Reflecting on 1-Year as a Software Engineer in Fintech

This is a mirror selfie I took in my apartment’s elevator on my first day of work!

I just successfully completed my first year working as a software engineer at an investment bank in New York City! In some ways this past year feels like the longest year and the shortest year yet. Individual days can drag but months flew by before I knew it. I’ve taken some time to pause and reflect on the things I’ve learned after working a full year in the industry as a software engineer and some of the things that I didn’t expect and thought I would share them with you. 

Working is a marathon not a sprint

So many people told this to me before but I didn’t truly know what they meant. I think the hardest part of transitioning from student life to work life is that there’s no real break where you can plan on “catching up” on your life, sleep, cleaning, etc. When I was a student there used to be midterm weeks or large assignments with due dates and I could get by putting in more hours that week, sleeping less, or letting other chores fall by the wayside knowing that I could skip a class to study. When you work full-time, this is not possible! It’s a constant balancing act because falling too far behind in either your life or your work is going to mean comprising one or the other to play catch up. Rather than burning yourself out, it takes a lot of diligence to stick to your schedules regardless of how crazy and hectic any given day or week feels.

There is so much more to software engineering than coding

I never realized how much goes into software engineering that isn’t coding! There are so many decisions that have to be made and accounted for as part of the process of building and deploying software products. Whether it’s getting the funding for your team, sign-off on your project, going through a design review, architecture planning, or allocation of work amongst teammates there is a lot of thought and planning that happens behind the scenes. This is why I emphasize that soft skills are just as (if not more) important for software engineers because you have to be able to interact with all of the people involved in this process. Especially when you are one of the only people with the subject matter expertise in these meetings you have to know what you’re talking about and have the skills to be able to navigate the sometimes delicate politics that exist between teams.

Life keeps on moving

Like I mentioned in my first point - nothing really stops for a corporate job. This also applies to your life! Small tasks such as scheduling doctor appointments or calling customer service to resolve a problem with an online order has to happen during business hours. I have gotten really good at keeping track of these items in my passion planner and using my lunch break to complete these kind of quick errands. It was definitely an adjustment process when I first started working realizing that the tasks were piling up and my work hours definitely weren’t about to change! It’s really important to keep this in mind going into your job to make sure you are prioritizing things like your relationships, health, and well-being otherwise they will fall by the wayside.

You’re not “quizzed” on information from school

I have a B.S. in Computer Science and in school I took courses such as operating systems, networking protocols, java development, and distributed systems. These were all great in understanding the fundamentals of computer science and through the course of the assignments in these classes I learned a lot about coding in different languages. More than the content of the courses though, what prepared me the most for working full-time in industry is the problem solving process that I had to go through. When I started a new course with no idea how to compile a program in C or how an ftp server worked, I had to use what resources were available to me to find the answers. If you’re in school now - do not cheat yourself by taking shortcuts in this process!! Even getting really frustrated and stuck on a bug - searching stack overflow and pouring through textbooks is part of the learning process and this is what I found most valuable from my time at school

Taking breaks is important and essential

You simply cannot keep everything running at full speed 100% of the time. Things will invariably happen - you’ll get sick, have a wedding to attend, or get burnt out and all of these things will require taking time off. I have found that working full time has given me a whole new appreciation for the time that I have off. In school it’s definitely different because it still felt a bit like my life was constantly “on break” and then there was school from time to time. When you work that’s not the case and carefully counting out my vacation entitlement and planning my PTO a year advance makes that time really valuable. Don’t think you can work at 110% effort 100% of the time because you will burn out. Know yourself and listen to your body.

Stay up-to-date on new technology in your free time

Once you start working, you will probably be put on a team with a specialty or in a role where you’re a subject matter expert. One of my coworkers put it really well - he says that whenever people ask what he does he says he either writes batches or services. Obviously this is an over-generalization but it is true that each team will have a specialty and it can mean that the technology you are exposed to on the daily is limited. Be sure to keep your skills sharp and keep yourself marketable by staying on top of the latest technology. I subscribe to Wired which is great for educating myself about trending technology topics. I’ve also set a goal for myself to become AWS certified in my spare time so that I can be sure I am staying relevant with the rise of cloud computing. 

Don’t be afraid to influence your team and company’s culture by being yourself

Integrating with your team and company’s culture will inevitably be a part of your transition for the first few months. Once you get settled, don’t be afraid to exert your own influence! I frequently bring in baked goods for my team and organize team outings (that don’t involve alcohol) including an intro to rock climbing session. I also have gotten involved with the women in engineering organization which has been a great way to meet others from across the company and build a network outside of my team.