Dear readers,

Today I'll be talking about my previous job! Before I started at AEON I worked for a software company in Milwaukee. My official title was "Software Engineer," but it is also sometimes called a software developer or computer programmer. I worked with the other members of my team to develop, maintain, and improve the different products my company makes and sells.

Every morning would start with a daily "stand up" meeting where we talk about what we did the day before and what we will do that day. The typical day involved writing code, setting up databases, tracking down bugs, and testing out bug fixes before sending them to be checked by the Quality Assurance members on the team. My manager, the team's Tech Lead, would provide guidance and assistance to the developers while working with the team's Business Analyst to ensure we are staying on track and can meet our progress goals.

Every two to three weeks we would share our progress with the rest of the company, and interested parties could provide feedback and ask questions about the project. This type of development is called "Agile," and is intended to ensure that what we are building will meet the needs of our customers. Everyone on my team was very nice, and I miss them a lot!

That job was pretty different from teaching at AEON. The biggest difference is the dress code. While dressing professionally every day is becoming normal for me now, my co-workers would think I was crazy if I did that before. Our department was lucky to have a very relaxed, casual dress code policy, so I usually wore jeans with a t-shirt and sweater. Come to think of it, the only time I wore a suit at the office was for the job interview!

If you'd like to know more about my experience as a software engineer, don't hesitate to ask next time you see me in the lobby! Next week I'll be talking about how I learned Japanese, so look forward to it!