| Name: | Swetha Kiledar Siddaramappa |
| Job Title: | Software Engineer |
| Joined PCIC: | September 6th, 2016 |
| Degrees held: | Masters in Computer Science |
When and why did you decide to become a Software Engineer?
As a child, I was always fascinated by applications used in day-to-day activities; how they were intuitive and so helpful, yet abstracting the complexities involved. I worked on creating a single player game in ‘C’ during my school and was excited to see its performance and capability. That’s how I started my journey towards software development.
What do you believe are the necessary ingredients to build a successful technology team?
Trust, innovation, non-hierarchal team structure, cross-functional collaboration, defined roles, strong values, and culture are crucial for a team to succeed.
What's one superpower that would help you be better at your job, and why?
Empathy! Empathy can be a software developer’s secret weapon. It’s important and applicable at all phases of the development cycle and helps build better teams, better products, and improves communication within team and end users. "When empathy is at the center of technology, human connections become stronger"[1].
Just like any profession in Tech, the tools and programs you use are constantly changing. How do you stay current with the development world?
I try to stay current by being an active member of tech communities and user groups and attending technical conferences. I like to read Stackoverflow’s hottest questions section and love reading tech magazines and blogs.
Webcasts, webinars, tech newsletters, tech news apps, and podcasts are great resources too.
What advice would you give to young people who are thinking about pursuing a career in software development?
- Get as much hands-on experience as possible to keep learning and evolving constantly.
- Join an organization that works for a mission. You will be amazed to see how rewarding and motivating this experience will be.
- Irrespective of the field you choose, having strong work ethics and values is important.
- After a task has been completed, go back to look what you can do to give an additional 10%. This 10% effort that you will put in will always be a value add [2].
Author
Swetha Kiledar
Software Engineer
[1] How Empathy Can Be a Software Developer’s Superpower
[2] Inspiring TedTalk
