• Python Snacks
  • Posts
  • 3 things I've learned in my career as a software engineer

3 things I've learned in my career as a software engineer

As someone who's considered "early career", here's 3 things I have learned.

I’m slightly deviating from my usual content (such as comparing Python packages or tutorials) for this one. I think it’s important to discuss my experience as a software engineer and some lessons I’ve learned over the years.

Working on critical systems with my job, wearing multiple hats (developer, tester/QA’er, operational support, etc), I’ve seen several different aspects of software engineering and how I can leverage my skill set to help solve problems

  1. I don’t code as much as I thought would

The amount of coding I don’t do is slightly mind-boggling. In college, I thought I’d be coding for the majority of my work, but it turns out that that’s not the case. More often times than not, I’m finding myself (especially currently) writing code to do one-off analysis/scripts.

I’m also finding myself collaborating with stakeholders in the application, troubleshooting operational issues, writing documentation, and so much more. While it’s important to be able to code, you’ll also need to have another set of skills to be able to communicate with others.

  1. Be aware of the code that’s already written

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to re-write some visualizations for reporting to management or having to write some logic that would make sense to have in the code base (and turns out that it is and I wasn’t aware).

I could’ve saved many hours and many headaches rewriting the same code over and over again had I built myself my own API and knew what was already in the code base.

  1. The programming language of choice is just a means of solving a problem

Let me repeat that - the programming language of choice is just a means of solving a problem. What I mean by this is that it doesn’t matter if you choose Java, Python, C++, Rust, Lisp (dear gosh…). The language that you choose to develop in contains a suite of tools to help you solve whatever problem you’re facing.

It’s not a question of “what should I write this in”, but rather “will the language I choose be the right choice for my situation”. For example, if you’re working with the LAMP stack, you may not want to necessarily be writing in assembly as there’s clearly a huge contrast between the purpose of both languages.

📧 Join the Python Snacks Newsletter! 🐍

Want even more Python-related content that’s useful? Here’s 3 reasons why you should subscribe the Python Snacks newsletter:

  1. Get Ahead in Python with bite-sized Python tips and tricks delivered straight to your inbox, like the one above.

  2. Exclusive Subscriber Perks: Receive a curated selection of up to 6 high-impact Python resources, tips, and exclusive insights with each email.

  3. Get Smarter with Python in under 5 minutes. Your next Python breakthrough could just an email away.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Interested in starting a newsletter or a blog?

Do you have a wealth of knowledge and insights to share with the world? Starting your own newsletter or blog is an excellent way to establish yourself as an authority in your field, connect with a like-minded community, and open up new opportunities.

If TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media platforms were to get banned, you’d lose all your followers. This is why you should start a newsletter: you own your audience.

This article may contain affiliate links. Affiliate links come at no cost to you and support the costs of this blog. Should you purchase a product/service from an affiliate link, it will come at no additional cost to you.

Reply

or to participate.