ctate

23
January

My friend Dan is an instructor this semester for a sophomore-level software engineering course, expected to be the students' first encounter with sizeable programming projects. One of the lectures, according to the syllabus, is explicitly supposed to be a sort of exposé of the realities of a career in the field. He solicited contributions from former orkers, but alas I didn't get back to him until after the lecture in question.

But that's what LJ is for! Plus, I know quite a few software professionals, and I think it's an interesting topic. University students in CS certainly didn't get any sort of realistic view of the industry when I was in school; I got all my reality checks by working summers writing lab-automation and data-analysis software at NIST. So, all you software-industry or nearby people: any ideas what to tell the young'uns to prepare them for the real world?

( Musings behind the cutCollapse )

That's a start. Your turn.