What Software Engineering Universities Don't Teach You

With almost 10 years of working experience, I played several roles as a software engineer. And I am currently CTO of a video game company. Thinking back about my time at university, there are tons of subjects I wish I had been taught properly. Here is my list...

Time and task management ⏲️

• Partitioning time (ex Pomodoro)

• Avoid distractions, getting into the flow state

• Inbox Zero

Tooling 🛠️

• Hardware: computers, input devices, and network devices

• Tools to increase productivity, shortcuts

• Test framework and test automation

• IT: resources inventory, resources management

Communication 💬

• With your technical colleagues

• With your non-technical colleagues

• With clients and customers: be confident and assertive

• Marketing: Self and Company promotion

Project Management 💼

• Agile: Scrum, Kanban

• Stories, task definition

• Task estimation

• TDD, DDD, BDD

• Performance monitoring

Leading / Mentoring 🦸

• Onboarding people

• Mentoring people

• Documentation

• Code reviews

• Peer reviews

• Pair programming, Mob Programming

Management 👨‍💼

• 1-on-1

• Delegation

• Feedback and Performance reviews

• Career management, coaching

• Objectives definition: OKR, KPI, SMART, etc.

Budget Management 💰

• Definition of budget

• Expenses monitoring

• Accounting

Entrepreneurship 🏢

• Corporate governance and the basics of corporate law

• Business development

• Business plan

• Business monitoring

Do you agree? Share your comments below. I also invite you to make your list and share it as well.

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Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash