Published: 15 Sep 2022

What is a software engineer? A software engineer is someone who designs, develops, tests, deploys, maintains, and monitors software. So, not only creating and coding, but also designing from the start of the process to monitoring the features and technologies that are created. This was explained by Mohammad Ryan Priatama, back-end software engineer at Tokopedia in the Internal Affairs (IA) Webinar entitled Software Engineer Career in Emerging Technologies, Monday (5/9). This webinar is organized by the President University Major Association of Industrial Engineering to provide understanding and experience about the software engineer profession.

Ryan revealed that the need for software engineers is projected to continue to increase every year. "In 2021, the need for software engineers is 109,047 people and for 2025 it is estimated that it will increase to 186,000," he explained. According to Ryan, the projection is that the demand will continue to increase not only linearly, but also exponentially. To become a software engineer, Ryan said, you don't have to have an educational background in IT. “My educational background is in physics and I can get into this profession. So, it's not just about the educational background, but also the skills we have," he said.

Then, what skills does a software engineer need? Ryan said, a software engineer requires hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills, such as mastery of programming languages, databases, RESTful APIs, deployment tools, and monitoring tools. Meanwhile, soft skills that must also be mastered by software engineers, such as logical and analytical thinking, working as part of a team, to storytelling skill. "This storytelling skill is important to explain the other members and other teams about the features and coding that have been made," he explained. (Gilang Suryanata, PR team. Photo: Gilang)