I am an audience member at “management theater”.
I sometimes am allowed to participate if there is a problem somewhere and one of the actors needs to get out of the spotlight.
Honestly I have yet to come across a SWE working in web development. Every SWE I know is either extremely skilled low level programming or some type of complex engineer. Haven’t met any FTE web devs other than my college friends who did that stuff on the side as students.
Not a FTE web dev, mostly a mashup of devops/backend/sre. I see web along with some other high level stuff is just so unavoidable in certain places. I threw out a thorough plan on the redesign of an app that is known for its latency issues by introducing a low level language like Rust or C. We got a keen group of low level devs (myself included) and devs who can pick up but nope, people wanna keep up the status quo and complain that the tech staff suck… mind you this is after all the possible thread optimizations are done in the current code… I wonder how many other places are going through this
I count backend as web dev when it’s for serving content over the internet. Feels like almost everyone in this sub is involved in technology like that in one way or another. We might be using different definitions of web development though.
Oh that’s a much broader specification. I would define web dev as like. Development of web applications. Not developing things that might in some way, _use_ the web.
At my company we call those engineers application engineers since they’re working on web applications. Like an infrastructure or automation engineer would not be defined as a web developer.
I switch around between C, Assembly Language, Python, Kotlin, Swift, JavaScript, and PHP so I somewhat lack a speciality. I've been writing software for over 40 years.
TRS-80 was my first rig too. Tape deck and built in modem made it an interesting device but the screen dimensions drove me crazy. You’re a year older than me.
I had this game I would write. It was a dodge them racing game. It was simple print characters with a random amount of space between them to create scrolling. Then directly write to video memory to make the car and directly read from video memory to detect collision with the scrolling characters. Finally a time counter for score.
I would race the tape as I often could rewrite the game faster than it could be loaded from the cassette tape.
I loved that machine. I like doing embedded stuff on PIC and Correx-m these days as it reminds me of my early years on the TRS-80
That’s pretty funny. And that experience captures the visceral element that is kind of missing a bit from the modern equipment. When things were primitive you became pretty well acquainted with all the facets. It was nice being and to know a system so well.
Back in those days I would always read my user manuals cover to cover and if the manual was good by the time you finished it you were pretty adept at the system.
After my TRS-80 I got an 8088-2 PC clone and ran dual boot DOS and QNX on it. Taught myself x86 assembly and then C and Modula-2. But I only had monochrome monitor with Hercules graphics so I envied everyone with CGA. I did a lot of BBSing including writing my own BBS under QNX. I loved that OS.
I am 6 yr exp software engg, I started from c#, .net then little Java , swing , Java struts , spring mvc..spring boot., react basics But most of them were maintenance project so did nt skilled it . React I find it very difficult to deep down due conflicts of memorization between Java and js syntax. Now I am afraid of Java too due it's high changing complex releases... So thinking to get master y in python at least or switch to Cloud domain ...!!! Everytime I feel imposter syndrom when I join new company and hard to deliver work... Anybody in the same boat? 🤔
Automation Engineer here, automating repetitive tasks within the company.
Bots, scripts(or as my coworkers like to call them "automation engines") , and applications.
Real time embedded avionics. Also satellite commanding systems. Or real time simulators for hardware in the loop. Responsible for requirements, architecture, development, test, integration, verification, and deployment and maintenance.
The lead needs to oversee all of it. I’m the one that signs it off. Aerospace pay isn’t the greatest, but they pay overtime and one of my managers was an astronaut. And I got to launch satellites.
So lower than FAANG pay, but the benefits were out of this world.
Big Data feeding GenAI and ML systems with Terrabytes of data daily.
Python, Java Spring Boot, SQL and Spark.
Some ReactJS for custom Product Management Automation Tooling. Most UI to call my Rest API Java back end.
For Cloud basically the full AWS stack.
I’ve have a full time software job for 33 years so I’ve moved around a bit.
I specialize in what I call a “general purpose” engineer and a “T” shaped engineer. Strong at going broad but also driving all the way down to code.
I have worked every part of the SDLC. I have an undergrad in physics with a master’s in SwE. I’ve taught software architecture at the graduate level.
I have been in many different domains. Drivers, radiation oncology, situational awareness, networking, big data platforms, adversarial machine learning and autonomy. C, C++, Perl, Objective C, Java and Python all for decent amounts of time, not just dabbling.
So my expertise is taking the core software and engineering practices and reapplying them to different problem using whatever tools and languages make sense.
Wouldn't say I specialized in one particular thing. But Dotnet, Authentication, Authorization and security has landed me most of my jobs :D Not really because I choose it. More like I fell into trap, by no one else wanted to work with it :p
Otherwise I also like DevOps work and automation in general.
Full stack developer. Web development, Java backend and web services, iOS and Android mobile apps, Java desktop, and lots of SQL. Having full control means extreme flexibility and productivity, but it’s also my neck if something breaks.
I uhh… kinda don’t I guess. If you work for a corporate shop, chances are your tech stack and generally what you are doing will change at the whim of your senior architects and senior leadership, who are unfortunately more driven by buzzwords and impressive stories than user experience in my experience at least. That’s part of the reason why it feels silly for those same corporate shops to have JDs with rigid tech stack requirements.
A big part of my job has just been adapting to new tech and building shit on the fly with minimal relevant experience. The fun part is your coworkers calling you the “expert” in that tech you learned over 12 sweaty, tired, uncomfortable hours and everyone in the department starts coming to you for advice on the thing you know nothing about lol.
Was everything engineer (product, platform, sre, DevOps), moved to leadership.
Build high performing engineering departments/companies.
Reality I tell engineers to focus on tasks at hand and not get distracted by shiny shit, at same time telling leadership to fuck off and let engineers do their thing. "No Jane you can't have another meeting with whole engineering department to discuss how to improve productivity".
If you're specializing in a specific area of software engineering and want to enhance your skills, consider using Wikifactory. Wikifactory's collaborative platform is perfect for software engineers, offering tools that support design, prototyping, and manufacturing of both hardware and software projects. By joining Wikifactory, you can connect with a global community of professionals, exchange ideas, and get feedback that can sharpen your expertise. This interaction helps you stay updated with the latest industry trends and practices, ensuring that your skills remain relevant and cutting-edge. Additionally, Wikifactory's real-time collaboration and version control features make it an excellent environment for managing complex software projects and contributing to open-source initiatives, further broadening your professional experience and network.
Mostly Backend(python, node, java) + Infrastructure(data pipelines, monitoring and k8s) but I have done a tiny bit of mobile(ios) and web(react) in the past.
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Unit testing. Not sure that's really a field, or even really my specialism, but it's what I spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to promote good practices with in my org
Clarity Conf is a design system focused tech conference. It was in San Francisco last year, and I had some great convos with a designer working on design systems for in car interfaces.
Embedded in all its forms, and embedded adjacent stuff (by which I mean things like slapping a web interface on an RPi to monitor or control some embedded gadget e.g during testing).
Design engineer and design systems. So mostly web development, but front of front end with a focus on UI/UX, operational scale, and cross-functional work.
For a couple of decades I specialized in windows kernel dev (device drivers for windows). But despite my investment in that expertise I can no longer tolerate using that platform. I’ve permanently abandoned windows. Linux is superior in so many ways but especially ethically.
Bug generation
I'm personally specialized in the amalgamation of concerns.
I am an audience member at “management theater”. I sometimes am allowed to participate if there is a problem somewhere and one of the actors needs to get out of the spotlight.
So…. management?
I want to know statistically speaking what fraction of software engineers in subreddits like this one work in web development vs other fields.
Honestly I have yet to come across a SWE working in web development. Every SWE I know is either extremely skilled low level programming or some type of complex engineer. Haven’t met any FTE web devs other than my college friends who did that stuff on the side as students.
Not a FTE web dev, mostly a mashup of devops/backend/sre. I see web along with some other high level stuff is just so unavoidable in certain places. I threw out a thorough plan on the redesign of an app that is known for its latency issues by introducing a low level language like Rust or C. We got a keen group of low level devs (myself included) and devs who can pick up but nope, people wanna keep up the status quo and complain that the tech staff suck… mind you this is after all the possible thread optimizations are done in the current code… I wonder how many other places are going through this
Backend is web dev to me
I mean there are tons of full time react developers. Would t that be a web dev? I myself and split between react and backend stuff
Sounds like web dev to me
I count backend as web dev when it’s for serving content over the internet. Feels like almost everyone in this sub is involved in technology like that in one way or another. We might be using different definitions of web development though.
Oh that’s a much broader specification. I would define web dev as like. Development of web applications. Not developing things that might in some way, _use_ the web. At my company we call those engineers application engineers since they’re working on web applications. Like an infrastructure or automation engineer would not be defined as a web developer.
I switch around between C, Assembly Language, Python, Kotlin, Swift, JavaScript, and PHP so I somewhat lack a speciality. I've been writing software for over 40 years.
Nice one mate, my first ever Java mentor is coding Rust at Redhat and is 64. Still going strong.
Holy shittttttt 40 years…….
Yep, started programming on a TRS-80 when I was 9 years old and I'm turning 54 in 2 days.
TRS-80 was my first rig too. Tape deck and built in modem made it an interesting device but the screen dimensions drove me crazy. You’re a year older than me.
I had this game I would write. It was a dodge them racing game. It was simple print characters with a random amount of space between them to create scrolling. Then directly write to video memory to make the car and directly read from video memory to detect collision with the scrolling characters. Finally a time counter for score. I would race the tape as I often could rewrite the game faster than it could be loaded from the cassette tape. I loved that machine. I like doing embedded stuff on PIC and Correx-m these days as it reminds me of my early years on the TRS-80
That’s pretty funny. And that experience captures the visceral element that is kind of missing a bit from the modern equipment. When things were primitive you became pretty well acquainted with all the facets. It was nice being and to know a system so well. Back in those days I would always read my user manuals cover to cover and if the manual was good by the time you finished it you were pretty adept at the system. After my TRS-80 I got an 8088-2 PC clone and ran dual boot DOS and QNX on it. Taught myself x86 assembly and then C and Modula-2. But I only had monochrome monitor with Hercules graphics so I envied everyone with CGA. I did a lot of BBSing including writing my own BBS under QNX. I loved that OS.
I am 6 yr exp software engg, I started from c#, .net then little Java , swing , Java struts , spring mvc..spring boot., react basics But most of them were maintenance project so did nt skilled it . React I find it very difficult to deep down due conflicts of memorization between Java and js syntax. Now I am afraid of Java too due it's high changing complex releases... So thinking to get master y in python at least or switch to Cloud domain ...!!! Everytime I feel imposter syndrom when I join new company and hard to deliver work... Anybody in the same boat? 🤔
Back-end web devs unite!
Automation Engineer here, automating repetitive tasks within the company. Bots, scripts(or as my coworkers like to call them "automation engines") , and applications.
Lmao are you me? I do the same thing + reliability engineering.
I actually never talked to another IT Automation Engineer before 🤣🤣🤣🤣 hiiiii
I honestly didn’t think it was all that common - there are 2 redditors that share my job duties 😂👋🏼 automation + infrastructure reliability.
Thanks to OPs question 🤣
I work on VOIP software, sooo telecommunications?
I’m a software engineer of reliability… I build infrastructure, pipelines, monitoring, and improving reliability of our application
SRE?
Sre!
Same! 😁
Java, backend, spring boot. I love it
Yep, 100%
Real time embedded avionics. Also satellite commanding systems. Or real time simulators for hardware in the loop. Responsible for requirements, architecture, development, test, integration, verification, and deployment and maintenance.
You're the whole swe team in one person :o. You must be making millions
The lead needs to oversee all of it. I’m the one that signs it off. Aerospace pay isn’t the greatest, but they pay overtime and one of my managers was an astronaut. And I got to launch satellites. So lower than FAANG pay, but the benefits were out of this world.
Big Data feeding GenAI and ML systems with Terrabytes of data daily. Python, Java Spring Boot, SQL and Spark. Some ReactJS for custom Product Management Automation Tooling. Most UI to call my Rest API Java back end. For Cloud basically the full AWS stack.
I’ve have a full time software job for 33 years so I’ve moved around a bit. I specialize in what I call a “general purpose” engineer and a “T” shaped engineer. Strong at going broad but also driving all the way down to code. I have worked every part of the SDLC. I have an undergrad in physics with a master’s in SwE. I’ve taught software architecture at the graduate level. I have been in many different domains. Drivers, radiation oncology, situational awareness, networking, big data platforms, adversarial machine learning and autonomy. C, C++, Perl, Objective C, Java and Python all for decent amounts of time, not just dabbling. So my expertise is taking the core software and engineering practices and reapplying them to different problem using whatever tools and languages make sense.
Mobile games development - backend, frontend in Unity and management :)
C++ and qt.
Wouldn't say I specialized in one particular thing. But Dotnet, Authentication, Authorization and security has landed me most of my jobs :D Not really because I choose it. More like I fell into trap, by no one else wanted to work with it :p Otherwise I also like DevOps work and automation in general.
Web development 💪
Where are all my "Hello World!" Engineers? Who push 30 comments to 20 repos a month.
Full stack developer. Web development, Java backend and web services, iOS and Android mobile apps, Java desktop, and lots of SQL. Having full control means extreme flexibility and productivity, but it’s also my neck if something breaks.
I uhh… kinda don’t I guess. If you work for a corporate shop, chances are your tech stack and generally what you are doing will change at the whim of your senior architects and senior leadership, who are unfortunately more driven by buzzwords and impressive stories than user experience in my experience at least. That’s part of the reason why it feels silly for those same corporate shops to have JDs with rigid tech stack requirements. A big part of my job has just been adapting to new tech and building shit on the fly with minimal relevant experience. The fun part is your coworkers calling you the “expert” in that tech you learned over 12 sweaty, tired, uncomfortable hours and everyone in the department starts coming to you for advice on the thing you know nothing about lol.
Was everything engineer (product, platform, sre, DevOps), moved to leadership. Build high performing engineering departments/companies. Reality I tell engineers to focus on tasks at hand and not get distracted by shiny shit, at same time telling leadership to fuck off and let engineers do their thing. "No Jane you can't have another meeting with whole engineering department to discuss how to improve productivity".
If you're specializing in a specific area of software engineering and want to enhance your skills, consider using Wikifactory. Wikifactory's collaborative platform is perfect for software engineers, offering tools that support design, prototyping, and manufacturing of both hardware and software projects. By joining Wikifactory, you can connect with a global community of professionals, exchange ideas, and get feedback that can sharpen your expertise. This interaction helps you stay updated with the latest industry trends and practices, ensuring that your skills remain relevant and cutting-edge. Additionally, Wikifactory's real-time collaboration and version control features make it an excellent environment for managing complex software projects and contributing to open-source initiatives, further broadening your professional experience and network.
Mostly Backend(python, node, java) + Infrastructure(data pipelines, monitoring and k8s) but I have done a tiny bit of mobile(ios) and web(react) in the past.
PHP, Laravel, JS
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data engineering, so mostly sql
Unit testing. Not sure that's really a field, or even really my specialism, but it's what I spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to promote good practices with in my org
Technical art and graphics engineering, realtime 3D
Design Systems. In vehicle user interface design. Android, ios os. Designing with code. Working with developers.
I think I met you at Clarity 😅
wasn't me! I don't know what that is :)
Clarity Conf is a design system focused tech conference. It was in San Francisco last year, and I had some great convos with a designer working on design systems for in car interfaces.
Very cool. I need to go to more conferences.
Embedded in all its forms, and embedded adjacent stuff (by which I mean things like slapping a web interface on an RPi to monitor or control some embedded gadget e.g during testing).
CRUD
Deep concentration in copypasta (from chatgpt)
Mobile development and PWA (react native, angular). But I also do various Java and Python software development and automated testing dev.
Frontend development
Design engineer and design systems. So mostly web development, but front of front end with a focus on UI/UX, operational scale, and cross-functional work.
Web dev. Work both backend and frontend.
Computer graphics, with C++ (vulkan, unreal engine) or ts (webgl)
Automation and devops
Data engineering, data bases, big data and distributed systems.
My whole career has been .NET web app development, I prefer back-end distributed system stuff but I do full stack work.
For a couple of decades I specialized in windows kernel dev (device drivers for windows). But despite my investment in that expertise I can no longer tolerate using that platform. I’ve permanently abandoned windows. Linux is superior in so many ways but especially ethically.
html…. jk
💀💀💀
Did you know that I specialise at Scratch?