WHY SOFTWARE ENGINEER?

what is a software engineer/development?

Technology it’s always been here since before we were born, it’s like air, we’re surrounded by it but maybe we don’t even noticed it because we’re so into the social media nowadays and day by day keeps growing, improving and getting bigger. (Unless everyone’s like Clark Kent living in a farm with no any type of computer or smart devices, BUT even the ship where he came from, is an advanced alien technology, of course there’s some software engineer behind it, and must have a piece of information code that led him to earth, making sure the ship works properly and working like a gps.)

Reference of the technology from krypton (Man of steel)

Why is technology going to rule the world? (In a good way, we’re not expecting something like “Genesys” from Terminator)

As you, me and everyone in the world see, the technology is growing fast, especially with almost everything started being “smart”, cellphones, TVs, smartwatches, cars, fridge, washer, dryers, etc. But everything could be worthless if it’s not programmed, it needs guide to do what it needs to do, it needs a software, a piece of code, etc; so, they can know what it needs to do, react or learn (in the case of AI), without software, they were just simple devices with simple functions like in the 90’s where technology was a little limited in that time but growing.

In other words, technology is shaping the world. I won’t be impressed if someday we have AI assistants as “Jarvis”, in fact, we already have them.. Well, sort of.. These are few of them: Siri, Google, Alexa, Cortana, etc.

Why did I decide software engineer?

In my early age, before high school, I saw a video where some guys where their jobs were playing with a console for long hours, and I thought “that’s really cool, I want to do that too someday” but later I noticed that they weren’t just regular guys playing for long hours and get paid, they were actually game developers looking for any mistakes, bugs, glitch, etc. so they can fix it and keep improving the game before launch it.

Games Devs doing their job

That was my first step on showing interest in the technology world, that was just the beginning but it didn’t mean that I was interested in software development right away, but that feeling of being part of software development someday, was and always be there, I finished high school, and university, but nothing to do with any technology career, only on the side experimenting and doing just by curiosity, programming or changing things from the smartphone and pc, I did many crazy things that I don’t even remember how I did it, I know many people had this experience before, like once I bought a laptop with ubuntu, and then I deleted ubuntu and reinstall windows, everything with a pen drive and some steps different than the regular way, and I don’t even remember how I did it!.

So, for me, why I decided Software Development? like I said before, that feeling of being part of the tech world was always there, even more when you see it in the movies, tv series, in person, etc. I have some friends who are software developers, and I had the opportunity to saw them working on something, but I really didn’t know what they were doing, and he said “see this? It’s a beauty of a code” and I was like (poker face?) I didn’t understand of course (yet, but soon or later, I will).

What I learned is, that you’re always have to keep learning/updating something new, in any career of coding/developer you choose , generally speaking, you’re always have to be willing to keep learning so you won’t stay behind, and always improving, that’s why I love languages, because is literally learning another language but in software/coding terms, no matter what school, university or bootcamp you want to attend, not even a degree means everything, all depends on how you develop your skills, and if you’re studying this just to find a better job, it’s ok, but if you started liking this like I do, everything would be a little easier, because you’re literally learning something you like and love.

And besides having/looking for a better job, just trying to have a mindset of keep learning, experimenting, testing and building things on the side, nobody knows what you can build something and be so useful like Zoom, that we use it almost everyday to take meetings or classes, and in my opinion, not just build things for ourselves, we should build things to help, serve and connect people, companies, hospitals, business, etc.

Here are some great examples of people who did great things with software engineer skills (few of them didn’t even finish university):

1. Bill Gates with the Microsoft that make common people use the computer easily.
2. Steve Jobs founded the NeXT computer company, which developed an operating system that Apple eventually acquired to help boost its own line of personal computers. (you know the rest)
3. Linus Torvald with his legendary Unix Kernel that drove the development of so many open source operating system.
4. Mark Zuckerberg with his Facebook that change the way people interact and communicate with other people.
5. Larry Page & Sergey Brin with their Google that we all know what it is about.

So, in my case, I had an opportunity through the company I’m working with right now, and I told myself “why not take a chance, who knows?” so I just gave it shot, maybe I’m in my third week of class while I’m writing this, but while I’m keep learning, at the beginning it seems kind of challenging, but you just have to change your mindset, do whatever you need to do and keep moving on.

I appreciate everyone who took his time to read my first blog, even if it’s as an assignment for a career program that I’m in, I enjoyed doing this blog, maybe it wasn’t as professional as you expected, but hey, there’s a first time for everything. I’m grateful for this opportunity, and hope everyone who started their career as a software engineer/developer can successfully achieve their goals! Never settle!