What is Software Engineering?

Software Engineering job titles

Other benefits offered are usually standard within industry such as:
●        Private Healthcare/Dental
●        Pension contribution (non-contributory/matched)
●        Annual leave (+ ability to purchase/sell additional days
●        Vouchers/allowance for online/personal learning & development
●        Gym membership
●        Bonus (Discretionary)

Team dynamics and inclusion for Software Engineers
Teams nowadays tend to work as “Agile” teams, consisting of developers, testers, business analysts and product or scrum masters.

Software engineering teams are usually very multicultural with developers coming to the UK from all areas of the world given how mature the technology landscape is in the UK, especially London.

Software engineering as a whole, has historically been a very male dominated industry but recently, we’ve seen the number of female candidates in the market increase year on year which is really encouraging.

Career progression for a Software Engineer

There are lots of ways in which software engineers can progress their careers and often the CIO’s/CTO’s of organisations have worked their way up from being hands on engineers, to leading the technology strategy of the company. A typical progression route example is as follows: Junior Developer to Software Developer to Senior Developer to Lead Developer to Engineering Manager to Head of Engineering. 

Current trends in the Software Engineering industry

Currently, we’re seeing that Python is the most in demand skill set closely followed by Java and Javascript.

We believe lots of companies are choosing Python for newer projects because it’s easy to learn and work with, as well as being extremely versatile.

We’re also seeing companies regularly looking for “full-stack” developers for their positions, which means candidates need experience in both front-end and back-end programming languages.

The use of “Devops” principles is also a skillset that is becoming a “must-have” for senior level developers, with the use of containerisation tools such as Docker or Kubernetes being the most popular.

Cloud engineering is another skill which is being asked for on a regular basis, with Azure being the current most popular platform followed by AWS and GCP.

Summary

Author: Alexander Reeder, Managing Consultant, Financial Services

As an experienced Managing Consultant I predominantly recruit for high-level software engineers within a broad range of financial services companies, such as investment banks, asset managers, fintechs and insurers. Whilst I specialise in hands-on software engineering, I also have experience recruiting for test engineers, UI/UX/service design and software development/engineering managers. 

If you’d like to speak further about Software Engineering then please get in touch.