CONTEST!!! TELL US ABOUT YOUR DREAM JOB --- entry by @kwadjobonsu

I have always identified myself as a troubleshooter. From early life stages to date, I prefer to find solutions to problems alone before seeking collaborative aid. This behavior, I believe, is significantly influenced by my relationship with technological gadgets. During my juvenile life stages, I found myself studying concepts on information technology that could be considered far beyond my reach. From self-studying computer networking in junior high school to making a wapsite (a now obsolete mini-version of a website) before entering senior high school, you can pretty much say I was an avid technology enthusiast.

I always had the plan of pursuing a Computer-related program at the tertiary level, but life took a sharp turn. I ended up pursuing Biology as a major due to its vast applicability. I, however, did not give up on my fond dream of becoming a Software Engineer. During the period as an undergraduate till date, I have been self-studying computer programming, which is an essential skill for software engineers. My journey has led me to engage in various activities including reading books, watching hours-long course videos on the internet, signing up for online courses, and working on small projects.

My fervent admiration for the Software engineering field mainly stems from its troubleshooting nature. It is a challenging field where programmers design and create applications that are used to solve problems in real-time. This career path is fast-paced and highly competitive. Hence, developers are always re-educating themselves to stay abreast of the latest trends and technological innovations so they can integrate such concepts into their projects.

The financial outlook on the job is promising. Due to the complex nature of the job, software engineers receive great pay for their efforts. Although, the salary that engineers receive differ from person to person and institution to institution. This is so because software engineering is a broad field. You can have engineering working on mobile applications for different operating systems, desktop applications of distinct utility purposes, and many more. Software engineers in big institutions like Google, Amazon, and the rest are known to receive higher salaries than engineers in small and budget-restricted startups and firms.

Having a formal certification from a tertiary institution is not a requirement to become a prolific and highly skilled software engineer, though possessing a university degree does help. A survey from HackerRank and StackOverflow indicated that most respondents had learned their craft of programming through self-studying. Quite a small percentage of the developers had Computer Science or Computer Engineering degrees. Some others did have degrees from other fields. So while a degree does help, it is not necessarily a requirement. The job market is about skillset, so I believe once you understand and know what you are doing, you should be good to go.

Software engineering presents numerous opportunities for individuals to collaborate and execute a plan. This helps develops to improve their teamwork and other soft skills as well as their social life. These and many factors influence my taste for the field. So far I have taken some online courses, read a lot of books, and done some projects. These are some of the links to my projects: CodePen Project and Markdown website. I still have a long way to go, and I fully embrace this journey. Even better, Software Engineering skills and concepts can be applied in the Biological Sciences field to speed up research work and automate some tasks.