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Things I Wish I Was Told Before Becoming A Software Engineer

Maddy on August 10, 2022

1. Years of Experience Are Not Equal to Organic Experience Software engineering is different from other fields. Someone may claim to ha...
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Arun Kumar

this doesnt directly apply to software engineering, but i wish someone told me marks (grades) are meaningless in school. im from india and here parents, teachers in schools and relatives always make a huge deal out of scoring marks. i never got good marks at tests and exams and i always see fellow boys and girls who gets high marks in my class getting high respect from all elders and teachers. this always made me feel im lesser than them. after completing my bachelors in CS i was convinced i will never become a programmer because i got a 6.4 instead of a 9.x. i didnt even try for getting an internship. if it wasnt for my uncle who forced me to chase a job in IT, i wouldnt be here at all. and those peers who were scoring high grades in school and college either didnt try to start a career in IT or have significantly less experience and knowledge than me because they pursued a 4 year degree instead of the 3 year old one i took.

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Maddy

I think grades matter only when you're looking for your first role ever. Once you have 1+ year of experience, no one cares about grades anymore.

Anyway, I see what you mean. I have Nigerian parents, and grades, school and university are a huge deal in Nigerian culture.

I'm grateful for that though, because in the end I know my parents want the best for me. However, sometimes I struggle making them understand that there's more to life than grades.

Some people don't excel at school, but they may excel in other areas of life. And it's okay too!

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Ogunkola Adeola

Kudos. Great Article!

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Orie Ben

Well spoken, it's inspires me.

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Subhasish Nath

An eye-opening article. Thanks.

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Andreas Jakof

Coding is just one part of the entire software development lifecycle.

Sad, but so very true!

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Andrew Baisden

You made some great points that resonate with me.

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Andreas Jakof

In the end, software engineering is a profession. And your profession is not your identity.

Second that.... You are you and you just happen to work within your profession.

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Koethan

Great article, I'll keep these in mind!

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Andreas Jakof

By "organic", I mean time when you're actively involved in the software development lifecycle

What then is "non-organic"? I am a developer and I cannot imagine calling me that, when I was "just" sitting in an office doing some IT project management.

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Maddy

There are some developers that claim to have 20 year experience, but in reality they've been doing the same things over and over again for 20 years. aia hope this makes sense.

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Andreas Jakof

Ahhh…. That clears it up quite nicely. Thank you!

So how „broad“ would you set this repetition. Is doing Web-Dev for 20 years such a case or if you create the bazillionth Page the same way.

The matter is obvious, but the first also sticks to the same paradigm, yet the field is VERY broad.

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Makar

"You can only compete against the older version of yourself."

Genius!