By Madhav Nair
In 2011, American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer Marc Andreessen famously said, “software is eating the world.” He was referring to the fact that software is running more and more critical enterprises and sectors today, such as finance (trading algorithms), education (online coaching), entertainment (online event booking), among others.
Today’s global economy is heading toward digital supremacy, where software-driven digital transformation is poised to increase global nominal GDP from $13.5 trillion in 2018 to $53.3 trillion by 2023. Many industries and businesses have realised the benefits of digital transformation to generate new revenue and stay ahead of the competition.
The SaaS (Software as a Service) model is bound to make software more central in our everyday lives. While the user base for digital services grows substantially, industry-ready software engineers who can cater to this demand are extremely hard to find. Despite the recent layoffs at FAANG and other companies, the job market still remains very healthy and in need of industry-ready software engineers.
What makes a software engineer industry-ready?
Industry-ready software professionals pair together practical experience with the ability to design and produce stable software and production-ready code that is highly scalable and reliable. They possess out-of-the-box thinking and exemplary problem-solving skills. They are always ready to jump in and address any issue that develops. Software engineers have a solid grasp of the business use case to design relevant solutions.
Additionally, what sets industry-ready software engineers apart is that they excel at collaboration and communication. Many of them are regular contributors on platforms such as GitHub and Stack Overflow. They also possess strong mentoring skills that enable them to coach interns and junior engineers.
Here’s How a software engineer can become industry-ready
For software engineers who want to be the best, every day is an opportunity to learn and get better at their craft. Nothing quite compares to learning on the job and taking notes while working alongside seasoned engineers. Asking questions is essential, especially when conducting root cause analysis after a significant error occurs or when a flaw leaks into production. Internship and fellowship programs at software companies provide engineers with great opportunities, and inexperienced aspiring engineers should take advantage.
Demand for software engineers won’t wane for a long time
Many businesses only consider the costs of shipping and hosting software, headcount, and infrastructure. But expenses continue to rise after a product’s release, particularly for maintenance, bug patches, scalability, upgrades, refactoring, and more. Industry-ready software engineers prepare for these problems from the start, which ultimately lowers costs. They put more effort into writing high-quality code that can scale and perform based on the business’s demands early on.
Since good software is the foundation of all digital services in the present and the future, industry-ready engineers will always be in demand in various fields. The top three areas that come to mind are augmented reality (AR), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI).
Conclusion
The future is digital, so the need for industry-ready professionals who can design effective solutions to the world’s problems will remain high. Software engineers will also play a major role in designing automated solutions and developing AI, whose potential is undeniable. As these new technologies mature, there will continue to be a need for talented software developers to deploy, maintain, and innovate them.
The author of this article is Senior Vice President, Engineering, ZoomInfo. Views expressed are personal.
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