[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi.
My name is Sarah, and welcome to you a day
in the life of a software engineer.
Come on in.
So I woke up at 5:00 today.
I already got my workout in.
I took care of my fur kids and gave them a little love.
But I officially can't start my workday
without a cup of coffee, so I make a cup of coffee.
A software engineer develops software
for multiple companies.
I have been working at my company for about five years,
but I've been coding for a little over a decade.
My usual schedule is 8:00 to 4:00,
it's kind of nice to be able to take a break here
and there to do anything that I need to around the house
or go to a store if I need to.
So the task that I perform on a daily basis
include updating my code if somebody
requested a change that I make.
Sometimes I spend a lot of time replying
to emails if that's necessary.
I check in on my interns to see if they
need any help with anything.
My desk setup consists of two external monitors,
and one's for code, one is for seeing my changes, and then
my computer for emails and different terminal things.
I also just have a little fun space where my birthday
cards sit, and then a whole slew of different mice
and keyboards.
So the first thing that I'm going to do today coding-wise
is making sure that what I built works.
This can usually take between 30 minutes to an hour
depending on what I'm working on.
So right now my primary language is include
Java and a lot of HTML and CSS.
But I find the most fun in writing anything based out
of JavaScript.
So like Node.js.
So I personally use Sublime.
I think it's very low-effort and is really easy to use.
It's really difficult to write code the first time
and it be right.
So either you're going to find a mistake or somebody is going
to say, hey, this isn't really working the way
that you said it would, and you're just going
to have to be OK with that.
The first thing I quoted today was the Delete button.
And so you can see the code here.
And this page is represented on this page
as the UI or the frontend.
And you can see that each what I call card has a Delete button.
And so now, if you click on Delete,
it'll delete that specific card, and now there
are no collections.
One of the benefits of working from home as a software
engineer is being able to cook at home.
It's my form of meditation to kind of-- it
repositions my brain.
I get to think about what I'm going to work on next.
I get to process maybe a meeting that I was just in.
But cooking is really a way for me
to recenter myself for the day.
I like to spend time on Reddit, and I think a lot of us
do when we're on the computer, pretty much all day.
But just so catch up on YouTube videos
or maybe just talk to my friends on Discord,
maybe plan what I'm going to do for the evening.
But that usually is about 30 to 45 minutes.
Right after lunch, I to get into work.
And since most of my meetings occur in the morning,
I really get a longer time period
in the afternoon to have my next coding session.
So it can range between one to two hours instead
of having to take breaks.
I feel the most creative in the afternoon.
I think that's because I've had all of my coffee
and I've had my food or my snacks,
and I really just am into the meat of the day.
So in the afternoons, I have more energy
in my brain to accomplish the tasks that I set for myself.
I like to keep up with new software and new frameworks
that happen and come up by actually
looking through job openings.
And if there is a new framework that's really important,
a lot of companies will post that in their job
description or a requirement.
So I'll kind of go through what jobs are available
and see what companies are using most of,
and sometimes I even learn about new frameworks that way.
Another great thing about working from home
is being able to leave if I have to.
And I'm feeling something really spicy tonight,
so there's this store that I'm going to go to and do
a little grocery shopping.
If you're looking to become a better software engineer,
I would recommend maybe going to a class website
like Udemy or a coding boot camp,
or even just kind of thinking about a project
that you'd like to build and starting it from scratch.
Gaining experience by doing is the best way
to keep yourself up to date and become a better software
engineer.
I got into my profession kind of by accident.
I knew that I wanted to write, so I actually started off
as a journalism major.
But I wanted to kind of work with my creative side,
so I decided to write code, which I am writing,
but I'm also using my creative side.
So I went from being a journalism major to a software
engineer.
My goals for my future are to kind of transition
into more of a management role.
So I enrolled myself into a project management course.
What's nice about being in this field
is that continuing education is very
important to a lot of people, so you get time
to be able to do that.
I usually wrap up my day by going through my emails
and making sure that I didn't miss anything that I was
supposed to get to by today.
I check my work schedule for tomorrow
to see if there are any meanings.
The last thing I like to do at the end of the day
or I have to do at the end of the day is log my time.
So I worked on the frontend for about four hours today,
and I worked on other things for about another four hours.
So that's eight hours.
And I try to end my day around 4:00
so that I have enough time at the end of the day
to kind of wind down from it.
Software engineering can be pretty stressful,
so the best way for me to wind down from a stressful workday
is to play video games.
It's just a really easy and relaxing game
to wind down my day.
So I think coding asks a lot from you
and it takes a lot of energy to do it.
So I would recommend just being OK with a high-stress,
high-energy environment.
I wish I knew how tough it would be entering the field,
but all you have to do is be confident and make
sure to speak your mind and just be yourself
and it's going to be OK.
Thanks for watching.
Be sure to give us like and subscribe to Indeed's channel.
See you next time.
Hi, welcome to the grocery store.
Let's go shopping.
Come on over.
Oh, am I going?
OK, away we go.