In today’s world software engineering is omnipresent in the lives of billions of human beings around the globe. We rely on software systems for many aspects of our daily lives, from communicating to navigating or performing our daily tasks.
So the need for good software engineers is obvious. Consequently, software engineering careers have become one of the most in-demand positions in the past decade.
More and more college students are choosing a career path in this industry and the competition is getting fiercer each year. But once you graduate in software engineering, you can’t just consider your expertise complete. You have to keep up with new developments in the field and keep growing your skillset.
The software development industry is changing rapidly and you have to keep evolving in order to become and remain a good software engineer.
Be more than a software engineer
You need to grow your expertise in order to evolve and stay up to date with the variety of demands from a fast-growing market. In this industry, most of the technologies get outdated in just a few years and you may find it necessary to develop a new set of skills.
It is true that some fundamental skills will help you no matter what your expertise is. The basic skills like knowledge of data structures, computer science fundamentals, operating system design, algorithms, compilers, networking, databases or prioritization are a “must-have” for any software engineer.
Beside this basic set of skills a software engineer must also have certain specialized skills like:
- Mobile development or distributed systems
- Machine learning
- Sensors and artificial intelligence
- Robotics
Stay always up to date
In this industry rapidly growing trends have an impact on software engineering careers. Rapid delivery, virtualization, mobile devices and cloud computing are just a few key trends that you have to keep in mind if you want to stay up to date.
From medical and surgical equipment to automobiles and home appliances, the field of software has grown to cover many aspects in our daily lives.
The field of software engineering is expanding to meet client specific development and support. Keeping in mind that this industry is changing rapidly in terms of trends there will always be a “what’s next?” for a good software engineer.