r/cscareerquestions • u/foreversingle- • 12h ago
Student What is a career in CS like?
Im going into uni next year and choosing between CS and mechatronics engineering. The point of this post is not to see what the job market/employability is, but rather to gauge my interest in this field.
What sort of work do you guys do? What would I do outside of uni curriculum? I heard a lot about building personal projects, but what does that entail? Creating an app as a hobby for example? What are some career/job options and what sort of work do you do in said job? Whether you're a student or grad, whats your daily life looking like?
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u/diablo1128 Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer 12h ago
Being a SWE is about solving business problems with code. This is a team sport, so to speak. You are expected to work with a team of SWEs to solve big problems.
If you think you will get a task and can sit in a dimly lit basement by yourself for a week "hacking" out a solution then you are mistaken. This is not the job in the vast majority of companies. There will be meetings and discussions along the way.
Communication skills and knowing your audience are important skills to have.