Software Engineering Anybody?

Edwards Finance > General Engineering

Q. What does it take to be a Software Engineer? Write some code? Using C++? Anything else? I see dozens of ads for those positions on the web and in news papers. Is it difficult to get into? I got a BS degree in Computer Information Systems in 1988. At the time nobody would hire me because I had no on the job experience. So I took another career path that paid less and is on the low end of job ladder. Now I see starting salary for a Software Engineer is $10 to $15 k higher per year than what I'm making after being in my current field for 10 years. Back in 88 I had a half semester of C. I did write code in Cobol, Fortran, Basic, Pascal, and Dbase 4. Somebody at work threw out some books on C++. So I picked them up and am looking at them. Is there anything else I can do to work my way back to Software Engineering?

A. -It seems to me that Software Engineering is the new phrase for "programmer". In my opinion, a Software Engineer should do more than program - design, analysis, etc. are important factors in true Software Engineering. You'll probably have trouble getting hired as a programmer unless you can demonstrate knowledge and/or skill in at least one of the Software Engineering disciplines (programming, analysis, etc.). A degree in CS woudd demonstrate this. You *might* be able to get in woithout a degree if you learn enough on your own and can get a foot in the door to conivince someone that you really do know your stuff. Of course, you'll probablyhave to write code to do that. Your surest bet would be to go back and get a CS degree. Once you've had a few classes, you could start looking at jobs - you already have a degree so a few class' worth of expreience may be enough to get started. Ane employer should look kindly on the fact that you're showing the initiaztinve to go back to school. -Software Engineering is a superset of computer science. Degree concentrations are only just now reaching mainstream universities. Not only do you need all the math you can gag on, including numerical analysis and etc., but you'll also need to know software testing, project analysis and design for a broad range of system complexities, standards compliance and it's associated testing, traditional systems analysis, and oh yes, some programming too. Experience in several computer languages and OS environments is almost essentisl.

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