Roy Tang

Someone on quora asked:

Software Engineers: How often do you code on the job?

The hours you work in a week will vary wildly depending on where you work. But it is true that there are many companies where working extra hours is the norm.

When you are starting out, most of your time will be spent coding; some will be spent reading specifications or requirements to figure out what you will be coding, and also clarifying the requirements to make sure your understanding is correct. A good amount of your time will be spent debugging (do you count that as coding).

As you become more involved or more senior, you may start having to pick up more responsibilities that extend past simply coding. Examples would be code reviews, trying out tools or libraries for use by the team (though this involves coding as well), mentoring or teaching of junior developers (will involve coding as well), consultation with business analysts about technical requirements and feasibility, etc