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  • Essay / An Interview with a Software Engineer: Personal Impressions

    Before interviewing Adam Kiel, I had no idea what to expect. I have no experience with what it means to be a software engineer, except for what I have learned so far in the first year software engineering seminar course I am currently taking. I especially don't know what it means to work as a software engineer on a daily basis. I'm excited and nervous to find out and see if software engineering is something I really want to do for the rest of my life. I will approach the interview with a positive outlook because not all software engineers' work style is the same and will vary depending on the company. In this report, I summarize the information obtained during a formal interview with Adam Kiel about his profession as a software engineer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Surprisingly, Adam Kiel was very willing to be interviewed about what it means to be a software engineer and quite eager to do so. He answered my questions quite quickly and concisely, as if he knew exactly how to answer each question and chose his words wisely. Adam said he works for Granular in Johnston, Iowa, just outside of Des Monies, a growing metropolitan area, where their engineering teams focus primarily on their agronomic product, Encirca, as well as customer success teams that support all of their products. He's been there a little over four months and lives just two blocks from his workplace, which is very convenient. He went on and started describing all the work he has done so far and surprisingly he has done a lot for being 23 years old. He was a student developer for the Iowa State University Bookstore, where he worked on several websites to maintain the bookstore. He mainly worked on making their pages compatible with their content management systems. As well as working on on-site analytics for e-commerce and other technical needs. He then became a software engineering intern at Herzog Technologies, where he was part of a team that developed a data collection program that is now used by their geographic information systems team. The desktop application he developed from scratch allowed the team to collect more precise data. He had to coordinate with the team to create and build a GPS and camera integration. What was also very interesting to me was how during a hackathon he led a team to create a Chrome extension, Rate ISU, which is similar to RateMyProfessor but for his university only and allows students to view teachers' grades when they register for classes. He then moved on to his current job at Granular Inc. and his experience so far. Granular Inc. is a precision-focused software solutions company for agriculture. He is very passionate about his work, especially how they try to make agriculture more efficient and profitable while collecting and improving the value of farmland. Even though he is relatively new to the company, he knows the company's purpose and mission and recognizes that the work he does helps others succeed. It was obvious how much he loved working here just by the fluency and enthusiasm with which he spoke when I asked him about the company. After explaining to me what his company does, he then explained his role in the company and what he does there.. He holds a software developer position and primarily works on the front-end design of their web application, as well as their existing maintenance-free systems. It also helps in moving towards microservices in Python hosted on lambdas or otherwise known as map and filter in Python. They try to focus on creating single-function modules with well-defined interfaces and operations. This will make changes to the application and is ideal for messaging enabled, developed and deployed autonomously. Currently at Granular all the infrastructure is hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and they use Cloud Front and Terraform to maintain it. His project team averages six to twelve people, but he currently has five developers, two quality assurance (QA) managers, one delivery manager. manager, a product manager and a manager. He is currently working on migrating their data processors from .NET 4.7.2 to .NET Core. In other words, they are currently using an application that uses third-party .NET libraries or NuGet packages that are not available for .NET Core. They are trying to move to .NET Core because they need cross-platform, targeting microservices, using Docker containers, and need high-performance, scalable systems. He's also working on building a company-wide feature that handles each time something is flagged. This part is what he enjoys the most because he is creating a flags application for which he has to learn Kubernetes, which is an open source system for automating the deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes groups the container groups that make up the application into logical units for easier management and discovery. Some of the languages, technologies and tools it uses are AWS, – Runscope, Jenkins, Gitlab – Python, JavaScript, Transport Stream, Java, C#. , and terraforming. It's fascinating all the different types of languages ​​and technologies it uses and how I'm learning Python at the moment which may help me in the end. A typical day for Adam involves working, checking emails, and making sure systems are green. Then he gets a coffee or a monster, starts programming, stretches his legs, continues programming, has an occasional meeting, then eats lunch and snacks provided by the company. After that, he continues programming and programming with his peers, then goes home for the day. In order to do his job, the skills Adam considers most important are the ability to problem solve, debug effectively, the ability to document and communicate clearly, and having a desire to contribute to his team and his business. Adam had a lot of opinions on what would be important for me to consider in ethically pursuing a career in this field. Above all, he told me to make sure my code is well documented and to give credit if I use someone else's code. Additionally, he told me to make sure to check the patents for an idea I might have, because someone else might already have a patent for it. Finally, if I ever wondered if the logistics of an issue were being resolved ethically, I should definitely take the time to make sure that is ultimately the case. When asked what he liked most about his job, he said he loved programming and that's what he did all day. He also loves how his company takes care of him by providing him with lunches and snacks every day. Adam recognizes the.