Software Engineer
Career information and advice on being a Software Engineer

A Software Engineer is in charge of assembling extensive amounts of programming code into working applications, as well as updating and fixing problems in existing software. A software engineer can be referred to as a programmer, because the main duties of a software engineer involve programming computers.

There is an overlap between the terms software engineer and software developer or programmer.  The terms are often interchangeable.  Because of the connotations held by the term engineer, the title tends to be used in more often in research and development environments where stricter controls on development and testing are more prevalent, leading to a general perception that software engineers are more highly skilled than developers or programmers.

There are no agreed upon practices for licensing software engineers and so a person without formal training may be referred to as a software engineer.

Software Engineers are usually employed by either an in-house IT support unit, or by a software house developing new and maintaining existing software applications.

Closely related careers include Team Leaders, Development Managers and Project Managers. 

Working under a Project Manager, a Software Engineer could work closely with in-house or client design staff, test engineers and other in-house or client staff.  The exact team will depend on the technical area of the job to be carried out.

Your Functions May include

• research and document either client  or software application  requirements

• where applicable, work with other developer, design and marketing teams, including project managers, system analysts and other non-technical staff

• design structural code specifications  and development timelines and plans based on client or program requirements

• code and develop new software applications in required languages based on      specifications supplied

• code-level and application-level testing of new applications, error reporting to testing team

• modifying off-the-shelf or existing software for client requirements

• merge code from different applications through XML or other technologies

• investigating new technologies, keeping up-to-date on existing language portfolio or learning new language and technologies

• work with  technical authors detailing build and code specification surrounding project