Next Friday I'm giving a short (30 min.) talk to a bunch of software engineering students who will be attending the same university I did.

Some context:

• The place is Montevideo, Uruguay
• The university is Universidad de la República (public, free university)
• The Software Engineering programme takes 5 years (if you're very good and don't start working early). Around 800 new students per year, around 80 graduates per year. Conditions are harsh, particularly the first two years.

Most of them probably have no idea what software engineering or programming is.

My goal would be to somehow give them an idea of the field and hopefully motivate them to endure the hardships ahead to eventually become successful developers.

So the question is: what would you tell these people?