<p>Software engineers work at desks, usually sitting desks, occasionally standing desks. They use the keyboard and mouse to manipulate one or several computers, and may have to interact with specialized equipment and I/O devices. Typically, you’ll spend a lot of time reading one (not infrequently, several) monitors. Most time will be spent designing, implementing, testing, and reviewing software, typically in several programming, scripting and/or markup languages. The rest of your time will be spent in formal meetings communicating with your team and related teams, reading and responding to email, and completing administrative tasks. Graduate training can make you more competitive for certain roles, and may increase your starting salary for some roles, but would be unnecessary for most software development roles in industry. Of course, YMMV.</p>