Main Responsibilities of a Software Engineer at an HR Software Company
David, a software engineer at a B2B company, describes their main responsibility as "build[ing] software that's gonna solve the problems that the business needs," typically executing on a vision created by project managers who work directly with clients. This differs from B2C or startup environments where software engineers may have more influence over deciding what to build.
Software Engineering, Problem-Solving, Project Execution, B2B Software Development, Client Communication
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David Curtis
Software Engineer
HR Software Company
UC Irvine
None
Computer Science
Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Software engineers build software to solve business problems, often executing a vision created by project managers.
2. In B2B companies, project managers define what to build, while engineers focus on implementation. In B2C companies or startups, engineers may have more influence on what to build.
3. Excellent engineers understand client needs and incorporate that understanding into the final software product.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your role?
The main job of a software engineer, at least at the company I worked at, was to build software that solves the problems the business needs. In a B2B organization like Workday, project managers typically work with customers to figure out the best thing to build to meet their needs.
They create the vision, and it's mostly the engineers' job to execute on that vision. Generally, most of the work in deciding what to do is done by someone else. The engineer's job is to build that work to the best of their ability.
Excellent engineers will understand what the client needs so they can incorporate that understanding into the final version of the software. However, they are generally executing on the vision.
If you work at a more B2C company or a startup, you might have more power in deciding what to build because you won't have someone else figuring that out for you. But if you're working at a B2C company where you need to build something complicated, you need someone else who can do it for you.
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