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Old 12-29-2014, 07:27 AM
 
311 posts, read 474,839 times
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As NJBest mentioned, there is a difference between being a true software engineer, and being a programmer. IMHO, being a true software engineer (who has a complete understanding of what the software is trying to accomplish, how to structure and code the system to complete the job, how the code will interact with hardware and human interfaces, etc.) provides much greater value to a company, and can lead to higher pay and better job security in the long run.

Again, just my experience from working with both breeds; your mileage may vary...
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Old 12-29-2014, 08:15 AM
 
3,452 posts, read 4,600,812 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ovi8 View Post
agree with this - even sitting there in front of code all day (CS/programmer) every day takes a special breed of personality. You may want to get your hands on more and the freedom to do that in web apps (I do coding, databases, and even some architecting for an account) has kept me going for over a decade now. I don't think I could sit in front of computer and do just java all day. Of course some jobs limit you - we have dedicated DBAs too but we are given a lot of freedom as far as access.
The company that I will be joining has several openings in many departments. I took the software developer position to get my foot in the door and see if this would be something that I would enjoy doing long term. My hopes are to work on the development side for a a couple of years and if things start to get bland make a push to another area of the company (business/finance/training) or look for a more interesting position in another company.

Like I said earlier. I will be coming from a completely different career field (higher ed). Whatever they have me do (development or software engineering) will be more interesting than what I did for the past few years. Looking forward to the challenge.

Thanks for comments all. Any other tips or advice on how to maximize my time in the field and make it enjoyable are greatly appreciated!
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Old 12-29-2014, 11:42 AM
 
Location: TN/NC
34,875 posts, read 30,967,773 times
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Prepare for long hours as a salaried employee, comparatively few benefits (if contracted), and openings dominated by staffing firms.
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Old 12-29-2014, 01:58 PM
eok
 
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One important point is to not be too creative. Creative personalities don't fit in that kind of organization. To earn a living as a creative software developer, it's best to have your own company, even if you can only do it as a hobby in your spare time at first. But over the long run, you have a chance at a huge fortune, if you're creative enough, and go in the right directions, predicting the future accurately enough. But on the other hand, who needs a huge fortune, when you can get a cushy job where all you really have to do is fit in well enough and eat enough ****? But the most creative people have to be creative, because it's part of who they are. So they have no real choice but to go for that huge fortune, and spend a lot of time in relative poverty getting there.
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Old 12-29-2014, 07:02 PM
 
24,488 posts, read 41,023,198 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ovi8 View Post
agree with this - even sitting there in front of code all day (CS/programmer) every day takes a special breed of personality. You may want to get your hands on more and the freedom to do that in web apps (I do coding, databases, and even some architecting for an account) has kept me going for over a decade now. I don't think I could sit in front of computer and do just java all day. Of course some jobs limit you - we have dedicated DBAs too but we are given a lot of freedom as far as access.
Everyone enjoys different things. I like the fact that there are other positions that offshoot from coding jobs. It gives an opportunity for those who can't cut it in the coding world other opportunities for growth.
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Old 12-29-2014, 07:03 PM
 
24,488 posts, read 41,023,198 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eok View Post
One important point is to not be too creative. Creative personalities don't fit in that kind of organization. To earn a living as a creative software developer, it's best to have your own company, even if you can only do it as a hobby in your spare time at first. But over the long run, you have a chance at a huge fortune, if you're creative enough, and go in the right directions, predicting the future accurately enough. But on the other hand, who needs a huge fortune, when you can get a cushy job where all you really have to do is fit in well enough and eat enough ****? But the most creative people have to be creative, because it's part of who they are. So they have no real choice but to go for that huge fortune, and spend a lot of time in relative poverty getting there.
I disagree with this completely. There's plenty of creative opportunity in corporate world.
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Old 12-29-2014, 07:12 PM
 
Location: Long Island
9,531 posts, read 15,813,308 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boo_Urns View Post
As NJBest mentioned, there is a difference between being a true software engineer, and being a programmer. IMHO, being a true software engineer (who has a complete understanding of what the software is trying to accomplish, how to structure and code the system to complete the job, how the code will interact with hardware and human interfaces, etc.) provides much greater value to a company, and can lead to higher pay and better job security in the long run.

Again, just my experience from working with both breeds; your mileage may vary...
TBH, I still have trouble wrapping my head around what a software engineer would do on a daily basis. Seems like a broad description - so it's supposed to be different than an architect, sounds like a more technical project manager, maybe a team lead of a development group. I read "understand" and "how it" this and that, but what do they actually do?
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Old 12-29-2014, 08:07 PM
 
311 posts, read 474,839 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ovi8 View Post
TBH, I still have trouble wrapping my head around what a software engineer would do on a daily basis. Seems like a broad description - so it's supposed to be different than an architect, sounds like a more technical project manager, maybe a team lead of a development group. I read "understand" and "how it" this and that, but what do they actually do?
Let me try an example here (and I promise to use as few wiggle words as possible )...

Lets say we are trying to build an application to simulate loads on a structure. A software engineer should ideally have some background in physics, and thus will be able to make reasonable initial guesses as to the storage required, inputs that will be provided, etc. Although a dedicated structural engineer or some other scientist will provide the actual equations to be computed, a software engineer will have an excellent math background and know how to most efficiently perform a finite element analysis; paying attention to algorithm speed, number of required iterations, required numerical stability, etc. A good software engineer will then understand how to optimize code to perform these computations; and know how to minimize memory usage, etc.

Most importantly, a software engineer will see what limitations exist in the application, and see how these limitations affect other components of outside his (or her) individual piece of code. The overall size of the structure to be modeled (for instance) may be limited by some algorithm; if this limitation is critical, the software engineer will work to change his algorithm to increase capability. OR he may push back, and determine that the required changes would be too complex, and not worth the potential gain to the overall system.

This example I gave applies to the creation of a specialized analysis tool, but in reality, software engineers are useful in almost any profession (finance, IT, electronics, internet, communications, radar, etc.). Its probably one of the most versatile jobs you can have.

A "programmer" simply writes code. They may be very good at writing neat, concise, and efficient code, but usually don't move a level "up" from coding to work with the overall system.
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Old 12-29-2014, 09:30 PM
 
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Most of the time FEM code is done by a physicist who knows C++. That is the case with most specialized science and simulation software.
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Old 12-30-2014, 05:01 AM
 
311 posts, read 474,839 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rzzzz View Post
Most of the time FEM code is done by a physicist who knows C++. That is the case with most specialized science and simulation software.
Yeah, I've seen it go both ways, at least for EM modeling; either a physicist with software experience, or a smart software engineer working closely with a physicist (as I noted in my post). Maxwell's equations haven't changed much recently, but the computer software and hardware to compute them has.

I'd be willing to bet that most companies who write modeling and simulation software have plenty of software engineers on the payroll.
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