition
• sometimes the work gets incredibly complex (like math puzzles or... chess)
• combination of being new and being complex with time constraint is stressful on many (but some enjoy it like games)
If all above sound difficult, these apparent negatives are like natural merit, thus become positives for ones who have talents and instincts required to accomplish these. This enables them to utilize their talents better for themselves and society.
• pays/incomes are good
• demand is likely to stay strong for some decades, at least until IT hardware technology keeps improving (which pressurizes quick competitive upgrades in software) and until developing world's economies keep growing (which provides new opportunities of software utilization)
• no geographic licensing barriers (unlike most other technical careers)
• strictly speaking, even geographic proximity to workplace is usually not needed, if one can convince or impose it to corporate bureaucracies |
