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MS in Software Engineering, Development Management Track Blog

Wondering if a Carnegie Mellon degree is right for you? Read about our students' experiences through the MS in Software Engineering, Development Track program.

Linda is a first year part-time student in Carnegie Mellon's MS Software Engineering, Development Management track. She is a Software Developer at Electronic Arts in Redwood Shores, CA. She likes to dance and sing and her favorite videogame is The Beatles RockBand. She enjoys Indian, Japanese, Thai, Italian and Mexican food. She comes from Mexico City, and has being living in CA for the past two years.
Pras Sarkar is a second-year part-time student in the MS Software Engineering Development Management track. He works in Yahoo! Labs. His responsibilities include materializing ideas and concepts into engaging prototypes and demos, some of which ultimately mature into products that Yahoo! visitors use everyday. He is interested in emerging web technologies, social interaction over digital mediums, and creative interfaces that push the boundaries of human computer interaction.
Vineet is a Lead Developer at Boeing and a second year grad student in the part-time MS Software Engineering, Development Management program. He loves reading, playing with his daughter and pursuing the religious aspect of his life. He is an active volunteer of Vedic Cultural Center, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to promote the Vedic (ancient Indian) arts, culture, music and dance.
Truc is a second year part-time student in Carnegie Mellon's MS Software Engineering, Development Management track. She is a Software Engineer at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, CA. She loves food and enjoys anything related to food: going to different restaurants, cooking, watching the Food Network, and of course, eating!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

First blog entry and team relationships


Hi everyone, my name is Rom Lemarchand. I have been working for almost 6 years and had jobs in very different industries (telecom, credit card, semiconductors). I just took a job as a software engineer at Qualcomm down in San Diego and have been a remote student ever since I started the program (I will talk about that in my next blog entry). When I’m not working or at school I’m a husband and father of two.

This is my first blog entry for Carnegie Mellon West and I have to say I am a little nervous. I have been in this program for 2 semesters now (only 4 left to go) and so far this has been an incredible experience. I have learned a lot of things about myself, my family and made some friends I know I can count on.

Right now, I have just started the Architecture course and so far I’ve settled into a good rhythm, because each course has a similar structure: in fact, somebody on my team was just saying it feels like now we are used to the swing of things – balancing the work–meeting–homework routine. However, the one thing that stands out to me in making each semester different is not so much the course subject, rather it is the different teams I get put on each time.

I have been on 3 different teams so far, and all of them have been great. Each of them have had their fair share of issues but we’ve always come out better afterwards. In fact, I’ve developed close relationships with so many of my teammates, because of the amount of time we spend working together and interacting with each other, that I realized even with my newest team, we actually care for each other, even worry about each other, despite being a remote team and newly formed.

For example, a teammate of mine had to go on a trip for a few days - that in itself was no big deal, we picked up the slack and forgot about it. However, after a few days we started to get worried - he was supposed to be back but didn’t respond to email and since he was out of the country we couldn’t call him on his cell phone. Thankfully, he came back safe.

However, this experience has made me realize that we are not only here for an education. We are also here to learn how to interact together, how to lead, how to be supportive, how to voice our opinions and concerns… It seems to me that above all else, our team interactions determine our success more than any other factor I can think of.

The main reason why I chose this program is because of its learning-by-doing approach: you can apply what you have learned directly on the job, and I think this is probably one of the most valuable lessons I have learned so far. Technicality is important, but your interactions with other people (management, reports, peers, stakeholders…) will determine how successful you are.

Now what does that mean? Well, I think this is one of those things you have to experience to understand. As software professionals there are a lot of factors that determine our ability to complete our work. Enjoying our work and the people that we interact with is definitely a big part of the equation.

Next: Remote teams: the good, the bad and the better

posted by Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley @ 11:53 AM  0 comments

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