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by pavel_lishin 701 days ago
I think you can have an SE track with the appropriate amount of CS background. You'd have to, to be a functional engineer. (Then again, some I've worked with...)

One reason I also wish I'd gone along an SE track is that it would likely have given me a lot more experience actually doing what I do for work. Using version control, working with others in a group setting, actually making software.
2 comments
laurencerowe 701 days ago
Having done a software engineering degree (albeit 25 years ago now) you should probably not expect it to be any more practical in that way. We had only a handful of extra mandatory modules over the CS requirements (I think on working on larger systems) but no extra practical programming.
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red-iron-pine 701 days ago
> Using version control, working with others in a group setting, actually making software.

aye, this. in my experience hard part isn't doing the actual coding bits, it's ironing out the Requirements, stuffing them into JIRA, building the Interface document to cover what we're coding, writing documentation, and making sure the new guy doesn't break the version control.

Coding the specification isn't hard once we have them. A lot of that is outsourced in my org, esp. fluff related to a few areas like UX. But the hard part is getting there, and the engineering processes and mentality to do so.

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