KELSEY ALPAIO: Coding is magic.
And if you're like me, you probably
stare in awe at the people who engineer
all of the amazing digital experiences
that we're staring at pretty much every single second
of the day.
Even this video you're watching right now
had some sort of coding involved.
But I don't really know what it is.
In my head, it's kind of just these people in a dark room,
typing as fast as they can, creating the matrix.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And they're hacking the mainframe and the system.
That's pretty much like all I think about when I
think of software engineering.
I can't help but wonder what does it
like to be a full-time coder?
What is it like to be a software engineer?
LINDSEY REDD: And that feeling, that gratification
of figuring out how to do something, or solving a bug,
or whatever, is like unmatched.
KELSEY ALPAIO: That's Lindsay Reid.
She's a software engineer that's worked
at some of the coolest tech companies
out there, Slack, Lyft, and now Stripe.
As a software engineer, she's part of the magic
that makes these products work.
First question, does her job actually look like--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
LINDSEY REDD: I mean, I do that.
Like, I don't hack.
But black screen, green tags--
I don't prefer those particular colors.
You can change them.
But that is definitely part of the job,
but it's like probably 50%.
A lot of the job is very collaborative
and not solo work at all.
Usually, my day starts with like looking through what
I have to do for the day.
So I know a lot of software teams
use task-management tools.
My team, specifically, uses Jira.
And we use a ticketing system.
And then coding, of course, but you code, you test,
you deploy your code.
You monitor your code and make sure things are working.
KELSEY ALPAIO: Do people actually
grow up wanting to be coders?
Like, did Lindsey always know that she wanted
to be a software engineer?
LINDSEY REDD: No, not at all.
I didn't even know what it was until I was in college.
I wanted to be a doctor, like in high school,
or a bio-mechanical engineer.
My dad's a doctor.
And my mom's a chemical engineer.
And so something with STEM, I knew was going to be my path.
I went to Stanford.
And Stanford is a huge computer science school.
So a lot of my friends were taking intro
to computer science courses.
I had never coded.
I just really didn't know what it was.
But everyone was having a great time
and seemed to find it really interesting.
So around my sophomore year I decided
to take a class in computer science.
And my mentality was if I like this class,
I'll take the next class.
And then after that, if I like that class,
then I'll major in it.
And that's basically what happened.
KELSEY ALPAIO: I love the version of peer pressure
at Stanford, which is like, you have to take a computer science
class.
LINDSEY REDD: Yeah.
Yeah, definitely not what I was expecting.
But I'm glad it happened.
I definitely just stumbled into it.
It's lucky I think that I went to a school that
focuses so heavily on it.
KELSEY ALPAIO: What were those classes like?
When you first started doing it, was it
something that you were scared of, or intimidated by,
or was it like kind of accessible?
What did that feel like for you?
LINDSEY REDD: I enjoyed the classes because a lot of it
is--
I mean, you're actually coding, right?
And that is what I currently do right now on the job.
And I liked that direct application of skills,
like I am learning things that I will eventually
use in my career.
So yeah, it was fun.
It was like, at first, it's a lot of puzzles.
You code like a little robot that navigates a maze.
Like, it's simple stuff.
I think my final project in my first class
was building an extremely basic, like Facebook.
KELSEY ALPAIO: OK, I need a little bit of explanation.
What are the different types of software engineers out there?
KELSEY ALPAIO: The basics are front-end,
which is more like web development
or like what you see on your computer screen,
and then back-end, which is more like servers, and algorithms,
and things like that you don't see as a user,
but that help power the front-end.
And there are people who are full-stack who
do both of those things.
There is infrastructure engineering,
which is a lot of building out services,
like micro-services, or servers, or monolithic servers,
or observability pipelines, all kinds of things
that need to sit underneath the back-end layer in order
for it to work, if that makes any sense.
A lot of developer tooling is considered infrastructure,
just things that kind of keep the upper-layers layers
working, if that make sense.
KELSEY ALPAIO: No matter what type of engineering you choose,
Lindsey says that when you're ready to search for a job,
you should be ready for an intense interview process, one
that takes a lot of studying.
LINDSEY REDD: Studying for software engineering interviews
is a whole ordeal, in and of itself.
And at the time, I didn't really understand that.
And so I didn't study well.
And, I don't know, luckily, I had some skills
under my belt that served me in my interview.
But it made it a lot difficult, just
because I was very confused about how this was
going to translate into my job.
KELSEY ALPAIO: You have to basically start
studying before you even know if you've
got an interview lined up.
Is that right?
LINDSEY REDD: Yeah.
And I mean, a lot of companies understand that that
is part of the process.
So recruiters are very-- in my experience, anyway--
flexible in giving you like as much time
as you want really to study.
For my current job, I remember asking my recruiter
if I could have four or five weeks to study before I
actually did the interview.
And they were like, oh, yeah, I totally get it.
But a lot of people, once they decide, OK, I'm
going to switch jobs or I need to go find a job,
they know like that means like, I need
to start studying tomorrow.
KELSEY ALPAIO: So you're coding in front
of the interviewee, like live?
LINDSEY REDD: In most cases, I know
Lyft does an interview where you get like an hour to code
a small project on your own.
The interviewer doesn't have to be there, so you can focus.
But I think in all other interviews that I've been in
and that I hear my friends are in,
your coding in front of someone or pair
programming with someone during the interview.
It's a lot of pressure.
And it's interesting because I mean
you do pair program on the job.
So interviews that involve pair programming, I think,
are really great, honestly.
But the kind of just coding when someone's watching and judging
your performance is not typical of the job of,
a lot of it you're just doing on your own.
KELSEY ALPAIO: So it's also, I was
thinking about how software engineering and the tech
industry, in general, it's predominantly
white, predominantly male.
Would you mind talking a little bit
about what it's like to kind of navigate an industry like that?
LINDSEY REDD: Yeah.
It's hard.
It's definitely a struggle.
You definitely get people who doubt your skills,
doubt your skill set and undermine
your work, which sucks.
And it's hard.
And I think it's more work than the white dude kind of software
engineer has to go through to find a team
and find a company that will work for you.
You know, what does diversity look like at your company?
How does your company think about or treat
diversity and inclusion?
Are there other people at the company
who look like me who are doing well and feel good?
That's definitely a piece of my research.
And it's hard work, in and of itself,
to kind of vet those things and figure those things out.
But it's kind of necessary in order for me
to be the best employee or engineer that I can be.
KELSEY ALPAIO: OK, let's talk about money.
What should I expect to get paid in a software engineering role?
LINDSEY REDD: If you're in one of the kind
of coastal locations--
San Francisco, New York, LA, like some of these larger,
more established tech hubs--
out of college, if you are not making $100,000,
at least, you're probably being underpaid
or could at least find a company that would pay you more.
I'm not sure what that looks like.
If you're finding a job in Atlanta, for example,
it might look very different down there,
and I'm not familiar.
I would also say, talk to your friends.
I think people don't talk about how much they make enough,
which I think lends to a lot of pay inequity in the industry.
It's what needs to happen in order
to hold these companies that, a lot of times
don't want to pay you fairly, accountable.
KELSEY ALPAIO: Software engineering is almost nothing
like I expected it to be.
It's not just people typing away as fast
as they can in a dark room.
It's a lot more about teamwork.
It's a lot more about collaboration
and communication.
If you're coming away from this video thinking
that you want to pursue software engineering,
it's good to know that it's not magic, but it is hard work.
LINDSEY REDD: What people are looking
for when you're an intern on a team is your ability
to communicate, both verbal and written communication,
and your ability to problem solve,
know what kind of questions do you
ask do, you make sure you ask questions to solve
your problems, how fast are you able to ramp up and learn
new technologies, new skills, new languages quickly.
And then what kind of energy do you bring to the team?
What is it like working with you?
KELSEY ALPAIO: Thanks for watching.
Do you have a career crush.
Tell us about them in the comments
and we'll see if we can talk to them for you.
Subscribe to our channel to see more interviews with people
actually living the dream.
Bye.