Claire AndradeThis blog is a place where I like to talk about my hobbies outside of my 9-5 job because they are things that I love. But I spend 40+ hours a week committed to my “regular” job so I would say it’s a pretty big part of my life – but I rarely talk about it on the blog! (In great detail that is.) But since my intention with this blog is to be all about Claire and share with those people who I don’t get to talk to in person and keep them updated with my life, I figured it was appropriate to do a post about what my job is all about!
Plus, I am always curious when reading other blogs what that person does “outside the blog.” Maybe they are a full time blogger, maybe they work from home, or maybe they have full time jobs outside of their blogs! It’s fun to know I think so that’s why I am sharing! I’m doing it in a Q&A format – answering questions I get most commonly asked by people when I tell them what I do.
What’s My Job Title?
I am a Software Engineer.
What company do I work for?
Rockwell Collins – we are an aerospace company that mainly produces cockpit solutions for airplanes and helicopters (both commercial and military).
How long have I been working?
My two year anniversary with the company is this June.
What did I go to school for?
My degree is a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. But I majored in computer engineering with a software focus and also got minors in math and computer science.
What are my job responsibilities?
I work on the government side of things and the program I work on is Special Ops Army. The software I write gets put on Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters that are used in missions every day by the US special forces. I work on the app that produces flight plan information to the pilots so they know where they are and can plan where they want to go!
What does my day-to-day look like?
This is a desk job so I go to work every day and sit in a cubical with two large computer monitors surrounded by other engineers in their cubes 🙂 This means a I sit for a large portion of the day coding (it’s what they pay me for). But there is also a lot of interaction with my teammates discussing design and asking questions – whether that be face to face or over an instant messenger or email. But basically, I am given a software task to implement and a due date to have it implemented and reviewed by. Some are smaller tasks that have short timelines and some are larger and have about 3 months to work on them.
What Do I Wear To Work?
The people I work with and around dress fairly casual for the work place but this is an example of what I would normally wear. Black or khaki skinny pants and a cardigan, sweater, button down, etc.
What are your career plans/goals?
While I chose software as my career path because I enjoy doing it, my career goals include moving into a more of a task management role. Most likely starting out as a software lead on a program and hopefully moving up into project or program management. Along with that, I would also like to get an MBA at some point. I have no set in stone plans for any of this currently but I do know where I would like to be later on.
What made me choose engineering?
I was inspired in middle school (yes I was about 12!) to be an engineer and I pretty much never looked back. I had my Dad as a role model who also started as an engineer before moving into program management roles, but I was also interested (and excelled at) math and science so I thought it was a great fit. I also knew from a young age that engineering is a great career that can make a nice income with a dependable job which was appealing.
Why did I choose software engineering?
Before getting to college, I knew I wanted to go into electrical or computer engineering but was leaning towards electrical. As I said before I do technically have an electrical engineering degree (My college didn’t offer a degree in computer or software engineering) but form my freshman year, software just clicked the most for me so I decided to pursue that since it was what I enjoyed most and was best at.
Thanks for catching up! Let me know if you have any questions – I’m not sure if I have any high school readers but I would love to talk more about the engineering career path 🙂