The pros and cons of becoming a software engineer in 2021 | CHII ALIA

hi there i'm chi alia and welcome back to another video so in today's video we're going to be talking about the pros and cons of being a software engineer [Music] so if you've clicked on this video you're probably here because you're thinking about starting a career in software engineering or probably thinking about dipping your feet in the programming waters oh i got words if this is you keep on watching and when you finally decide to get started check out my previous post talking about six key ways to get started i'll put the link right here on the screen these steps i put together from my own experiences and yeah just feel free to check them out before we go into this video if you haven't already click the subscribe button down below and the bell icon right beside it to turn on the post notifications without much to do we're just going to go right into the video pros and cons of being a software engineer so good news bad news where do we start okay good news pro number one working across different industries software engineers can apply for jobs across many industries from health to hospitality to finance education literally every industry needs some sort of software that supports their business processes and obviously you'll still be working in your own field as a developer but it's really cool to get a taste of how different industries work if you want to big pro for me number two entrepreneurship and freelancing this is a pretty great pro with software engineering skills you're able to go into freelancing and just be your own boss there's so many great platforms of freelancing i mentioned them in my last video from fiverr to upwork freelancer guru the list goes on and on also it's very common to see devs who have gained some experience just try to branch out and get started with their own start-ups a typical nine-to-five is not for everyone so as a software engineer you get the opportunity to choose if you want to do that or just branch out and get your own things started number three future of work this pro is just talking about job security there's a lot going on around ai in the workplace a lot of things are getting automated as time goes on more and more softwares are created to make tasks easier and more efficient the idea of machines doing some of these tasks is getting more normal and this in turn increases the chances of job roles being made redundant and a lot of people run the risk of losing their jobs but this is not the case for developers these softwares need to be engineered tested maintained so on the contrary more and more developer roles are emerging you're right in the middle of it and there's video pulling you out number four a laid-back working environment in most environment for software developers you'd see that there's a very laid-back chill vibe there's really no pressure to kind of have an office setting although it's an office and there's a setting but you know what i mean a lot of companies try to create a space where everyone is just comfortable they create a game arena put up ping pong tables they're actually encouraged to take multiple breaks because when you're working you can kind of plateau so long as your work is not slacking and you're on track with your timeline you're good the next one is remote work flexibility this is one of the major pros of working in this field you can work from anywhere from home you can work from a coffee shop from another country we have a few people on our team that clocks in from other time zones and i tell you everything just works it's one of those jobs that it doesn't matter where you're working from so long as you have your computer and a high speed internet and maybe coffee or tea or whatever you drink you're good although a lot of companies kind of prefer that their employees come into the office but i would say this is usually to promote maybe team collaboration and team bonding aside from that if you apply for remote work and they feel you're the best candidate for the job you're going to get the job regardless the next one is salary now this is one of the most common reasons for people to become software engineers and obviously when you ask some people why they became software engineers they go oh it's just a great place to shallow your creativity you know i have a passion for you know writing in some low-level programming coding they give a whole speech and yeah cool it's all that but best believe the money too is a factor i mean look at the stats a software engineer in australia earns almost 100 000 a year and this is for entry to mid level most devs strive to getting to the top software companies because obviously they compensate very very well the salaries the benefits it just makes up for all the stress and the hard work that you have to go through in this field you know the final one i'm going to say is creativity i'm definitely going to put software engineers up there with the writers and artists and other creators because you make something you make this amazing thing out of absolutely nothing you get to be very creative and obviously at the beginning you might not have a chance to do this because you're trying to kind of get used to the tools that you're going to be using so that makes sense that you might not be feeling as creative but as time goes on and you really get comfortable if you can channel your inner creativity and work on fun projects so those are the pros from me i think they were seven or eight [Music] i'm not sure or six now let's go into the cons number one effect on health particularly your eye and your posture you sit at your desk all day and stare at your screen this can really take a toll on your eyes and your posture for me i use this posture brace that i got off of amazon maybe i should do an amazon haul comment down below if that's something that you would like to see uh yeah back to the brace so i use this posture brace and i wear it for about an hour every day just to kind of correct the slouching and you have to actually be conscious of these things and find a way to um correct them before it goes out of hand this one is what i would say is a really big con for me also your mental health because if you're a big outside person and you just love to stay in the sun stay in nature and stuff like that you tend to spend a lot of time staying indoors if you're not a type of person that's okay with this in the first place it can really take a toll on your mental health as well on number two lots of learning honestly there's a lot of learning involved when it comes to developing your skills there's always something to learn when it comes to this word it's always a new technology in town learning is a very important process in staying top of your game basically i don't really mind it i'm a type of person i'm very curious but if you're not the type of person that likes to learn and update and just you know you're curious in that way this might be a big one for you the next con is that it is very time consuming at some point being a software engineer can very easily become your whole life and your whole life becomes it all the learning that you have to do takes up a lot of time when you're working you might have just pushed an update and then broken something you spend long hours trying to fix that thing you might work overtime you see yourself spending hours and hours of your own personal time trying to think about that one thing at work that you might have forgotten that possibly caused that error it does really eat into your time as a person another con is that this career would really test your resilience so in your journey you're going to come across a lot of things that would increase your stress levels from understanding a code base the code base that you didn't even write um to basically working under maybe a set deadline or working on a live production also debugging debugging when you're running to an error and you just don't know where it comes from you'd see that there's a lot of things that would test you here you really need to be persistent you really need to push forward it could be very frustrating it's very easy to just want to give up to just pack your book pack your stuff and go the final con i'm going to mention is that although there's a very high demand of people in these roles it is a very competitive industry to make the best man win at the end of the day a lot of devs are all looking to get into these top software companies and so the screening processes are usually usually usually usually intense your skills have to kind of be top notch to get into one of these dream roles from the screening exercises to the interviews then again these top software companies will have a lot of benefits to working with them so they actually put a lot of effort into like the screening processes and the interviews and they are all targeting the best people for the job the people that can work under pressure people that really deeply understand concepts there's so many so many people that also apply for those few roles that you're targeting as well you actually have to basically just stay on track all the time keep up to date to prevent yourself from being obsolete it's a very competitive industry and you have to just stay on top of your game now at the end of the day you have to decide what's for you and what is it what is a deal breaker and what you can live with that is it for this video thank you for watching to the end and i hope you were able to take a few things from this if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up don't forget to share with your friends as well as comment below tell me the pros and cons that i might have left off of my list click on the subscribe button to join the channel and the bell icon right beside it to turn on your post notification this gives you an alert when i upload a new video connect with me on other socials ig and twitter igt.alia and twitter chi alia tweeted me and let's be friends i'll see you in the next video bye

Channel: Chii Alia

Views: 3,665

Rating: 4.9775281 out of 5

Keywords: software engineering, software developer, software engineer, tech career in 2020, software engineer day in life, black girl in tech, a day in the life, The ULTIMATE pros and cons of being a software engineer in 2020, why you should be a software engineer, pros and cons, grwm, why you should not be a software engineer, software developer career, is coding for me, day in the life of a software engineer work from home, beginner programmer mistakes, coding bootcamp 2020

Id: 4aSeb2XK4qI

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2020