As software has become more essential to research across disciplines, and as the recognition of this fact has grown, the importance of professionalizing the development and maintenance of this software has also increased. The community of software professionals who work on this software have come together under the title Research Software Engineer (RSE) over the last decade. This has led to the formalization of RSE roles and organized RSE groups in universities, national labs, and industry. This, in turn, has created the need to understand how RSEs come into this profession and into these groups, how to further promote this career path to potential members, as well as the need to understand what training gaps need to be filled for RSEs coming from different entry points. We have categorized three main classifications of entry paths into the RSE profession and identified key elements, both advantages and disadvantages, that should be acknowledged and addressed by the broader research community in order to attract and retain a talented and diverse pool of future RSEs.

翻译：随着软件在跨学科研究中日益成为核心要素，且这一事实逐渐获得广泛认知，软件专业化开发与维护的重要性也随之提升。过去十年间，致力于此类软件开发的软件专业人员群体以"研究软件工程师"（Research Software Engineer，RSE）为统称凝聚起来，推动RSE角色正式化，并在大学、国家实验室及产业界组建起组织化的RSE团体。这进而催生出多重需求：理解RSE从业者如何进入该职业及这些团体、如何向潜在成员进一步推广该职业道路，同时识别来自不同入行路径的RSE所需填补的培训缺口。我们归纳出三类主要的RSE职业入行路径，并识别出关键要素（包括优势与劣势），这些要素应得到更广泛研究社区的重视与应对，以吸引并留住未来多元化且富有才华的RSE人才池。