I spent the first eight years at this company with the title of “Software Development Engineer in Test.” A few months back, there was a company-wide change and now there’s no such thing as someone who specializes in testing. We’re all “Software Engineers” and we’re all expected to both develop and test the product in our normal daily work. There are pros and cons to each method, but I think the switch is going to be a good move and aligns us with the current industry trends. The idea is that you’re responsible for your feature from the time it’s planned, while it’s being written, as it’s being readied for shipping, and while the customer is using it (telemetry, etc.) You own it and you don’t get to hand it off to anyone to be your safety net.
So now I’m not only out of the manager track and back in the individual contributor pool, but I’m also a “software engineer” instead of a “software development engineer in test.” They’re both pretty big changes to my day-to-day activities but I’m still loving my job!
Software Engineer
So now I’m not only out of the manager track and back in the individual contributor pool, but I’m also a “software engineer” instead of a “software development engineer in test.” They’re both pretty big changes to my day-to-day activities but I’m still loving my job!