The Survival Guide To Being A Junior Engineer - Fatima Taj - Copenhagen DevFest 2023

This talk was recorded at NDC's Copenhagen Developer's Festival. #cphdevfest #ndcconferences #developer #softwaredeveloper Attend the next NDC conference near you: https://ndcconferences.com https://cphdevfest.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel and learn every day: /@NDC I believed I was ready to be a software engineer when I started working full-time. As an undergrad, I thought the biggest hurdle to being a software engineer was the technical interview, and since I had passed that, I figured I’ll work out the rest as I went along. To my surprise, the transition from school to the industry wasn’t as straightforward as I had imagined it, and there’s a lot more to being a software engineer than the technical basics we’re taught as undergrads. There’s an equally crucial non-technical aspect to your day-to-day work as a software engineer, which I hope to shed some light on. In this talk, I will share my personal experiences to help attendees bridge the gap between what we learn in school and what we need to succeed in the industry. These skills range from embracing ambiguity within your role to learning how to do project planning, deciding to introduce technical debt, and coming to terms with context switching, among others. Sharing these experiences help paint a much clearer picture of what it means to work as a software engineer. Learning outcomes: *Discuss the undeniable importance of the non-technical skills required to be successful as a software engineer. *Describe everyday experiences and pitfalls to avoid as a software engineer. *Learn what to expect in your day-to-day work and recommendations on how to best thrive and flourish in your role. *Demonstrate how your role will evolve over time as you move towards more seniority.