An Average Day In The Life Of A Senor Software EngineerThis is a typical day in the life of a senior software engineer. See details of my daily activities from a first person perspective.
My daily routine doesn't vary too much day by day; the tasks differ depending on where we happen to be during an Agile sprint. Here is a typical ay in the life of a senior software engineer.
Since the pandemic hit, I've been lucky enough to work from home full-time. Pre-pandemic, I worked in an office in Glasgow, doing Microsoft Teams calls with the rest of the team in the States. Post-pandemic, it really feels like I don't need to be in an office to do Teams calls, and the time saved commuting (1 hour each way) can be put to much more productive uses.
My day starts at 7.30 sharp when the alarm goes off. The alarm is then promptly snoozed a few times before the dog decides it's time to get up. She has no snooze button, so I'd better get up and take her to the garden, after which it's time to change the water bowls and prepare her breakfast. Then, I can sort myself out with coffee and porridge. By 8 am. I'm logging on at my home office desk, checking messages and emails and getting the latest source code from the repos. I then fire up the build script, which compiles the source code and publishes the databases to my local SQL Server. These scripts generally take around 20-30 minutes, so I eat breakfast while checking the news, replying to messages and emails and getting myself ready to start coding.
Mornings are usually quiet since most of the team is based in the States, and it's very rare to have meetings in the morning. Assuming there are no urgent support cases for me to investigate, I'll continue working on my user stories or defects, stopping to grab another coffee around 10. By 12, I'm usually pretty hungry. Despite years of good intentions, I usually have a pack of instant noodles, pasta 'N' sauce or tinned soup. Occasionally, a sandwich or toasties. Also, despite best intentions, I usually eat at my desk whilst continuing to code.
After lunch, things get busier, the States start waking up, and messages get posted in the various chats. If I have any questions for team members in the States, I start sending them. At 2 pm, we have the daily scrum standup call, where each team member talks briefly about what they have been working on, what they are working on, and what they will do for the rest of the day. We also highlight any roadblocks we may have.
The rest of my working day is taken up with meetings, either team-focused, business updates, or mentoring. I set a hard limit of 5 pm on meetings and spend the next 30 minutes taking notes on what I've been working on and what I need to do tomorrow. At 5:30 pm, I shut down the laptop, and that job is done for the day.
Depending on the day of the week, I either get ready to pick up my fiancee from her work, or if she finishes later in the evening, I'll clean the kitchen, shower, and then go get her. On the way back, I'll drop off some of her pupils and sometimes do the shopping. The round trip is usually between 1.5 and 2 hours. It's time to put the shopping away, take the dog out, cook and eat dinner before crashing on the sofa around 9ish and watching the latest season of whatever we are bingeing. Around midnight, or when the episode ends, we head to bed for some much-needed sleep, ready to start again in the morning.
As a bonus, here is a dashcam video compilation of incidents over one year. I am just going to pick up my fiancee from work and drive back home.
