A career in Software engineering – Some thoughts

What is a Software Engineer?
A software Engineer must apply their research, design and development skills to software systems and infrastructures in accordance with client requirements. In other words, when a businesses software system needs improving or updating, software engineers are drafted into to design, create and maintain a more efficient system. The work can be very complex and engineers may be required to develop very sophisticated systems so a sound knowledge of software technology and applications are essential.

Further Education
Graduates will usually be expected to have a bachelor`s degree in software engineering or a similar subject such as systems analysis; a postgraduate degree will help a candidate to stand out as well as giving them more specialised subject knowledge. There are other routes into an IT career, some of which parallel the degree path and some of which precede it: Professional industry qualifications suchas CompTIA, Microsoft, IBM, CISCO, ISEB and other industry vendors are highly sought after and will add to the desirability of a graduate or stand on its own. Because of the ever evolving nature of the work, candidates will be expected to continue learning throughout their career, and employers will nurture this. Professional qualifications are provided by the British Computer Society (BCS) and Institution of Analysts and Programmers (IAP) and a Graduate Professional Development Award can be obtained from The Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms.

Specialists
Graduates with a degree may go on to work in other specialist areas such as systems and business analysis (designing new IT solutions to improve business efficiency and productivity), Applications developer (translating requirements into concise programming codes such as computer games or e-commerce), Database administrator (Planning, developing and maintaining a database), IT consultant (Improving efficiency in the way a company functions), technical author (interpreting and communicating technical messages into a user-friendly format), systems designer (designing systems including hardware, software, installation and maintenance for diverse sectors). Candidates may also go on to work in academia.

Latest IT Courses
Because of the vast range of opportunities available in the employment sector, there is an even wider choice of the types of courses they can choose from, perhaps combining software engineering with a more business related subject to give them an advantage after graduation. Courses can be combined with modules or other subjects such as computer science, business studies, networks, human computer interaction, enterprise programming, security and privacy, mobile computing, multi-agent systems and data mining.

Current Trends
Competition among businesses looks set to continue as they race to create and an incentive for increasingly sophisticated technological innovations and will require software engineers to implement these changes. The rise in conducting business through the internet has grown significantly and looks set to continue into the foreseeable future making prospects for anyone who can design, maintain and manage the required systems hot property.

Salary
Software engineers are very much in demand and the variety of career paths means that the many graduates in IT related subjects will be spread thinly across the board. Depending on the type of company a candidate works for, and location, an average starting salary falls between £19,500 - £26,000. With experience and more senior level roles, candidates can demand salaries anywhere between £27,000 and £70,000, which may increase again with bonuses and incentives. Self employment and freelance work are also common in this sector. For more information and to begin your search, click here for software engineer jobs.