What kind of tasks software engineer usually gets?

[shean1488]

Hi everybody,
I wasnt sure were to post this message, and I post it here.
So I'm a CS major student, and I do have a pretty good knowledge of java, far away from college. Just what to ask people who works in the software industry about their job. I was alway wondering what kind of tasks you guys usually doing? I mean how does it work?
And if someone could get an example of what you have to do (in the professional level) like you would get from your boss, it would be great! I just want to check my skills and see if I'm good enough!
P.S. Please give me as much examples/tasks etc... And also how much time you have to complete it....

Thank you!!!

[Ab000dy_85]

I am not sure,
but usually for beginner, \
-usually get tasks like find this type of bug and how it happen then find a solution.
-Add something new to an existing software.
-modify some software to match a new customer need and requirements.

but software engineer usually higher level, in dividing the higher level task to every software guy, then combine all work together.

some takes sound soo complicated, but when finding the solution, isnt bad,
maybe less than an hour,
some tasks sound soo easy but everything you do, after finishing it, you find yourself adding more into it.
soo time isnt an issue sometime, because you get alot of help from software guys around you,

sometime they dont even do it because it sound tough, but when you finish it,
u get good reputations lol

[stultuske]

I was alway wondering what kind of tasks you guys usually doing? I mean how does it work?

writing software .. I'm afraid that's about as 'specific' I can be, since what kind of depends on the project you're on. if you start as a consultant, it's possible each few months you start at another client, working a completely different sort of application, allthough most companies would keep you a bit for clients which are looking for developers with experience in the kind of code you've already code, so, if your last few projects were web applications, chance is pretty good your next one will be too.

And if someone could get an example of what you have to do (in the professional level) like you would get from your boss, it would be great! I just want to check my skills and see if I'm good enough!

what do you mean: example? most professional developers can't go into detail on stuff like this, because if they would they would violate their contract, and risk getting fired.
just try and imagine any type of software or web application that can be used or that could be sold for profit, that might just be the kind of software you'll be working on.
whether it's a GUI application linked to a DB keeping track of patient records in a hospital, or a web application which is supposed to be some competition for e-bay, but only for IT related material. (just examples)
so far, I've only mentioned applications, but there 's much more. you can be asked to develop a plug-in for existing software or to create a service that will be used by applications. any way you look at it, the possibilities are endless.

P.S. Please give me as much examples/tasks etc... And also how much time you have to complete it....

the best examples are those you think of yourself. if you need (for instance) a calendar application and don't want to use one like the one from Outlook: write one yourself. you can add all the functionalities you yourself need and you would be learning a lot in the process. what you also can do, is make it a bit a 'team project', or set up a site where others can follow your progress and help you out if you have questions.

how much time you get to complete it: that depends on the task. if the problem is a mathematical calculation goes wrong and needs correcting, I think you understand they won't give you as much time to solve this as when they want you to write a complete service from scratch.

[SasseMan]

I work at a software company that makes retail enterprise systems. I started hereright out of the university and have been working for about a year. The first couple of moths they gave me some time to familiarize myself with the systems and the code. I started of with minimal help/education from other engineers and then a lot of bugfixing, which they thought was a good way for me to learn and for them to evaluate if I was good enough.

Now after the learning period the work can be quite varying. Our requirements and roadmap team gathers info from different sources (customers, engineers...) and prioritizes work that needs to be done. In our team we look at the roadmap and plan sprints (we work with scrum). At the scrum meetings we divide up the work between ourselves and then do the work. It can be anything from bug fixing, buissness logic implementation, country customization, refactoring old (bad) code, researching new ideas, making implementation proposals, updating/writing documents, helping customer customiziation teams, making unit tests and other tests...

Our boss (The product manager) doesn't tell us directly what to do, he is responsible for what comes into the release/sprints and other stuff. While planning sprints we try to break down tasks into subtaskt and determine as good as we can the time it will take, and we only put in as much tasks in the sprint that we think we have time to do. More often that not we underestimate the time for tasks, but we still mostly get the work done.

To summarize we try to be agile and weight how we want to technically improve the system with what customers want.

[shean1488]

Thanks for every body! your answers was really helpful!