Most of my career has been spent where software meets people with no patience for it — doctors between patients, HR officers processing pensions for civil servants, insurers reconciling claims. In those places a bug isn’t a ticket. It’s a nurse back on paper forms.
That’s where I learned the unglamorous half of engineering: moving paper workflows to digital without stopping operations, integrating with third-party systems that never behave as documented, and keeping a database fast in year eight.
I can sit with a head of department in the morning, write the PRD at noon, and ship the API and the mobile release by evening.