5 Uncomfortable Truths About Software Engineering

[00:01] now most of the content on software engineering will tell you how great it earn a ton of money you get to work remotely and if you're in the office there's free food and drink as well as pool tables and games consoles what is

[00:13] there not to love about being a software developer well for one sorry to burst time to play that PS5 that's sitting in the lunchroom and there's actually quite telling you about a career in software development number one you're never

[00:26] going to be an expert there is so much to learn in software development that is expert in anything but a very specific field you essentially have two options as you can about one particular topic while remaining relatively clueless

[00:40] much as you can about lots of different topics and just get comfortable with the anywhere close to being an expert in any of them personally I prefer option two I'd much rather be a generalist that can adapt as new technologies come out

[00:54] basket and become good at just one thing and the thing is you're very likely to point in your career even if you do become an expert in one particular thing you're very likely to be acutely aware of everything that you're not good at at

[01:08] generalist route and you're trying to understand as much as you can about lots you don't get too distracted by shiny objects new programming languages and only a handful will ever really stick around you might never become an expert

[01:22] always switching to every new thing that comes out you won't even get to achieve a level of proficiency that you can be proud of number two is that burnout is learn in Tech it's no wonder that burnout is such a big issue there is

[01:36] with new technologies as they come out for example Microsoft is soon to release c-sharp 12 which has more syntax changes to the programming language but it was only six months ago that C sharp 11 came out how many changes do they need to

[01:49] make to a programming language on top of that when you're working as a developer work to complete and companies never seem to have enough developers to keep want to do this often results in tight deadlines and additional stress for all

[02:03] Industries are worse than others for this game development can be particularly bad as can fast-paced startups in some cases burnout can be self-inflicted I know when I look back at my career it's often just me that's

[02:15] pushing myself to work harder to learn everything I can to prove to myself and to others I deserve the success that I've received imposter syndrome is very real and it's really not healthy if you end up pushing yourself to burnout to

[02:28] try and overcome it number three is the fact that diversity is such a huge issue the career websites of the top tech companies and you'll see a vast mix of Ages races and gender in the photos that they're showing in some cases they

[02:41] aren't even that subtle when we'll just have an illustration instead however if you're watching this then there's a 95 chance that your male between the ages of 18 and 35. I know this from looking at my YouTube stats but it's also very

[02:53] common in the majority of tech companies as well in nearly every Tech job I've had there's only ever been a handful of women amongst frenchness and the majority of us have been in our 20s and 30s and this is a massive issue I've

[03:05] is more about solving problems than it is about writing code and Studies have shown that the more diverse a group is the quicker and more creative they are at solving problems if you're not one of the 95 that usually end up watching this

[03:18] comments I'd love to hear about your experience in Tech if you're liking this Weekly Newsletter the Curious engineer know to succeed in a career in Tech I'll put a link in the description so you can

[03:32] check it out number four is that the social skills matter a lot more than the senior engineering managers the VP of engineering or even the CTO it's that got them to where they are today most people in these positions are

[03:46] generalists rather than Specialists they have a broad knowledge of lots of necessarily an expert in any one of them and this is what you want from someone they're going to be writing much code anyway and you want them to have a broad

[03:59] business equally they need to be good the business and the engineers so if you have your site set on being the next CTO then you need to work on your communication and social skills more

[04:12] doesn't matter how good a programmer you are if people don't like working with Tech the last thing you need to realize is that your software is never going to then you may find software development incredibly hard there are always going

[04:27] you're not happy with and when you're working for a company you need to find the right balance between quality and speed sometimes there'll be things you release out the door you can tell yourself that you'll go back and make it

[04:41] better later but the chances are you probably won't get time on top of that application there's inevitably going to be some bugs in your code it's just the do your best to try and avoid them it's

[04:54] product that you can release this week is much better than a perfect product months if you like this video then please hit that like button it really helps with the algorithm and helps this video be found thank you for watching

[05:07] video be found thank you for watching and I will see you in the next video