Interview with Senior Software developer working at McAfee

In an effort to help students understand how things work in corporate world, we interview top performing employees in different organizations. In this part of series, we have interviewed Japneet singh, who is working with Macfee, and with an overall work experience of 8 years.

        PracLabs: Tell us about the company in which you work and various job roles in your company?

     Japneet: 
      I am working in McAfee Software Pvt. Ltd. which is wholly owned subsidiary of Intel. McAfee is a world’s largest security software providing company.

      Various job roles in McAfee (Product development only)

•      Software development engineer
•      Quality Assurance Engineer
•      Product Manager
•      Program Manager
•      Principal Engineer
•      Software Architect
•      Solutions Architect
•      Evangelist
•      Tech Lead
•      Project Lead

Dev Manager

•      QA Manager
•      Engineering Manager
•      Technology Director

       PracLabs: What day to day activities do you perform at your work?

      Japneet:

•       Coding
•       Design
•       Bug fixing
•       Code review
•       Collaboration with other teams
•       Dev testing
•       Meetings

PracLabs:  What kind of challenges do you face at your work?

Japneet:  Since, the nature of challenges have been changing as my career has progressed, but I can outline challenges which I *currently* face in my work life :

a. Overcoming career monotony via Creativity and innovation

b. Dealing with social challenges like Peer competition, and communicating with Team members across geo locations

c. Keeping long term vision alive while delivering day-to-day routine work

d. Work-to-learning balance to survive and avoid getting obsolete

e. Preserving Focus and attention

f. Establishing an independent identity

      PracLabs: Which skills should a student learn to work in your company and specifically in your job role?

Japneet: A student should following skills:

1. Very good coding and designing with deep understanding of C++

2. Solid understanding of Windows OS internals

3. Sound logical analysis and reasoning 

4. Good written and verbal communication 

5. Ability to handle details as well as big picture at same time

PracLabs:      Which subjects do you feel you should have learned better when you were studying at college/university?

      Japneet: I feel now that I should have achieved some sort of expertise in at least one subject during studying like in C++, Algorithms or Operating systems etc. That would have saved lot of my career time. Also, if I could have participated in some open source project during study time, it would have leveraged my career while providing a solid practical foundation at same time.

      PracLabs:      Which skills do you feel student should always learn to become successful in corporate world?

       Japneet:

       General skills

       a. Communication skills both written and verbal

 b. Creativity

c. Social skills

Technical skills – No single skill, but should have passion for at least one subject leading to in-depth understanding of that subject as early as possible.

PracLabs: Which book you are reading right now? And which books you will suggest students must read?

       Japneet: Currently reading “Mastery” by Robert Greene

 Recommended reading for students:

1. Clear your concepts deeply during study by studying best books for your subjects 

2. Be hands-on in your subjects