Software Engineer
Claire is a software engineer. After graduating from college with a bachelor's degree, she joined a company that develops many different types of software, including programs for use in offices and on cell phones, as well as computer games.
Claire spends most of her day working on a computer, although she also frequently attends meeting with clients and other members of the team. Claire's main responsibility within the company is testing the software that has been developed by other members of the team.
After checking her emails, Claire begins her day by going over the comments she has received back from the designer of a piece of software she has been testing. Claire sent them a report to let them know what she found during the tests she ran, and she has just received their feedback. They have a few questions about a particular problem that she identified, so she sends them an email with more details and a few suggestions for how they could solve the problem. Once they have improved the software, she will be able to retest it to check how successful they have been.
Claire then turns to a new piece of software that she will begin testing today. She worked with the design team to determine which aspects of the new software could be tested, and to come up with some suitable ways of testing it, and while they began working on the software, she prepared a testing strategy. Now that a completed version of the software is available, she can begin to run through the tests. As she does this, she gathers information about the software that she will report back to the developers.
Although she generally works as a tester, Claire does also get to work on some projects as a developer. She has had an idea for a new application that she would like to develop further. She meets with her boss to discuss her idea, and they agree that it is worth investing some time in the project.
