Opportunities : Software Engineering

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Software engineering is a branch of computer science which includes the development and building of computer systems software and applications software. The software engineer is typically the person who helps develop the ways that the software functions by working with designers, coders and programmers to create functioning programs or add new features to existing software. Payscale states that the average annual base salary of a software engineer in Sri-Lanka is about 1,000,000 LKR and if this sounds like an interesting career path for you and you would like to know more about how my friend escaped A/Ls and has a degree in software engineering (already at 20), read on.

The start:

So Malith, having done his O/Ls in 2016 was contemplating the idea of doing A/Ls or applying for an IT degree at a private University. He was convinced that the A/L pathway might be more time consuming and along with his encouraging and supportive parents, they proceeded to branch out and understand the options and opportunities you'd get at various universities like ACBT, NSBM, ICBT and ESOFT. He enrolled for an IT diploma at ESOFT in April of 2017 and after completing that in 6 months, continued to do his Higher national diploma (HND) in computing where he completed 4 semesters over a span of 2 years. What I understood after talking to him was that the HND is sort of a foundation and after you complete that, you can enrol in whichever degree that suits you. After a month of freedom and being bombarded with leaflets of possible degree opportunities, he decided to enrol in the software engineering degree which took him one year to complete and as of now he is applying for jobs begging companies to let his poor soul come work there (hehe). He is 20 years old and is providing freelancing services online to keep his skills sharp and in tact as he wishes to work on his masters in the near future after getting some job experience (because apparently that's a big deal).

Ideally it took him 3 and half years to get his degree but having been one of the few that signed up for it right after O/Ls, he is one of the youngest in the batch to graduate. Almost everyone else had signed up after A/Ls and the ones who had completed IT as an A/L subject were not required to take the diploma but could jump ahead to do the HND which I think is convenient to speed up the process. He says not having batch mates who are closer in age can be a challenge for some but that might depend on the person. Another challenge he says he was faced with is that some modules had maths sections that he wasn't too familiar with not having done A/Ls but he says it doesn't hinder anything and you can easily get by with a little guidance from your friends and lecturers.

The degree:

I inquired about his degree details and he says they had to do 5 subjects, A personal project, Advanced software engineering, Application development, Artificial intelligence and MOP (Management of a successful project). Co-Vid apparently had repercussions in their learning and he says they had a full month where they did not have any work because the transfer to online lectures took a while. But it ultimately resulted in them having a heavier workload and a stressful last few months but everyone survived so it's all good. They had one AI assignment to make a robot or an animation and he made an Arduino robot which i thought was pretty cool. Even their exams had to be done online (open book) due to Co-Vid and he says the online experience is doable and smooth now. Their main programming language was C# with a little insight given to Java during their time completing the HND and he says that knowing more than one programming language is very helpful. He got a second class for his degree and the handful of people who obtained first classes were given reasonable scholarships by the London Metropolitan University . But how it works now that no one can fly I don't know. I don't feel like disclosing fee matters here but if you're interested feel free to leave a comment down below.

Conclusion:

I wanted to provide a working example about a person who actually took a path far different to the traditional one and is successful in his journey so far, so that people can see it works. And also hopefully provide a template as to how you can possibly structure your life if you are interested in such a field. If you have any comments or queries feel free to discuss them in the comments. I hope to do more of these to inform more people about the possibilities out there along with the people who are currently down that road so if that sounds interesting, subscribe to the blog, thanks <3

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