7 Years of Software Engineering Advice in 18 Minutes

if there's one thing I'm good at after seven years of being a software engineer is definitely creating I started as a simple programmer or SL developer whatever you want to call it working in robotics then went into researching into human consciousness at UCLA as a research engineer then went into NASA as a computer engineer and finally ended my professional career as a software engineer consultant working for big four and throughout this entire Journey this entire seven years I actually got the opportunity to lead many multi-million dollar projects work with diverse stakeholders of Fortune 500 compan companies essentially just try a piece of the entire pie in every single aspect literally now I'm a business owner and entrepreneur and I see a lot of parallels between this life and that life what I wanted to do today is mainly make a video for those of you who are already existing software Engineers those of you who wish to become a software engineer or those of you who are somewhere in the middle and are just you know you have everything in your tool you have everything in Your Arsenal and are just looking to find a job but are having difficulty to do so I don't want to make a promise or anything but if you actually take a note on everything that I'm talking about here there's no reason for you to not be able to make more money and be in a better situation than you are now by the end of this let's just jump right into it and let's get started right off the bat let's first talk about software engineering what the essence of software engineering what it actually is many people want to become a software engineer but don't even realize what it actually entails the important thing to realize here is you create so that's number one a solution in this case specifically a software solution to a problem the problem doesn't necessarily have to be a software problem it can be a non-technical problem that you create a technical solution for think of uber so with that out of the way now that we know what a software engineer is let's talk about the first piece of a advice that I'm going to give you and that is what actually makes a good software engineer many people think it's your programming knowledge how many different languages do you know how good are you at those programming languages because I'm sure we've all experience the 10x programmer right in our groups or in our teams whenever we're University even outside of University you've seen those really really smart individuals that just understand a problem just like that instantly right off the bat and I'm sure you've seen those other folks who just literally like eat the lead code problems for breakfast I refer to these people as 10x programmers because they're extremely good at one of the skills of a software engineer which is coding right programming but that's actually what I learned is that throughout my entire Journey as a junior developer and then a senior and finally a manager is that that programming is one of the least important skills when you are a software engineer so this might sound contradictory but let's understand one thing first pretty much any software engineer that gets these positions that actually gets a job guess what they already meet a certain bench line they they have a certain Baseline that they were able to meet to get that job there is no shortage of talent in software engineering especially nowadays with the actual computer science and computer engineering becoming such popular degrees it's attracting a lot of smart individual ual from all around the world from India from China you have a lot of talent coming into the field so there's really no shortage of specific Talent there's no such thing as oh I can't find somebody to do this problem in fact it's the complete opposite what makes a good software engineer is not necessarily the coding skills but it's the communication skills that sets all the software Engineers apart from each other I'll tell you one thing I've been in industry for well now I'm out but I've been in industry for a little over 7 years every single problem or every single hiccup every single thing stemmed not from a talent or skill problem it was never oh I can't do this or I can't do this in this specific amount of time never it was all about communication it was all about because the software Engineers were lacking communication skills simple Elementary communication skills so right off the bat if you want to get into this field or if you're already in this field this is why I always recommend for people to start quoting less and start focusing more on their communication skills or just other soft skills now whether you are on a project and you're talking with stakeholders whether you are talking with your own teammates whatever it is you need to convey everything that you need to convey in a manner that other people can understand this isn't just restricted to oral communication as you might think no even documentation right whenever you're documenting your code or whatever you're leaving in a comments to help explain the next person that is still communication and I'm seeing a lot of folks at least I used to see a lot of folks back in the day not even knowing how to document things properly right and what would end up happening is they would create a buzz Factor they would work for one company they would be an excellent programmer in terms of technically skills wise so they would make all these things but because their communication was lacking they wouldn't either be able to properly communicate to other individuals they wouldn't leave any documentation behind and it would create a buzz Factor the next person that came in that had to take a look at their code to understand what the hell was happening they didn't know what to do and that person essentially became the only person who could do that specific thing and that company ended up at a loss because if that person ever decided to quit that's pretty much it right one thing right there is you got to work on your communication whether you're already a software engineer whether you want to become one does not really matter you need to work on your communication because I guarantee you most of you are already quite technically Adept this actually goes on to the second point for those of you who are struggling to get a job or those of you who want to switch to a better job the key piece of advice this is not the second point that I want to bring up to actually getting a good job to getting a higher promotion or getting that position that you want or getting into that big four position it's all about marketing it's not necessarily that they don't have the technical capabilities to pass these interviews or to even get these interviews in the first place or to get the job it's rather they don't have the abilities to properly display their skills right they don't know how to Market themselves so these companies to show them hey I can do this and you need me for this because I mentioned before there's no shortage of talent there's Talent everywhere in the space and the people who are getting these jobs are people who are good at marketing people who know how to differentiate themselves from other people and show that they have a unique advantage over others they have a unique little you know like poof the number one thing for this is realizing that you as a software engineer are not bound by strictly your technical skills you as a software engineer need to be a lot more Diversified when it comes to the skills that you consider quote unquote important or necessary functioning as a software especially in today's world as time goes on the technical skill cap actually keeps increasing because it's just competition is higher and higher but what the funny thing is too is when it comes to actually getting a job and things like that companies are starting to Value communication skills a lot more than technical skills nowadays why well the average software engineer now will completely crush the average software engineer from 10 or 20 years ago and that's simply natural because everything Advanced our education advanced in terms of learning things and now we have ai to also help as well right so we do things in a much more efficient timeline you'll slowly start to realize that everything that I'm saying is Shifting away from the technical aspect of things and more so focusing on you as an individual in terms of you leveraging your software engineering skills to you know not only get that better job that you want or which is kind of the caveat here to get into entrepreneurship later on I talk in some other videos about why software Engineers actually make the best entrepreneurs so that's my third piece of advice here is that if you're good at communication skills and you know how to Market yourself properly you know how to entice people to you know want your services you are already set up to become an entrepreneur yourself the reason being is many of you already are familiar with this whether you're at a job right now or you're thinking of getting into a software job you know that every two or three years you're going to have to change why because you simply outgo that position and switching jobs is better you get a better pay raise right uh you get possibly a promotion so there's literally no reason for you not to switch jobs as a result there's no real company loyalty software Engineers don't really have company loyalty as some of the other might have in other different aspects of um work in many cases if a software engineer stick with one company too long it ends up being a negative they end up losing out on a lot now there's some caveat cases especially if you're part of a startup and you have stocks you have equity in that company and then new IPO that's a completely different case but most people aren't like that most people aren't going into these startups and doing that most people simply want to get a big four position and even then if you look at most you know big four people they they'll be working at Uber going to Netflix going to Google going to Facebook and just constantly making that switch because there's always these big companies are always competing on who they can have right and if you can already differentiate yourself from other candidates if you already have the technical skills to even be able to apply to these jobs right you meet that Baseline level and you have the proper communication skills to not only lead a team but also communicate with your co-workers and make sure you know manager understand understands what you're doing make sure the stakeholders know what you're doing what you're up to you already have all the skills you really need to go on your own path and that's my third piece of advice the fourth piece of advice that I want to talk about here and it it's kind of like it Loops back the previous three in combination is that as a software engineer never forget your role as a Creator more than anything you are a Creator in fact software engineers in my opinion are the best creators in the world more so than any artist more so than any person construction software Engineers are the true creators because right now we're in a technology world right we're in a technological era most solutions to our problems are being done so technologically and guess what software Engineers are the creators who create these software Solutions you have extreme leverage and you have extreme power in your creating capabilities because you don't really need anybody to hold your hand in creating things I'll give you an example I I talked about myself with regards to actually in e-commerce right getting into it creating the landing page creating the website having a little bit of success there and I saw an individual in who actually left the comment they were creating a crypto bot so bot for training in crypto space but do you see the amount of Leverage that you can have a software engineer so I got into specifically e-commerce back then now I have my own consulting firm that I use a ml for but that individual went into crypto so our Leverage is we don't have to just construct ourselves into creating for one specific thing no we can get to pretty much any single space and create create a technical solution for even non-technical problem right in many aspects some of these web de developers that I've seen uh can actually go to just just local cafes local restaurants who don't even have a proper website and offer to create an online presence for them offer to create a proper website for them pretty much a technical solution to a non-technical problem right because most people would think oh the restaurant needs to do better marketing right that's why the versatility is so important to understand and many times people might think that well if a software engineer goes into another space a non- technical space that'll be at disadvantage but that is completely not true a software engineer will have a lot more advantage over every other individual in the world when it comes to picking up a new skill or learning something new how many of you currently as software Engineers excel at let's say gaming how many of you as software Engineers excel at the creative aspect of things how many of you as software Engineers create excel at problem solving things such as chess or things like that you see as a software engineer you have a core skill set that you develop over the years thinking that way thinking in terms of pseudo code approaching a problem bit by bit breaking it down it forms actual physical changes in your brain and the way you approach life completely changes that's why many software Engineers whenever they try to learn a new skill afterwards or they try to get into a new field they pick it up extremely fast more so than the regular person now I'm not saying software Engineers are the prime Primal human beings right they're better than all human beings no I'm just saying that software Engineers have an overwhelming advantage in learning new things and specifically getting into business where Prett much every single skill of a software engineer literally shines it's as if it's made for business the fifth piece of advice that I would like to give out and I think it's the one of the most important ones that I learned as well is that often times software Engineers they'll come to a point where they'll realize that the money that they're making is simply not worth it what do I mean by this I mean that many software Engineers throughout their Journey will either end up in New York or California if it's not remote if if it is remote they'll still get a job that is based in those countries excuse me in those States and maybe move to a state with less taxes and so on but nevertheless most software Engineers will be in those States and as you already know the living cost in those States is extremely high so most software Engineers will actually be living paycheck to paycheck and there was a study done about 57% of software Engineers actually live paycheck to paycheck you start to realize that the amount of value you are bringing to your own company is severely more and exponentially more than the amount of value you're getting back in return so the amount of money that you're getting in return compared to the amount of money that you're generating for your company is simply crazy and it's more so than any other profession that I have seen and witnessed personally I have friends who are doctors I have friends who are lawyers I have friends who are just in all sorts of you know positions and the amount of value that they bring to a company or to a business severely less than a software engineer now I'm not talking about a doctor saving a human life cuz there's no value to that but I mean in terms of just monetary value towards the business for example how much a lawyer brings to his business and how much he gets paid versus a software engineer it's not even comparable there are software Engineers who are let's say on $150,000 or $200,000 salaries and the work that they are doing is being valuated at multiple tens of millions of dollars some some companies even some folks even right we've seen with Zuckerberg who was a solo developer the amount that he created I mean the product that he created is now in a multiple of billions of dollars but back then if somebody hired him as a developer to actually make that product they would have probably paid him $1 to $200,000 and it just goes to show you that every single software engineer actually has this problem many people think they're paying a lot more than they worth but that's not the reality they're being paid a lot less than their worth and I should tell you something that you yourself already have a lot more value than you think you do you have a lot more to offer to the world than you think you do don't think that whatever get paid at your job is directly correlated to how much you're worth in terms of the value you can provide to a certain company because while one company might pay you a specific amount if you yourself go into the solar preneur route or an entrepreneur route and think of a solution that you come up with that can very well be valued in the millions if not tens of millions maybe even billions in very nuanced cases right so understand that as a software engineer you're already any job you get into any position you get into you're already starting in a position of being undervalued um of course if you're a beginner this is a different case but if you already have a couple years of experience behind your belt this is definitely most definitely the case because as mentioned before pretty much every single person that I worked with every single software engineer that I work with or even when I was at Nasa working as a computer engineer the amount that I was getting paid was nowhere near the amount of value I was bringing in and of course the company has to profit of you but most companies are you know running on maybe 20 to 50% and that's really good profit margins and when I saw that these companies were legit their multipliers were 10 to 20 sometimes even 100 on some of these Engineers it was simply crazy and that's you know that connects back to my number one point with there's no shortage of talent there's a lot of talent in this field and it's just the communication skills that really hold people back when it comes to software engineering a lot of people are way too tunnel visioned on just the programming aspect of things on the coding aspect of things they want to know you know what type of developer do I become do become a full tack do I become a front end back end do I get into AI do I get into machine learning a good analogy to this would be any problem that you approach right you're not thinking of hey okay how do I solve this problem no you first think of why do I need to solve this problem in the first place what does it do and then you can understand okay how can I solve this problem so most people when they see a specific technical problem the first question they ask is how but you should always first ask why why do I need to solve this problem that's pretty much the most important things that that I wanted to discuss today I hope you know they ended up helping you at least a little little bit but if you truly take into consideration all the advice that I just gave you and write it down and just every single day try to perform in that manner try to understand and grasp that information always knowing to improve your communication skills as a software engineer always realizing your role as a Creator right so always looking to create things whether it's technical or non-technical solutions to problem and always knowing that especially if you want to be better if you don't even want to get into entrepreneurship if you want to just climb the corporate ladder you need to be able to Market yourself so because that's pretty much the only choice you really have is you need to get better at communicating as well as being able to Market yourself properly if you're thinking of okay how can I do that there's a lot of different ways right you can be the person who reaches out to people on LinkedIn you can be the person who sends out personalized Loom videos so there's always something you can do when it comes to communicating and marketing yourself that you can get the edge over the very next person one of the best things that I used whenever I you know every time I got into a new job is I would always ask my direct manager what I need to do to get to the next level in terms of the next position if I was a developer regular Dev I would ask how can I get to the senior what do I need to do and every week or every two weeks I would ask okay where am I now on this journey am I close am I close and that's why pretty much all of the promotions that I've had in my career have been in less than about 8 8 to N9 months like three or four times faster than the average person because I've always taken things into my own hand and I've used my communication skills to my advantage and that's something that a lot of softw rers don't actually do so I don't want to leave this video on too like too long dragging on but let me know if you would like to see a specific video about that how to maybe go about communicating as a software engineer and how to really gain a Competitive Edge over the other developers and how to use that later to start your own business and actually become an entrepreneur yourself so without further Ado thank you so much for watching and as always have a good one

Channel: Bgo

Views: 208,380

Keywords: Software Engineering, Coding, Programming, Code less, Freedom, Financial freedom, Software, Engineer, $10K/month, Guide, Coding guide, Code faster, 5 years coding

Id: BCYlUmzMmyc

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2024