I've got my Master's in Software Engineering... Now what? [closed]

Posted by Brian Driscoll on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Brian Driscoll
Published on 2011-05-10T17:04:12Z Indexed on 2012/04/10 17:45 UTC
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architecture

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career-development

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job-market

Recently I completed a Master of Science in Software Engineering from Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA, US), because I wanted to have some formal education in software (my undergrad is in Math Ed) and also because I wanted to be able to advance my career beyond just programming.

Don't get me wrong; I love to code. I spend a lot of my spare time coding. However, for me writing code is just a means to an end: what I REALLY love is designing software. Not visual design, mind you, but the architecture of the system.

So, ideally I'd like to try to get a job doing software architecture. The problem is that I have no real experience in it besides my graduate course work. So, what should I do to make my "bones" in software architecture?

UPDATE
Just so it's clear, I have over 5 years of work experience in software development and an MCTS cert in addition to my education, so I'm not looking for the usual "I'm fresh out of school, what should I do?" advice.

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