A Reflection on My First Year in Software

I graduated in Computer Science Engineering around a year ago, and at that time, I thought I knew quite a lot about software engineering. I had built multiple projects, written thousands of lines of code, hosted many of them, and a few even had real users from different parts of the world. I had built and added features to my projects iteratively and had experienced what a typical development cycle could look like.

Then I joined Coforge, got exposure to real industry work, and that gave me a lot of new experiences, reality checks, and, most importantly, a different perspective on software engineering.

So hello, I am Priyanshu Chaurasiya, the author of this blog, and today I completed one year at Coforge, one year in the software industry.

Before you skip this blog and close it after writing a “Congratulations!” in the comments below, let me tell you something. This blog is not about “Hey, I completed one year at Coforge, congratulate me.” Rather, it is about my experiences, the things I learned, the changes in my mindset, and a lot more that I believe can be useful to anyone starting their journey in software.

So give me a few minutes. Monsoon season is going on, so grab a cup of tea, sit somewhere comfortable, enjoy the rain, and let’s complete this blog together.

Before joining Coforge, I thought I knew plenty about software engineering and the kind of work done in the industry. I had done DSA, solved LeetCode problems, built projects with real users, hosted applications, and worked on features myself. All of that gave me a certain level of confidence.

And honestly, I don’t think that confidence was wrong. Those things did teach me a lot. But I was about to discover that there is a difference between knowing how to build software and knowing how software is built in an organization.