Software Engineering Vs School -- What's the Difference?

A core confusion for many new Computer Science graduates who land a role as an engineer is that their job is only partially about coding. Edsger Dijkstra once said:

Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

A software engineer is much more than a computer programmer. You're a point of contact for your team, and you better get used to working with tons of other... humans.

And humans are often harder than computers to deal with :)

1️⃣ Learn to push back on requests or features 2️⃣ Communicate the value of your work 3️⃣ Understand how career growth works at your company

This video covers the main areas in which being a software engineer diverges from being a computer science student. The earlier in your career that you are able to fully recognize and account for these differences, the sooner you can go from a simple low-level engineer “who just writes code” to a more senior actor that is able to push the direction of both your team and other teams in your organization.

• Read the blog post version of this
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Related resources:

• Working with your manager for promotion
• Masterclass on choosing a good team and company
• Masterclass about learning quickly in tech