A Day In The Life Of A Software Engineer At Advertising Company
A typical day for Tristan, a software engineer, involves a "nine to five" schedule heavily weighted toward collaboration: the first half is dedicated to meetings with stakeholders and colleagues, followed by code review ("peer reviewing code...making sure that...this is bit style guides"). The remaining time is allocated to actual coding, with some engineers even exceeding the typical workday to further contribute to projects.
Teamwork, Communication, Coding, Problem-solving, Project Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
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Traits
Tristan Hilbert
Software Engineer
Advertising Company
Major: Computer Science
Loyola Marymount University - Masters : Computer Science
Computer Science
Advertising, Communications & Marketing
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. A typical workday for a software engineer often involves a mix of meetings and individual coding time.
2. Collaboration is key, with activities like code reviews and working with stakeholders to ensure project alignment.
3. While a standard 9-to-5 schedule is common, some engineers may work additional hours to contribute further to projects.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a software engineer look like?
For most software engineers, it's a typical nine-to-five job, meaning you're usually working 40 hours a week. You typically start the day with a stand-up meeting and a series of other meetings to get things done as quickly as possible.
The first 40% to 50% of your day is often spent in meetings. This includes meeting with stakeholders, teammates, managers, and third parties to ensure everyone is aligned on tasks and timelines.
Then, I usually spend another hour or two working with others, such as code reviewing or peer reviewing code. This involves looking over code changes made by teammates to the collaborative repository.
The goal is to ensure the code follows style guides, identify any potential problems, and check if anything might break the site. This feedback is usually relayed in a way similar to a Google Doc.
The rest of the day is spent actually coding. I estimate this takes about three hours, though often more. I know many developers who stay late to make further contributions, which isn't something I'd enforce, but it does happen.
This is when you're actually coding out algorithms and doing the A/B testing I mentioned earlier.