#Is software engineering roles client facing?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

kindred egret
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Hello. I would like to ask a question: I am a new grad and I wonder something; how much client facing meetings should I expect from a typical software engineering role? Can I completely avoid client facing meetings?

I am personally not against collaborating with coworkers, but I ideally want to find a role that I will only be seen by my coworkers and not clients.

worthy summit
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Yes, you will have to interact with stakeholders and be in meetings a lot. Will be in meetings about 60-70% of the time on a weekly basis.

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As you get promotion and get higher i n the hierarchy, you will have to interact more and more with people and stakeholders in particular.

kindred egret
worthy summit
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Except if you’re a first year intern for the rest of your life, but even then.

kindred egret
worthy summit
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Designer you also have to interact with stakeholders. Most likely in every tech field you will have too.

kindred egret
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My friend works as designer and she says she never interact directly with stakeholders.

worthy summit
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Im not a designer, so idk and i don’t think we have any designer here

kindred egret
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Some people told me that I can find roles that I can avoid client interaction, related to CS. What should I do then?

worthy summit
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At least, not in engineering

kindred egret
worthy summit
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If your company allows it, yes

kindred egret
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I thought employers might want to hire someone normal looking for the roles that are public facing

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I am not ashamed by my face, but it makes people uncomfortable so I am not a good fit for those roles/jobs

pulsar tree
# kindred egret Hello. I would like to ask a question: I am a new grad and I wonder something; h...

You can have both, you can be non client facing or client facing.

I do more client facing nowadays, but it's something you can learn with good psychology / MBA books.

The advantage is you get the REAL requirements from the client mouth directly,
and not pseudo-requirements from your MBA boss who have no freaking clue about technology, which then result in rework and applications not meeting the actual requirements, and second guessing, what the MBA actually means.

Otherwise, you will have to rely on your team lead to do a good job
keeping track of all the business and technical requirements,
so you just fix and implement JIRA tickets, without talking to them.

You can also ask to be only on technical calls and worst case, in listen mode only,
then type your question in Teams for your MBA / PM to ask instead.

YMMV.

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Also, when I write emails to actual clients, I ask my MBA / PM to review the email draft with me on Teams, so that it looks more professional and so on.

Other times, I send the draft email to the PM, who will rewrite it and send it themselves,
depends on the client.

kindred egret
pulsar tree
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I had only 3 face-to-face fly in/fly out meeting in person since

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and when on zoom/teams I don't put my camera 😂

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but YMMV

kindred egret
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I just dont want to be seen by people

kindred egret
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Or, I just want to find a role where my looks wouldnt be a problem

wraith kettle
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I was worried about the same thing, thats why I transferred to UI design instead. I fully work remote and cam is optional. You might need to go back to school to study design related major though.

kindred egret
wraith kettle
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I think not. I was looking for what you do right now and end up changing my field.

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I think it is discrimination to not hire people based on how their face looks like, but Europe is horrible in general about discrimination laws. It is perfectly acceptable for employers to tell you that you need surgery or need to lose weight. I battled with ED due to that

fluid plank
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I never interface with the clients

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I haven't interfaced directly with clients since working remotely. I report to my team lead, and we get feature requests in from our clients. Managers interface us entirely.

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Though, interfacing with clients shouldn't give you pause.

No matter how bad you think you look, you need to work through your issues of self confidence and not expect anyone else ever to cater to insecurities.

This field is one of the most accepting of social awkwardness, insecurities, and spectrum behavior, so if you're honest about your issues and actively work to improve on them you won't have issues.

If however, you fail to communicate your issues and/or fail to attempt to work on overcoming internal problems to interface with others then you will most likely struggle.

kindred egret
fluid plank
kindred egret
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Now I am looking for any job that includes no client facing meetings