“You have to ask yourself, how unique is this problem? And to the extent that it’s unique, how important is it to solve the problem well? What are the solutions that are going to really give your company a competitive edge vs. what are the ones that are important, but aren’t the ones that you want to put a lot of innovation energy into?”

A career in software engineering and development doesn’t have to follow a linear path to be meaningful. Some people may enjoy the rigorous process of climbing the corporate ladder, while others may be more motivated by having a wide breadth of tactical problems to sink their teeth into.

Ivan Yuen of Wattpad talks with Commit co-founder, Beier Cai, about writing the first line of code.