Thread: Some Questions for Professionals

1) It depends on the person. Software engineering is most certainly not for everyone, it takes a certain type of personality and some otherwise undesirable traits to succeed most of the time.

2) I read plenty of books (I still do) and practice regularly, always trying to broaden my knowledge base and experience. Classes and seminars haven't proven helpful.

3) I really can't get much worse.

>Typo? Or not.
Freudian slip

I think Prelude already said all there was, but I'll try to put it in my own words

1. Would you recommend your career to others?

I would recommend this career to anyone who has fun doing it. It's not a 9-5 job, it's not something you can forget when you step out of the office door. If you get strangely effective programming ideas in the shower sunday morning, then this is a job for you. If you can't wait till friday to escape coding then I would not recommend it. It's not a job you can easily do as a 'job' only.

2. What did you do to prepare yourself for your career when you were in school, and after you graduated. Also what advice would you give to help people be prepared.

Reading books, programming things I liked. Not sure how many unfinished games I have dating back to Atari Basic times. If you see a reloplaying rulebook and think 'Hey, it would be cool to program a character generator' then trying this is preparation enough ( in addition to a formal education obvioulsy ).

3. What do you think the outlook for the field is in the future.

Not as much of a goldrush as it was in the 90s. It will become a field like any other.

>> 1. Would you recommend your career to others?
No. Like any other career, it's not always for everyone. It does require a certain trait as Prelude suggested.

For me, it's like a 9-5 job. I don't like being stuck in front of a computer all day and would rather spend my time doing other things. After I step out of work, I don't think about anything work-related until I go back the next morning. I do enjoy programming, but consider it as a job only and would not program as a hobby in my spare time. All I'm trying to say is you don't have to be a die-hard programmer to have success and enjoyment in this field.

>> 2. What did you do to prepare yourself for your career when you were in school, and after you graduated. Also what advice would you give to help people be prepared.
Besides learning in school, one of the most important things is networking. Know the right people can often land you a job. I got my job because I was able to get good recommendations from my summer work. The interviewers told me that was something that really popped out at them. I've gotten some of my friends jobs just because I passed their resumes to the managers who are hiring. Sure if there are better applicants, the better one will be hired. But if there are 2 equal applicants, the one with a good word put out for them will always get the job over the other one.

>> 3. What do you think the outlook for the field is in the future.
What everyone else said

3. Like many jobs in a faltering economy, it's more about who you know rather than what you can do. If you have decent skills, and know a few people, you can go really far. Otherwise you're stuck in the rat-pack. I'm a walking-talking example of that.