A software trainee can do various jobs, depending on the company he works for. His new employer may have him attend a conference to learn the basics of the software development process. He will then start to participate in computer programming, or design. He will usually begin his career by performing small programming jobs, working under the close supervision of a software developer or lead programmer.
After attending whatever classes or seminars his employer offers, the software trainee will begin working by contributing to an assigned project on the application level. At this point, the software development trainee's responsibilities are more on the level with a computer programmer trainee. Later, as he gains more experience, he will move to the component level. Once he has shown proficiency in computer programming, he will be assigned small programming tasks.
After the software trainee works with all aspects of software development, including design and coding, he is then a software developer. In some companies, the term “software engineer” is used interchangeably with software developer. A software engineer may be required to obtain additional education from an accredited school.
The software trainee's job responsibilities may include maintenance of existing software products, designing new software, and installation and customization of software. He may be asked to contribute to reports outlining the feasibility and cost-benefit analysis of new software. He will be taught how to budget and schedule a new software design. He will most likely be asked to participate in the testing of the software. This may include interfacing with the release testers to get their feedback.
Once a software program is complete, the software trainee will be trained in the release and post-release responsibilities of a software developer. This includes providing support for the users, and analyzing the success of the program. He may be asked to provide reports to his supervisor describing how to change future release cycles to improve the software.
In some larger companies, the software developer may be assigned to one job, such as the testing phase. His job description will be to test the various software programs that other designers have written. In smaller companies, one software developer, or a few together, may work on a single project from start to finish. The software trainee may be trained in all aspects of developing software, or he may only learn one aspect of it, depending on what his job responsibilities will be, once he graduates from software trainee to software developer.