Michale Le
8/29/19
1st Period
Senior Research Paper Outline
I. Name of Career: Software Engineer
I would like to pursue this career due to my fascination with computers at a very young
age.
II. History of the career: Software Engineering was first organized by NATO in
1968 due to a software crisis. Writing software has changed much over the
years as it has evolved into a profession with a goal to maximize its quality
and how it gets created.
III. People in this career
a. Approximately 1,300,000 people are currently employed as a software
engineer.
b. Software Engineering is projected to grow 24 percent from 2016 to 2026
due to society currently focusing on advancing its technological aspect.
This growth is much faster than most occupations.
c. Jobs with this career pathway can be mostly found anywhere as companies
need people to setup a base of their software to get them up and running
nowadays. Big companies or small companies, it doesn’t matter as every
company is jumping onto the technological bandwagon.
IV. Duties of this career
a. The general duties of a software engineer are to program, improve, or
tweak software for companies in a certain way that they want it to be
projected/operated.
b. Software Engineers specifically have to follow what their project requires
of them from their work which is to either setup a website or programming
an app or software that allows you to do a specific function.
c. Software Engineers usually work 40 hours per week, but it is also normal
for them to work 50 hours per week as well.
d. Software Engineers have to meet deadlines and resolve any problem that
may occur. Anything that pops up will be an inconvenience as the
finishing of their part or project is crucial to their jobs.
V. Qualifications of workers in this field.
a. There is no specific age requirement to become a Software Engineer,
however to legally work for most technology companies is 18.
b. There is no gender requirement.
c. There is no health or physical requirement, but it is preferred that you are
mentally and physically well.
d. Software Engineers have to be able to work in teams when working on
their projects as well as being confident and creative with their ideas.
e. Most big tech companies will require for you to be able to program your
own programs as well as having to know over 6 coding languages to be
used in their projects.
Michale Le
8/29/19
1st Period
Senior Research Paper Outline
f. Four years in computer science will most likely land you a job in Software
Engineering, even though it is not required, it is most definitely preferred
as well as learning the many programming languages.
g. The best way to be able to become a Software Engineer is to intern at big
tech companies and learn from their methods and how they run their
day-to-day operations.
h. The most common methods of getting into this career is to pursue a
pathway in computer science and begin to practice producing software.
I would personally choose the route of going to college and getting the
degree in computer science as well as interning for tech companies.
VI Education Planning
a. There are many schools that offer Computer Science as class, but most
notably are Georgia Institute Of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, California Institute of Technology, and Virginia Institute of
Technology.
b. The Armed forces is always accepting people that excel in computer
science as it would be beneficial to them to develop, update, or use them
to preform top-secret operations to gain information.
c. Currently, there are many technological scholarships that are offered to
students such as the AACE or the American Association of Cost
Engineering which offer scholarships up to $2,500 to students majoring in
computer science and etc. from other private companies.
VII. Earnings
a. How much can you expect to make from this career?
1. The beginning salary of a Software Engineer is $55,000
2. The average salary is $84,019
3. The exceptional salary is $110,000
b. It depends on the company and the jobs that you would perform that
determines your salary.
VIII. Nature of the Job
c. The benefits of this career would be enjoying a career field that I
would enjoy and one that has been a part of my whole life.
d. Hazards to expect from this job would be the malicious software
attacks that may occur from outside sources that have to be resolved.
IX. Career Advancement
a. The chances of advancing would mean that you would have to meet
the requirement of having a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science,
but a master’s would also help greatly.
b. There shouldn’t be any more additional training besides mastering all
of the coding languages.
Michale Le
8/29/19
1st Period
Senior Research Paper Outline
c. Advancing positions would mean more responsibilities such as having
to oversee all employees and their pieces of software to make sure
that it works as intended.
d. To hold the current position, there would be no need to further
education unless you would want to move up the ladder.
X. Reflection
a. I would of course still be interested in making this my own career objective. This is
because Computer Science and Software Engineering has always appealed
to me since when I was young to present-day.
