Why a career in computer programming sucks - part 2

Virtual Coder

"I still love to write code, especially creative and inventive stuff; it's doing it as a career that just plain sucks." Take This Career And Shove It [^]

PIEBALDconsult

Same with any career. If you've been at one place for a while you need to change. If you've been hopping around a lot you need to settle down for a while.

El Corazon

That is one opinion. On the other hand, they actually **PAY** me to play with flight simulators, AI algorithms, Gaming algorithms, Physics simulations, and other geeky visualization stuff. Now what other career other than game-reviewer could say that? :) You hear programmer's (coders) comment they wish they could find a career that paid them to play games all day. Well... they found it... they just haven't opened their eyes to the possibilities, they don't want to actually work to get there. As an example, my education is Business Accounting and Computers. I was trained to write general ledgers, payrolls and accounts receivable packages. I did some nice ones in the 80's, but I set my sights higher. Now I do 3D graphics. If I can do it, surely someone else can do it **IF** they try. Now, if they don't want to try, then they can sit and dream of every other job that has it good... while those guys are dreaming of their jobs.... and both are wasting their times dreaming instead of getting there. It's okay to dream it, but **JUST DO IT**!! My first boss did me a favor by placing the call to the other businesses in town to prevent me from leaving. It forced me to look outside accounting, and once I looked outside of my office there was a huge world out there, with lots of possibilities. I never looked back. :) If you are miserable, change your job, or set your sights slightly higher, and then slightly higher still. Computer programming is one of the most diverse industries, from business, to web, to web-business, to 2D, to 3D, to 4D. If you want it, you can do it, but you have to want it, not just complain about it all day long. Just me, Just an accountant writing flight simulators.... :laugh:

_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

Nemanja Trifunovic

Virtual Coder wrote:

Why a career in computer programming sucks

So change it already and leave us alone.

Programming Blog utf8-cpp

Virtual Coder

Ok, Virtual Coder is gone. Forever.

Joe Woodbury

I find the negative sentiments to this rather odd. I feel pretty much how the writer does. The way I put it is that I enjoy my job when I am programming and hate it when I'm dealing with bureaucracy. For those who disagree with the article (and who actually bothered to read it) are you saying you really like dealing with all the bullshit? That you enjoy sitting in meetings saying the same damn things over and over like a broken record? (How many times do you have to say, "Yes, we can add that feature, but it will push everything else back."?) Now, I'm not going to go so far as telling my paymasters to shove it--I'm still getting paid to do a job I'm capable of doing and doing well, but make no mistake, if I had two million in the bank, I wouldn't be working as a software engineer.

Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke

El Corazon

Virtual Coder wrote:

Virtual Coder is gone. Forever.

That is your choice too. You could just change your attitude. I hated my job in accounting programming. The boss hated my guts because he couldn't trust me because he couldn't trust anyone that had intimate knowledge of his business. The pay was lousy (5.25 an hour when I started, 6.90 when I left almost 6 years later). The building was beautiful, but the people-environment was a killer. But I left. It wasn't the profession, it was that office, that boss, and in part that industry (cut-throat industries encourage cut-throat business practices, internal and external). The career is right for me. I wanted to be an astronaut as many young kids, when that died, I looked to astronomy, but once I found computers. There was no stopping me. I have the drive and the ambition, for the most part (I have little ambition for management, but that is normal for most programmers). If you are miserable, stop complaining about it, and do something about it! That is all that is really encouraged. But... the choice is ultimately yours. You can stay and be miserable and just leave here, or you can get a better job and stay here, or any combination thereof. Except staying here and complaining will likely get you more negative feedback. Ultimately you are in control of your own life, so if you are miserable, you need only look in the mirror for who is to blame. It isn't easy shifting jobs. I did it, and I was dirt-poor at the time. I changed across market sectors, which is even harder. But the point is, it can be done. There are a dozen people here who are self-employed. Talk about not having anyone else to pass the buck too! Life is hard once in a while for them too. But there comes a point when you have to choose to live miserable or make a change. They decided that their best interest was in self-employment, mine is in R&D ... which may also go self-employed in the future... we'll see. In any case, the responsibility for being miserable is in your hands.... live it, or leave it.

_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

El Corazon

Joe Woodbury wrote:

if I had two million in the bank, I wouldn't be working as a software engineer.

That is where I am different. I would probably be picker about my assignments, but I am one of the few people would still be in the same industry. Sure there is bureaucracy, and other BS (a few MS and PhD acronyms too), but the benefits outweigh the troubles. And who doesn't have bureaucracy? You think lawyers don't have meetings? you think doctors don't have to repeat themselves like a broken record? Name me one career that has no bureaucracy what so ever. No management or customer headaches? The self-employed here may not have management issues (well, unless they are talking to the mirror, but that is a personal issue), but they still have customer issues. But every industry has its pros and cons. These same things could be written about most career choices. If its wrong, fix it, if you can't fix it, move elsewhere. But don't go fooling yourself that there is some dream job that pays 10 times as much, has no workload, shorter hours, no management, no customers, and no meetings, no BS. of course one statement did stand out... "and moved for a year to the Bay Area." well, there you go.... Misery compiled. :)

_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

Joe Woodbury

El Corazon wrote:

Name me one career that has no bureaucracy what so ever. No management or customer headaches?

That misses the point. I'm not comparing my career to anything else; just making the statement that like the author of the article, I enjoy programming and loathe the bureaucracy and that the latter has done much damage to enjoying what I do. I know this happens in other jobs since I've held a variety. Oddly, I don't mind dealing with customers and actually get perturbed at colleagues who put them down. After all, who's ultimately paying their bills? (I've actual heard customers say "we don't want that" and watched as the company spent money and time delivering that very thing. Which then tanked. Which then caused management to point fingers at everyone but themselves.) I am a little baffled by the attitude "if you don't like it, move elsewhere." What's wrong with trying to change the environment? I'm lucky enough to have bosses right now that are attempting to do just that and are succeeding! (Even if we haven't finally beaten sense into sales, they're running interference for us so it mostly doesn't matter.) PS. Speaking of doctors, I'll take the nonsense any day over what they have to deal with like liability insurance, government paperwork and all that.

Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke

Lost User

Very true - one guy I knew complained that his career wasn't going anywhere because noone else did anything about it!

The tigress is here :-D

El Corazon

Joe Woodbury wrote:

What's wrong with trying to change the environment?

Nothing, in fact I mentioned that if you don't like it, change it, if you can't change it, move. It's not a move elsewhere only. My complaint is the attitude, "software development sucks. I am miserable. All this is horror. I can't do anything about it. But I will post every day this same message with a few different words, maybe." If you don't like it, change it! or change you! or change jobs, or change something! But if you are miserable and hate your job, then you have two choices: live it (stay miserable) or leave it (make a change somewhere, environment, companies, cities, or even careers). I am not just saying give up and go elsewhere, I am saying make the change, what ever is necessary, minor to major. But complaining daily about how miserable you are in your job doesn't help you, doesn't help anyone, and doesn't actually achieve anything at all!

_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

Lost User

and both the options mean X| X| X| X|