Software Programmers

A Day in the Life

As a computer programmer, you man the front lines of critical software development. This morning, you find a stack of technical documents on your desk and a worried manager in your chair. She explains that a developer working on a new finance application was abruptly moved to a different project, and you are now lead programmer in his place. Suddenly, the day's schedule changes from updating a Web application module in Python to learning the finance application's design. You will write it in C++, a challenging low-level language that uses object orientation. You cancel your evening plans for the week.

As you are still responsible for your current project, you spend the morning debugging the existing module to find all of the needed changes. You hold a video call with the original programmer who is now at the Germany office. Both of you often work flexible hours to accommodate colleagues in different time zones. The original module uses third-party code libraries that do not handle some new functionality very gracefully, and you need to decide how to code around the issue. You make a note to research alternative libraries although they could mean substantial code changes.

After lunch, you meet with the software team working on the new finance application. Using a white board, the team walks through the high-level program design. You will be in charge of writing the derivatives module. You know nothing about financial derivatives, but fortunately you are quite familiar with several excellent software math libraries that should handle most of the calculations. However, you must still learn the basic principles of derivatives. You remind yourself that this project is an advancement opportunity and a chance to exercise your C++ skills.

Back at your desk, you write a short automation script to test a change you made to the Python Web module. The test will run overnight, and you will review the logs in the morning. You can also access the system from home and poke around. As it stands, you will likely be up quite late learning how to code derivatives in C++.