From Pixels to Platforms: My Journey to Software Engineering
Growing up in the 90s, I saw technology become a fundamental part of daily life, sparking my early fascination. My interests in tech began with gaming, animation, special effects, and the latest smartphone apps.
This passion led me to pursue Information Technology (IT) studies in school and university. Following advice to choose a career I enjoyed, IT felt like the perfect fit. Although I wasn’t certain about the specifics of my future role, the endless and exciting opportunities in tech convinced me it was the right path — and I was right!
Knee Deep in Development and Loving it
During my early IT studies, I was introduced to software principles and coding, which I found thoroughly enjoyable. Even though I found it frustrating at times, it was something that brought me satisfaction and challenged me. I loved the ability to create something from scratch and see it come to life in the form of a functional software application.
As a Software Development Engineer at Workday in Dublin, I still find that same problem-solving satisfaction every day. I’m primarily focused on developing and maintaining parts of our User Interface Platform, specifically around visualising and editing Tabular Data. My team is currently working with Workday’s Accessibility team to further enhance our platform, making sure it remains fully accessible to all users, including those using assistive technologies like screen readers.
We are also continuously innovating and enhancing our user experience (UX) and performance, making this an exciting area of work. My role involves breaking down acceptance criteria into tasks, conducting technical assessments, developing potential approaches to achieve our goals, and implementing and testing new features.
The feature development process can vary depending on the work. Generally though, I start to develop a feature, and once I’m happy with my implementation and have sufficiently tested it, I create a pull request and ask my team members to review my code. This gives us an opportunity to learn from each other, as well as to ensure we’re only shipping the best quality offering. After the change is tested by our quality assurance team, it will be merged into the main codebase ready for deployment.
Levelling Up: Hard & Soft Skills for Peak Job Performance
I think it’s important to understand that although technical skills are core to this role, soft skills can’t be underestimated.
The most obvious for me is communication — being good at that is really important. As a software engineer you will be working in a team, and effectively explaining yourself and having healthy debates with your colleagues are a part of that.
The other is taking initiative and being proactive in solving problems. A solution won’t always be immediately obvious, but as a developer you need to be able to carry out research and independent investigations to achieve a resolution.
In terms of technical skills, the most critical to what I do are TypeScript, React and Java. I find the best way to build and refine these is to be collaborative, and I get to work with super talented individuals here, in a very collaborative space, which ensures I keep growing and learning. Everyone on the team has different technical experience, so doing code reviews and asking for opinions and advice on any technical implementation is invaluable. You can always learn something from those around you and constructive feedback is an important part of that.
Cracking the Code on Software Success
If your heart is set on a career in software, my advice is to be intentional about achieving your goals. When you find an area that interests you, find out what tech stack is relevant for that role/company and try to gain some experience, even if it is just for a personal project. You don’t need to be an expert, but taking the initiative to brush up on some relevant skills can go a long way. I started out in front-end development using technologies like Backbone.js and JavaScript. After researching what large companies in the market were looking for in their front-end developers, I enrolled in courses to learn React so I had another skill that was in demand.
I’m still learning all the time. I’m on a personal journey to improve my knowledge of backend development so I can become a full stack developer. Although the technologies I use may change over time, you will always learn principles that will stand throughout your career. Thankfully, Workday has a really strong culture of encouraging learning and knowledge sharing, so I try to attend all the workshops and seminars that are available to me. It’s essential to keep updating your skills in this field as it’s constantly evolving, but it can feel impossible to find the time — so the opportunity to learn during my day job is a great bonus.
The People Make Workday
I think the best thing about Workday are the Workmates. It’s a company with great core values, but ultimately it is up to the Workmates to uphold them, and I think everyone does a great job at this. From quarterly team events, to company gatherings, and the massive range of work-clubs, to volunteering opportunities and award shows, it’s not hard to see our values in action.
It’s a social environment as well as an inspiring professional one and I am lucky that I get to work with such genuine and friendly people every day.
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