Enterprise Ireland has launched the “IT’s happening here” movement, which highlights the growing strength of the IT sector in Ireland. The media campaign aims to publicise Ireland’s unfilled IT jobs and promote careers in the IT industry.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to Enterprise Ireland, the Irish software sector grew by 10% in the last year. It says that there are thousands of job vacancies in more than 600 Irish software companies.

The campaign’s web pages feature regularly updated posts from software firms about vacancies within their companies. For more information visit, IT’s happening here.

Ireland’s  IT sector is short of skilled staff with demand now exceeding supply, according to a quarterly recruitment report. IT remains one of the few sectors of Irish industry that is thriving. The report found that IT graduates with a background in design and development are still hard to find.

Speaking to Siliconrepublic.com, an online magazine which follows tech developments in Ireland and abroad, Trefor Murphy, the operations director of Morgan McKinley said: “The August 11 Morgan McKinley Irish Employment Monitor recorded a 172pc increase in the number of new IT jobs in Ireland, compared to the same month last year.”

Speech and Language Therapy is a challenging, varied and creative job. It provides the opportunity to facilitate others to reach their social, educational and vocational potential, by enabling them to communicate effectively with others.

After completing her degree in Manchester University in 1996, Karen Henderson began working as a Speech and Language Therapist with the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) in Clontarf, Dublin. She has been working for Cheeverstown House in Templeogue, since June 2002.

There she works with other professionals such as Occupational Therapists, Music Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists and doctors, in the course of assessing, diagnosing and treating a variety of communication difficulties in adults and children who are living with disabilities or disorders.

“I work primarily with individuals with physical disability, many of whom are non-speaking or have unclear speech. Our role is to assess for and implement Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems. These systems supplement and in some cases replace speech as a means of communication.”

There is currently a national shortage of Speech and Language Therapists and hence a large number of vacant posts in Ireland.

In order to apply for a Speech and Language Therapist’s post, you must show you have qualified from an approved 3rd level institution.

Most courses demand languages and science subjects at honours Leaving Cert level. The degree is varied, combining academic teaching with hands-on clinical experience and encompassing such areas as Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology, Linguistics, Audiology, Psychology, Phonetics, Child language and development, Neurology and Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Learn more

International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication - an organisation devoted to advancing the field of Augmentative and Alternative communication (AAC).

Central Remedial Clinic – is a non-residential national centre for the care, treatment and development of children and adults with physical and multiple disabilities.

Cliodhna McGuirk, SMS technologist

Degree

Pure and Applied Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin.

Career snapshot

Cliodhna McGuirk, Chief Technology Officer at Saadian Technologies, is an SMS trailblazer. If you’ve ever sent a text to a radio station, entered an SMS competition or received the latest sports news by text, then it’s possible that her technology made it happen. From Swords, County Dublin, Cliodhna’s interest in technology began when she studied maths in university. On graduation, she got a job in AIB and developed an interest in Internet security and programming. Her next job was with Nua – considered worldwide to be an Internet pioneer – where she worked on projects developing Internet solutions for Irish and International companies. In 1999, she co-founded Saadian Technologies, which has become one of the leading Irish Mobile Middleware and SMS companies in Ireland and beyond.

What’s so brilliant about your job?

“There is a definite buzz about working in an industry where the technology is moving so fast. I’ve always had an interest in problem solving. I enjoy talking to clients, finding out their needs and then coming back with a technical solution to solve their problems.”
“It can be a very creative process and very rewarding when you see how your software has made an impact on the company.”

How do you spend typical day?

“There are always several projects on the go. As CTO I’m involved, in some way, in every project. That could mean that in the morning I’m working with a client like Today FM, on SMS listener voting. Then in the afternoon I could be programming a new product to be used by the Government for the EU Presidency. I get to do a lot of different things. As a growing company we never say ‘no’ so it’s always busy.”

Are you computer nerd?

“No. But none of my friends are into computers. I’ve never ended up programming in a corner. It’s always been about using technology to fix problems and being able to come at things laterally, My maths definitely helped me develop those skills.”

Did science give you a buzz at school?

“I was always interested in mathematics and physics. I did applied maths as an extra subject because my school didn’t offer it for the Leaving. I really got interested after the Junior Cert. I was selected to compete in the Mathematics Olympiad, which is an international competition and involves extra training on Saturdays. It gave me a taste for doing maths at university level.”

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

“I won the Irish Internet Association Innovation Award in 2002. I was really happy because people working in the Irish Internet industry voted for me. It was great that our hard work was recognised by our peers.”

Want to find out more?

Find out more about Cliodhna’s company, Saadian Technologies

Read about why she was chosen as an Internet innovator on the Irish Internet Association website.

Discover more about studying maths at Trinity College

Electronic engineer John Breslin (31) was born in Dublin and grew up in Fanore, Co Clare. He went to school in Lisdoonvarna. Since qualifying, he has held a range of Johnresearch and teaching posts.

His current job is in one of the most exciting areas of computer science – working on the Semantic Web project at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway. (The Semantic Web is the next generation of the World Wide Web, intended to create much more meaningful connections between pieces of information.)

Among the awards he has collected are a Golden Spider and a Zeddy web award for the online community boards.ie, and a prize paper award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Degrees

BE (Electronics), NUI Galway, 1994 and PhD, NUI Galway, 2002

Career snapshot

He began his career in 1994 with the Power Electronics Research Centre at NUI Galway, where he worked on computer techniques to improve the design of electrical transformers.

From 2000 to 2004, he lectured at the Department of Electronic Engineering at NUI Galway. He taught students in both electronic and computer engineering subjects ranging from radio communications to digital logic.

Currently, he’s a postdoctoral researcher at DERI, researching social networks and community portals on the Semantic Web.

What’s so brilliant about your job?

“I’ve been fascinated by the development of online communities on the Web since I co-founded one of Ireland’s largest community sites (boards.ie) as a hobby in 2000. Boards.ie started life as a single discussion forum with a handful of members, and now spans hundreds of diverse forums with thousands of members.

“My interest has evolved from this part-time hobby to become the focus of my research at DERI: social networking on the Semantic Web.

“The idea of a Semantic Web – a semantically-annotated resource shared by humans and computers – was proposed by the inventor of the current Web, Tim Berners-Lee. It will make it easier for humans to find information than it is with today’s search engines, and will allow computers to automatically process and integrate the information available on the Web.

“The growth of social networking sites since 2003 has been phenomenal, attracting significant publicity and venture capital as a result. These are community sites where users can maintain an online network of friends or associates for social or business purposes: whether you’re looking for a job, reconnecting with old friends, moving to a new area, or dating. “I’m working on developing such a social networking site with an Irish focus, building on my previous experience in online communities.”

What do you like least about your job?

“Deadlines (for papers, proposals and deliverables)! But then again, you have deadlines in nearly all jobs and few people like them.”

How do you spend a typical day?

“My first task each day will be to check email. Typical tasks would include researching and writing technical papers; reviewing and reading other people’s papers; putting together proposals for projects and funding; programming and web development; participating in meetings of clusters and committees; and attending seminars given by researchers on a wide range of topics (a great way to learn quickly about a new area).”

Does your work require a lot of equipment?

“No – just computers!”

Are you a science nerd?

“I am a bit of a technology freak – I spend a lot of free time developing web sites or fiddling with some computer or electronic gadget. My latest home gadget is called the DreamBox. This sounds like a gaming console, but it is actually a satellite receiver.

“You can stream television from it to your PC, record to its hard disk (like Sky+), and download or upload multimedia files through its network connection. This is one of many examples we have of where communications and computing technology is converging (like mobile phones and portable media players).

“I also have a strong interest in the convergence between electronics and the Semantic Web: the World Wide Web Consortium’s CC/PP recommendation, and physical hyperlinks for electronic devices.”

Did science give you a buzz at school?

“In secondary school, I took all available science subjects (Physics, Chemistry and Biology), with some outside normal hours. I really enjoyed these subjects, and loved any chance I had to use the single Apple Lisa computer we had in school (not just Pong, but BASIC too)!

“My earliest scientific memory in primary school was making a circuit to turn on and off a light: using a battery, torch bulb and an old switch I cut off from a worn-out electric blanket.”

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

“The highlight of my career has probably been the IEEE prize paper award I and my co-authors received for a journal publication in PELS Transactions in 2000. Each time a publication is accepted for a peer-reviewed journal or conference it is a mini-highlight, because your work has been reviewed by those foremost in your research area and deemed to be worthy of notice by others.”

Want to find out more?

Visit John Breslin’s home page

Check out DERI Galway

Johanna Bolton works as a web accessibility officer in DCU

Career snapshot

Johanna is a project officer on an important web accessibility project at Dublin City University (DCU). Web accessibility is the effort to make web pages usable by as Webmany people as possible, regardless of any disability.

This EU-funded project, Support-EAM, aims to help create a web accessibility quality mark. The DCU team works with six other organisations throughout Europe.

Johanna is from Galway and went to Salerno Secondary School in Salthill. Previously, Johanna worked as a designer in a web development company.

Degrees

• BEng (Electronic and Computer Engineering), NUI Galway, 2002
• MSc (Multimedia Systems), TCD, 2004

What’s so brilliant about your job?

“I love my job as I have always been fascinated by the Web and all that it can offer. It was designed to be accessible to all regardless of disability and it’s important to ensure that as web technologies evolve we don’t lose sight of the initial goals. “One quote from Dr ZhangXu is often used when people speak about web accessibility, and I think it gets the point across; ‘If anybody asks me what the Internet means to me, I will tell him without hesitation: To me (a quadriplegic) the Internet occupies the most important part in my life. It is my feet that can take me to any part of the world; it is my hands which help me to accomplish my work; it is my best friend – it gives my life meaning.’”

What do you like least about your job?

“As jobs go it’s pretty great, but if I really had to pick something it would be the fact that it is sometimes difficult for me to motivate myself to keep focused constantly in the research environment.”

How do you spend a typical day?

“I do all of my work in front of a computer. It involves, research, writing documents, commenting on documents and website evaluations.”

Does your work require a lot of equipment?

“No, just a computer.”

Are you a science/engineering/technology nerd?

“No, I don’t think so, but as technology evolves constantly I do try to keep up-to-date with new technologies. I enjoy the arts, particularly electronic art and film, since my time on the multimedia course.”

Did those subjects give you a buzz at school?

“I always preferred the science, engineering and technology subjects. I found them more interesting.”

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

“I suppose that would have to be going to Brussels for a meeting on the project I’m currently working on. A lot of the important organisations involved in Web accessibility were there.”

Want to find out more?

Check out the e-access lab in DCU
Have a look at the Support-EAM website

Computer science involves the design and architecture of computers, the development of programmes and the effective construction of systems. Computer scientists research, develop and design computer software, hardware, and systems for scientific and technical applications.

What do they do?

Modern computer science is involved in every aspect of industry and business and underpins every aspect of our personal lives. Computing is an exciting and challenging subject of great economic and social importance. Computer scientists work in areas such as artificial intelligence, cryptography, speech technology, web design, computer graphics and software engineering. Computer science is an interdisciplinary subject. It is firmly rooted in engineering and mathematics, with links to linguistics, psychology and other fields. When concerned with hardware design it can overlap with electrical and electronic engineering. The development of circuits made directly on silicon chips gives a link to solid state physics. Formal methods for the construction, analysis and validation of software can, on the other hand, involve much mathematics. Practical computer science is concerned with constructing hardware and software systems: digital electronics, compiler design, programming languages, operating systems, networks and graphics. Theoretical computer science addresses fundamental issues: the notion of computable function, proving the correctness of hardware and software and the theory of communicating systems.

Career opportunities

Computers are to be found everywhere and their role in the world is constantly expanding, making computer science an exciting and rapidly growing area that offers a diverse range of career paths. A degree in computer science opens up many career opportunities in, for example, industry, business, and health care.

Graduates can find themselves working on topics such as aids for the disabled, medical imaging, industrial control; they could be designing graphical interfaces, building video-based information systems, and constructing custom solutions for a wide variety of problems. There are also opportunities to work in exciting emerging new applications in association with areas such as internet applications development, e-commerce, assistive health care for the disabled, systems technology, graphics and games programming.

Graduates find employment as web developers, programmers, computer technicians, network administrators and also in areas such as sales, business applications and software localisation.

There is therefore a demand all over the world for professionals trained in the use of computing software and hardware and the dynamic nature of computing means that there is always potential for designing novel and exciting products and services.

Did you know?

A robotic world

Research in artificial intelligence is aimed at understanding exhibit it. It wasn’t until the development of the electronic computer in 1941 that technology was available to create machine intelligence but now robots already exist that are autonomous: they can learn, communicate and teach other. They can navigate their way around our world and be linked to extremely powerful computers that will give them

Googling

The search engine Google is run on a distributed network of thousands of low-cost computers and can therefore carry out fast parallel processing. Parallel processing is a method of computation in which many calculations can be performed simultaneously, significantly speeding up data processing. Google consists of three distrincts parts :

1. Googlebot, a web crawler that finds and fetches web pages
2. The indexer that sorts every word on every page and stores the resulting index of words in a huge database
3. The query processor, which compares your search query to the index and recommends the documents that it considers most relevant

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Elaine McGlynn, Project officer in DCU

Career snapshot

Elaine McGlynn is a project officer at the Research Institute for Networks and Communications Engineering (RINCE) at Dublin City University (DCU). She is part of a team working on a number of projects in web accessibility. (“Accessibility” means making web resources usable by people regardless of any disability they may have.)

She has also designed a course on accessibility for staff at DCU. This course introduces accessible document authoring and online resources.

Elaine is from Swords in Co. Dublin and went to school in Loreto College in Balbriggan. Her enjoyment of maths in school led her to study information and communications technology at university.

Degree

• B.A. (Mod) Information and Communications Technology, Trinity College Dublin, 2003.
• M.Sc. in Multimedia Systems, Trinity College Dublin, 2004.

What’s so brilliant about your job?

“I learn something new every day. My job involves a lot of research into web accessibility, which is a vast and very interesting subject. “

What do you like least about your job?

“Fortunately I’m very happy.”

How do you spend typical day?

“My role is so diverse; it’s difficult to describe a typical day. At the moment, I’m running an online accessibility course for academic staff in DCU, which I spent a number of months designing. The course is delivered entirely online.”

“I log into the course every morning and spend a lot of the day reviewing any assignments submitted, adding and updating resources and replying to questions and comments on the course forum. In addition, I spend time researching web accessibility, reviewing websites for accessibility and organising seminars.”

Does your work require a lot of equipment?

“No, just my brain and a computer.”

Are you a science/engineering/technology nerd?

“I’m a bit of a technology nerd. I do spend a lot of time on the Internet outside of work (like most people, I think) and love designing websites. I also love finding out how things work – my current interest being my car, but only because it’s giving me trouble and I’d love to know how to fix it myself.”

Did science/engineering/technology give you a buzz at school?

“Yes, I was a total mathematics nerd in school! I’d spend hours working out complicated math problems. I also loved computer classes which we had every Wednesday.”

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

“My career has only started, but the highlight so far is being introduced to the world of web accessibility, which I really enjoy being a part of.”

Learn more:

Check out RINCE on the Web
Find out about the Web Accessibility Initiative
See the National Disability Authority’s accessibility guidelines

Boole was born in Lincoln in England in 1815 and he was a very bright child. He became a teacher when he was still in his teens and when he was 20 he opened his own school. At 34, he came to Ireland to become the first professor of mathematics at Queen’s College, Cork (now University College Cork) and he remained in this job until his death.

Boole believed that logic was more closely related to algebra than to philosophy, as was traditionally thought. He expressed this idea in a number of essays in the mid-19th century, culminating in “An Investigation into the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities”.

George Boole, considered the father of computer science

Symbols

Boole noticed the similarity between the symbols used in algebra, like x and +, and those used in logical statements, like AND and OR.

Boole’s great achievement was his use of algebra to express logical propositions. Here is an example of that process, using Boole’s idea that the symbols of algebra and those of logical statements are interchangeable.

Take the following two statements:

A is all new cars
B is all red cars

Then combine them, using x instead of AND, and + instead of OR.

So, A+B is all cars that are either new OR red, and AB (or A times B) is all cars that are both new AND red.

Computers

Boolean algebra can describe many functions other than the two (AND and OR) used in this example. Most importantly, it still works when the variable in a statement is not a quantity, as in normal algebra, but a true or false statement.

As you may well know, computers use the base-two or “binary” number system. This means that at their most basic level they use only two values, zero and one.

To put it differently, everything a computer does boils down to a simple true or false decision. A computer’s circuitry then builds everything else on the basis of these values. Another way of looking at it is that a circuit is either on (one) or off (zero).

Search engines

When you search for something on the Internet using a search engine, you can use Boolean operators to narrow your search. These are things like AND and OR (as in the example above), and also NOT.

Search engines use Boole’s methods of expressing logical propositions to help you find information on the Web. You can test this out:

First search for “Boole” on a search engine and check the number of results
Then search for “Boole AND Cork” to get pages that mention both
Use “Boole NOT algebra” to find pages that mention him but not his work
So, learning more about George Boole is one practical way to make use of his algebra.

Learn More:

Learn more about Boole’s life and work

William Reville’s essay on George Boole

Find out more about Boolean Logic

Karl Stanley - Software engineer

I have been interested in computers since I was a child. When I was 13, I got a job delivering leaflets so I could buy a Sinclair Spectrum (an ancient home computer that would load programs from a cassette tape).

I learned some of the basics of programming on it, and have been playing with computers ever since.

For my Leaving Cert my favourite subjects were maths, applied maths, music, physics and chemistry. I went to TCD to study maths and philosophy but switched to pure maths after first year.

At the time, the maths department in TCD was a good place to be if you had an interest in computers, as there were lots of courses in mathematical computing and it was possible to take some courses from the Computer Science department.

The School of Mathematics also hosted the very first website in Ireland, so there was lots to learn if you were interested. As part of a course in machine vision and computer graphics, we were taken on a site visit to Machine Vision Technology (MVT) in Dublin.

It seemed like a really interesting place to work, so after my degree I went to work there for the summer before taking up a place to do a PhD in high performance computing.

At the end of the summer, MVT decided they wanted me to stay and I decided I preferred industry to academia, so I turned down my PhD position and took a job there.

As part of the deal they agreed to fund me in a part-time MSc researching colour vision algorithms. After three years in MVT, an opportunity arose to join a new startup called Xsil. As the team at Xsil grew, I became a team leader heading up the vision team.

After another three years or so, I decided to try something completely different and went back to college to study jazz guitar at Newpark Music Centre. While I was studying, I supported myself by teaching guitar and doing the occasional software contract.

During this time I learned more about the Web and started getting freelance work building websites. After I got married I decided to quit teaching music and go back to software engineering full time.

I spent 18 months working for a web startup called Ammado and then moved to ticket-text (www.ticket-text.com) where I am happily hacking away.

Who has most influenced your career direction?

My parents had very little influence in my choice of career – I think they were quite happy for me to trust my own judgment!

I went to Mount Temple School in Clontarf where my best friend was a fellow computer nerd.

He was a year ahead of me and studied theoretical physics in TCD. This is what gave me the idea to go to Trinity to study something in that general area.

We spent a fair bit of time trying to program computer games and were allowed use the school computers (such as they were at the time) outside of class time. At the time I never thought I would end up programming computers for a living, though with hindsight it seems inevitable.

Some of my schoolteachers also had a strong influence on my college choices and subsequent career development.

The chief technical officer of MVT was my first professional mentor. I think it was very important for me to have someone with decades of experience guiding me in the first few years of my career.

It took a long time to get it into my head, but his advice to “keep it simple” has proven to be the right course time and again.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

From a lifestyle perspective, being a software engineer suits me. The hours can be long sometimes, but mostly it’s quite predictable which is important if you have a young family. It also pays reasonably well, which means I can afford to live close to where I work.

This is a very important quality of life issue for me: I cycle for 15-20 minutes to get to work, which means I have more leisure time. Ticket-text trusts me to make my own hours (within reason). Because I have a small baby, it suits me to go into work a little late and work slightly later.

I can also work from home now and then. We have an office in London so I get to travel over there occasionally which is good, especially if there is a gig on that I can’t catch in Dublin.

As software careers go, mine has been slightly left-field. I deliberately avoided working for banks / insurance firms / consultancy houses and have always chosen to work for small startups, some of which have grown substantially.

While this doesn’t offer all the security or financial reward of working for larger companies, it is made up for in having a more relaxed corporate culture and the chance to make a big contribution to a project. It’s also really exciting to be part of a growing team that is taking on the world and winning!

Describe a typical day

Work starts around 9.30. I check my email and try to get my correspondence out of the way in the first hour or so. My job mostly entails writing Python and JavaScript.

I typically spend some of the morning writing automated tests for the code I am about to write. I then spend the rest of the day trying to get the code I’m working on to pass the tests I have written.

I make sure I spend up to an hour every day reading articles on technology (usually blogs and mailing lists) to keep up with new developments. This is important, as software is a constantly changing field and web development in particular changes all the time.

Every few weeks the software team presents its work to date to the rest of the company in a “show and tell” session. This takes a couple of hours and involves demonstrating new features and then having a discussion to see what can be improved.

This makes sure the work we are doing is well aligned with the needs of our business. The working day usually finishes for me around 6.30pm.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

My main task is to write software that makes running the business simpler and more efficient. The purpose of technology is to automate the things that people are bad at, so they can spend more time doing things they are good at.

People are not so good at repetitive tasks involving attention to detail. Computers are great at this sort of work. For instance, in our business the operations team need to enter the details for lots of live performances, set up ticket pricing structures, upload media to the website etc.

This is quite error prone and tedious to do by hand, so the technology team helps by writing tools that take care of the details automatically. This allows the operations team to devote more of their time to developing relationships with promoters and venue owners, which adds value to the business.

What’s cool?

I don’t have to wear a suit, which is nice. We have an informal but focused culture – in many ways it feels more like being on a sports team than in a business in that everyone has different but equally important roles to play.

We are also quite democratic – everyone from the CEO to the receptionist gets a say in how things should be run (although of course the CEO gets the final word!).

As a music fan I really enjoy working in this industry. The way things are going, the recorded music industry is on the wane and the live music experience is becoming more prominent, so it’s great to be part of that. I can also get tickets to shows that might otherwise be sold out :)

What’s not so cool?

The complete lack of physical activity in work is something I’m not crazy about. The job is sedentary, which means I have to make more of an effort to get exercise outside work.

The hours can feel a bit long at times. Other than that I’m very happy in my current job!

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I have been a software engineer for over a decade now and have worked in several industries, so I have quite wide experience. This is useful in a new company where there is a “blank slate”, as I can make recommendations as to which technologies are the best fit for a given problem.

I have technical skills in programming, web technologies, database schema design and a bit of Unix systems administration. Over the years I’ve programmed in C, C++, C#, Perl, PHP, Python and JavaScript. Just through putting in the hours I have a solid feel for how software problems should be approached.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

I haven’t taken any courses that are ‘directly’ relevant to my current job. However, as part of my maths degree I took courses in numerical analysis (i.e. computer programming as a tool for solving mathematical problems), operating systems design, computer graphics and machine vision.

All these courses involved lots of practical programming assignments which gave me some real-world software engineering experience.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

One of the most satisfying events happened very early in my career. I wrote some mathematical software to enable the MVT (Machine Vision Technology) inspection machines to process a circuit board approximately 10% faster than before, which was a big win for the company. That code still runs on over 1,000 machines worldwide a decade later. That gives me a little glow of pride.

I worked in Xsil for three years, in which time it went from 12 to 120 employees. When the firm started, we hadn’t yet designed or built the laser processing equipment that we went on to sell.

It was very exciting to be part of a small team building a product that competed on an international level and won.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

I am quite good at strategic thinking, i.e. asking “is this what we should be doing now?” and coming up with ways of working to try to get the best results in the long term. I don’t know if this is something I was taught or just the way I think.

I know I’m unlikely to accept things at face value and am inclined to think things through before committing to a course of action. I am told I am pretty easy to get on with, which is important during times of stress.

In a small company it’s a bit like being on a submarine in that you’re with the same people in a constrained environment all the time, so it helps if you can all get along.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

• Intellectual curiosity – wanting to know how things work is a big plus
• A certain kind of laziness – good software is all about finding things that are tedious and getting the computer to do them for you
• Patience – you’re going to be asked to do the impossible. Or you’re going to be asked to do something that’s hugely important, only to be told it’s no longer a priority once you’re finished. Don’t let it get to you!

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

If you can get an internship with a software house, that is great work experience. The best way to learn to write software is to write software!

I spent the summer between second and third year in college as an intern in Broadcom, which at the time wrote research-level networking software. It was a great introduction to what my job would ultimately be like and it gave me some real experience I could talk about during interviews.

Some of the things that are different between programming in college and doing it for a living are the collaborative aspects, being part of a team, asking and answering questions.

An internship is a good way to get exposure to these things. When it came to getting my first job, having that practical experience (and a good reference) definitely gave me an edge over the other candidates.