Explore
Product & web
Software Engineer
Building the thing, then fixing the thing.
Typical pay
$80k-$220k
How you get in
Degree, bootcamp or self-taught + portfolio
Outlook
Solid, with a competitive entry market
Engineers write and maintain software. The day-to-day is less typing than people expect: mostly reading code, debating tradeoffs and debugging.
A day in the life
- 9:00aCoffee, triage messages and code reviews
- 9:45aStandup with the team
- 10:00aDeep work on a feature branch
- 1:00pDesign discussion with product
- 2:30pDebug a production issue
- 5:00pOpen the pull request, update the ticket
How to get in
Computer science degree
Duration
4 years
Cost
$40,000-$200,000+
Credential
BS in computer science or software engineering
- Complete a CS program with data structures and algorithms at its core
- Land at least one internship — this matters more than your GPA
- Build projects outside coursework so you have something to show
- Interview through campus recruiting or apply directly
Bootcamp
Duration
3-6 months full-time
Cost
$10,000-$21,000
Credential
Certificate of completion (carries little weight on its own)
- Learn enough on your own to pass the admissions assessment
- Complete the program and ship a real capstone project
- Grind interview prep — this is where most of the hiring outcome is decided
- Expect a longer job search than the marketed placement rates suggest
Self-taught
Duration
6-24 months, depending on hours per week
Cost
$0-$2,000
Credential
None — your portfolio is the credential
- Pick one language and get genuinely good at it before adding another
- Build three or four real projects that other people actually use
- Contribute to open source so your work has a public track record
- Network your way to a first interview — cold applications rarely land without a degree
What people love
- · Remote-friendly
- · High pay ceiling
- · Constant learning
What wears people down
- · Sedentary and screen-heavy
- · On-call rotations
- · Entry level is crowded