Favorite Parts of Being a Software Engineer at Target
A typical day for this Target software engineer involves a 9:00 AM daily team meeting to discuss tasks and any roadblocks, followed by independent work on two-week sprints of assigned features, bug fixes, or documentation. The role offers flexibility, including a hybrid work model allowing work from home, and concludes with a brief end-of-day check-in with management, "making sure like, Hey, this is what I worked on."
Teamwork, Problem-Solving, Project Management, Communication, Coding
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Christian Vasquez Leon
Software Engineer
Target
University of California, Berkeley, 2020
N/A
Mathematics, Data Science, Statistics
Apparel, Beauty, Retail & Fashion, Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Scholarship Recipient, Immigrant, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Target employs a hybrid work model, allowing for flexibility and remote work options.
2. Software engineers at Target work in two-week sprints, focusing on specific features, bug fixes, or documentation tasks.
3. The work environment includes daily team meetings for updates and collaboration, along with regular check-ins with managers to ensure progress and address any roadblocks
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a software engineer at Target look like?
A day in the life varies, but for the most part, an average day starts with a meeting with my manager, current engineers, and my team. We discuss what we are currently working on.
We also go over if we are blocked with any issues or need assistance from any of our business partners. This happens every day at 9:00 AM, so it's a nine-to-five job for the most part.
After those initial meetings, I sometimes have to meet with managers or other engineers. If I don't have any meetings, I spend the rest of the day working on my assigned tasks.
Here's how that works: every two-week period, my team gets assigned new features, new bugs, or new tasks to look into. That could be anything from coding a new feature, writing documentation, or monitoring.
Those tasks are assigned to various engineers on our team. Every two weeks, they tell me, "Hey, I would like you to look into this feature. Can you complete it within two weeks? Can you write this documentation within these two weeks?"
For the rest of the day, I have flexibility to work on those tasks, manage my own time, and work with engineers. I can reach out if I need to. Since my role is hybrid, I don't often have to go to the office; I can just work from home on those assigned tasks.
Towards the end of the day, I wrap up. Sometimes I connect with my manager to review what I worked on, what I completed, and what to expect next. If I am not on-call, meaning I don't have any more tasks or anything else to monitor, I am usually off at 5:00 PM. That's pretty much it.