It’s not just about coding and technical skills. Three years ago, I entered the corporate world for the first time with many assumptions and expectations about how things would look. I had no idea how wrong I was going to be proven. When things don’t go the way you expected, you end up learning and growing. Here are 5 of my top lessons from my last three years as an entry level software engineer and different types of software engineer programs and their salaries.
# 1 – It’s Not Just Coding
This was the first and most important thing that I realized right after I entered the software industry. When I was in college, I thought my role as a software engineer would be to write code every day for something that my superiors asked me to do. However, once I stepped in, it didn’t take me long to realize that coding was hardly a part of my overall job. I spent most of my time brainstorming solutions, learning technology, validating concepts, presenting my solution to others, writing tests, code reviews, documentation, etc. All of these activities are equally important to ensure a successful release of software to production; therefore, the better you do this task, the better you will perform as an entry level software engineer.
# 2 – Soft skills are very important!
I used to wonder why there is so much emphasis on soft skills in the process of hiring an entry level software engineer. What does a technical role have to do with my communication skills? However, at work, I was often required to clearly formulate and communicate my thoughts to others, understand other people’s thoughts and work with them in a team. Think of it this way – we are human and we will deal with other people at work, and that is also most of the time. The only way to communicate effectively with people is to incorporate top-notch interpersonal skills into your arsenal.
# 3 – Accept boring things
After just a few months as an entry level software engineer, I became disillusioned with the amount of boring things I did in my job. Test writing, code review, documentation, bug fixing, profiling, monitoring, and more. I hated them. It was only when I saw the influence of each of them that I realized how important they are. For example, the tests revealed most of the bugs long before the release, the documentation helped the newbies understand the system and get started faster, the code review ensured the high quality of the code. In short, all these actions contributed to the release of high quality software, which, in turn, made life easier for everyone.
The next time you’re assigned a boring assignment, take a step back and determine how it will affect you. It won’t seem boring anymore.
# 4 – The faster you learn and adapt, the better
Very often on my travels I was given some kind of job that I was completely unaware of. I was then tasked with learning and figuring out what to do and how to do it. It made it pretty obvious to me that the faster I learned, the better I could handle such tasks. In addition, quite often people around me moved to another project, to another technology stack, or to another organization. All such scenarios required a person to study and adapt before they were of any use. The sooner you learn and start working right away, the better.
# 5 – It’s all about the result
When I started out, I was very nervous asking for a break or taking a break in between. However, after a few months, it became apparent that I was no longer in a tough college environment. The only thing that mattered was whether I finished my work on time or ahead of schedule or not. As long as you can get your item delivered on time, your breaks or weekends won’t matter much. It’s all about the result!
Different Types of Programming Engineers
In general, there are three different types that a technician programmer (software engineer) can fall under – entry-level , junior and senior . Despite the fact that these consoles are most often used in the IT field, you can find them in other areas as well. What’s the difference between them?
For starters, different tags for the same job may have different meanings. First of all, they help determine the skill level for the desired specialist. To make it easier for you to understand, let’s try to take the profession of a photographer as an example.
If you have never worked with photography professionally, but want to start doing it, then you will be a beginner photographer. Once you gain some experience, you can move up to the next level – Junior Photographer. Finally, if you decide to devote your life to this art, you will most likely be able to achieve the rank of senior photographer. This is not suitable for all professions, but you get the point?
Various tags are used for a reason. You will immediately notice that this affects wages – does it make sense if people with different skill levels receive different wages? This is one of the main reasons why software engineering itself, salaries and conditions in it are so diverse. In addition, different tags can give you different benefits.
So with that said, let’s take a look at the different types that programmer jobs in this space can offer you.
Engineer Programmer Entry Level
An aspiring software engineer is not the kind of person who boasts good working conditions compared to the other two groups. However, a novice software engineer usually does not do the same amount of work as his more experienced colleagues!
Entry level software engineers are most often people who have just graduated (or not yet) from university and are now looking for a stable job. However, they still have little or no real work experience as a programmer. To be honest, even this level is not easy to achieve. There are many aspiring professionals who leave this field in just a couple of weeks – this is a difficult profession! Especially if they have not fully realized how much they will have to learn in the future.
Read : The best programming languages according to the type of development
Junior Engineer Programmer
This is the position you are likely to meet much more often than others. The reason for this is the large size of this group – this group can include both an entry level software engineer and a senior one.
A junior technician programmer is someone who already has some experience in certain engineering projects and already understands the intricacies of their position. Just like the entry-level specialists, they still continue to study and receive training assignments. However, the main difference is that they can also work on complex projects.
In addition to this, a junior software engineer is often tested to assess the quality of his knowledge and to expand it. This is done so that specialists continue to develop in their field, since the high-tech sector never stands still.
Most of the software engineering itself, the salary and conditions for junior programmers are hard to analyze. We will talk about this a little later, but at this point you should understand that there are very good reasons for this.
Senior Engineer Programmer
Last on this list, the Senior Software Engineer is the most respected and experienced veteran of the industry. Senior engineers, as the name suggests, have dedicated their lives to studying, analyzing and improving their software engineering skills.
These people usually have completely different tasks when compared to the other two types. They work on the most important and complex parts of the project, and also participate in the overall development management process.
I think it will not be a secret for anyone that the position of a senior software engineer in a company implies special working conditions and high wages. However, it should be borne in mind that not everyone will have such skills and knowledge without proper work on themselves. The responsibilities of overseeing several different projects are very complex – no wonder working as a programmer becomes very lucrative in the long run.
Entry Level Software Engineer Salaries
Entry-level professionals cannot count on big bucks. However, depending on the company (which hired you), the values can reach quite good marks.
PayScale.com estimates the average annual salary for a software engineer at $ 78,000 USD or $ 6,500 USD per month.
You probably thought that this is several times the average salary in some countries – what little money can we talk about ? Well, let me explain.
Before you start admiring such numbers, consider how difficult this profession is. It can take a person several years to become more or less proficient in software engineering. This, in turn, leaves its mark on higher wages in contrast to other areas of activity.
