text: what work does a mechanical engineer do working in a software company? does he justify his degree? qualifications for a software firm with a mechanical degree i'm a biologist working as a quality assurance tester for a newspaper, testing their content management software and website.  while i trained as a biologist, i have only once had a job that i could say was in my career field.  for the past 17 years, i have worked in it, the first 7 developing software and the past 10 testing software and websites.  what i learned at university was essential to my career today as i learned how to learn what i needed to know to do whatever job i need to do.  there are only a lucky few people, who end up staying in the career fields they started out in.  flexibilty and the ability to learn, is the best thing we can learn in our schooling and training.