What was your first programming job like?
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
My first programming job was for the Science and Engineering Research Council (a UK government R&D facility). I was given food and board, plus about £8 per week. But, I had full access to a Prime 400, GEC 4070, IBM 360/195 and a FR80 Graphics processor (a two tonne graphics processor, things was big then those days). I was programming in Fortran and a preprocessed "structured" Fortran variant called "Ratfor". But documentation took up a large (and dull) part of my time. Now, too. It's a fact of life. Documentation is part of the job, but consulting companies are not paid by the quality of documentation, just the weight. The guys on the front line who code in front of the clients are paid better, so it makes good accountancy sense to move them to more programming and leave the docs to the lower paid peons. Move up in the company, or move out! (or learn to love documenting - oink, oink, flap, flap, floss, floss!)
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
my first job out of college was mostly writing testing scripts for QA, and then following those scripts. in other words, i was the QA department. i did get to do some programming now and then, but not much. i stayed there a year and a half.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
From my interviews I'd say you're in the norm. The position I have was one of three I can think of that had anything to do with actually coding, because most people want 3-5 years of coding experience before they'll hire someone to do code for them. I interviewed about 15 times before I found something, which would put actual development at about 1/5 for new positions. Now I'm sitting here coming up on my second year here with mounting expectations, shorter schedules, no raise in sight and questionable job security. So even programing is hardly all roses, though I have been able to do some cool stuff, I'm finding it remarkably hard to turn off at night due to just how much is being expected out of me. I'm questioning if I should demonstrate competence at my next job or not as it seems to only accelerate the speed at which you approach the death spiral of far to high expectations.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
My first job actually involved a lot of web work (lots of HTML layout), which I wouldn't necessarily call programming. And my second one was QA (quality assurance... or pressing buttons like a monkey trying to break things). Perhaps this documentation is part of your training? Perhaps they are just getting you familiar with the applications for they set you to maintaining them. I know that would have been a useful (but extremely boring) excercise at my last job... I worked on things there for 2 years without knowing how those applications worked. Or they are just using you as a monkey to do whatever boring work they don't want to do.
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my first job out of college was mostly writing testing scripts for QA, and then following those scripts. in other words, i was the QA department. i did get to do some programming now and then, but not much. i stayed there a year and a half.
Chris Losinger wrote:
i was the QA department
Chris Losinger wrote:
i stayed there a year and a half
Doing QA was the worst/most boring 6 months of my life. Never again!
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Chris Losinger wrote:
i was the QA department
Chris Losinger wrote:
i stayed there a year and a half
Doing QA was the worst/most boring 6 months of my life. Never again!
aspdotnetdev wrote:
Doing QA was the worst/most boring 6 months of my life.
i also read a lot of books and wrote a kick-ass fractal generator while waiting for the tests to run.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
guess I was lucky to find jobs in small companies that did c++, graphics, scientific softwares. no SAP/Peoplesoft and all that junk. I've always did programming, entry level stuff at the beginning, but always programming.
Watched code never compiles.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
My first proper, dedicated, tech job (I was using them for a long time prior was regarded as the 'Tech Guy' before this), was as a System Operator/Security Officer on as AS 400 Mainframe (Late 80's so this was still a Big Iron system), and had complete control and access rights for Granada. I had Top Access Priviledges and was one of only four people allowed into the Computer Room. This was a top security room, air controlled and pass card and key number entry. It was the inner sanctum where the hairy and bespectacled high priests would entry in privacy and utter incantations and perform magic. It was also the only room where there was no management oversight, so while we were there we often played games like Risk, safe in the knowledge that we were still working. It was a bugger when something went wrong and you had to work. There were other fringe benefits, we could alter our timein and timeout records, and would preset various tasks to suit us. There was nothing anyone could do, for we were God.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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aspdotnetdev wrote:
Doing QA was the worst/most boring 6 months of my life.
i also read a lot of books and wrote a kick-ass fractal generator while waiting for the tests to run.
Chris Losinger wrote:
i also read a lot of books and wrote a kick-ass fractal generator while waiting for the tests to run.
Wish I had thought of that! Actually, I might have, but I felt guilty doing anything unrelated to my job during working hours.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
I started, on minimum wage, the previous developer (who was related to the owner of the company) left soon after and I was left fighting fires involving several hundred undocumented classic VB programs for quite a few years. So, stressful....
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
Some security routines for embedded systems in the Chernobyl Power plant. It doesn’t went well.
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
My first paid job as a programmer was writing 6502 assembly code for Apple II games. I was writing code 10-12 hours a day from day one. (And I always remember when that was since my oldest child was born a week after I started.) I've never worked for a company that had divisions. Take advantage and see how much training they'll pay for. Going through and understanding old code is not a bad thing; assuming you can use a debugger, you can learn a lot.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
Anonymous12345678 wrote:
I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation?
My first programming job out of school was for $5.25 an hour in 1986. I was hired under the title of "Junior programmer" but there were no other programmers. I developed the code, tested the code, trained the users, wrote the manuals, wired the building for terminal access. Diagnosed hardware failures. Fixed data entry errors already applied to the general ledger. Fixed existing code to prevent out of balance errors being applied to the ledger from code prior to my employment (bought from IBM). Completely rewrote the user interfaces for more accurate and faster entry. I referred to myself as "a one man shop". Which to any programmer got a nod of understanding. When I left the company in 1992, I made 5.90 an hour (assuming you don't divide my hours into my salary). The data entry operator made 6.10 an hour.... During my employment I received all the trust and appreciation of a rabid dog chained to the back fence. Mandatory hours up to 97.5 hours a week without additional compensation above salary.
_________________________ John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." Shhhhh.... I am not really here. I am a figment of your imagination.... I am still in my cave so this must be an illusion....
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
I was half way through a EE masters program as a self taught programmer when I left to pursue a job. Then I jumped head first into a C++ project for a 3D viewing application on the bleeding edge of Windows 95 desktop development (ooh ahh!). Plus it was a small privately owned company and there where only two other developers :)
Todd Smith
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
I have to say I think I had the best programming job in the world as my first job. I got 6 months training by the development team, they then moved out and left me on my own at the age of 22 to do all new development (PDP-11 and Macro-11), all the equipment operating including all the tracking - see BUTEC Applecross[^] - radar ops, radio, underwater acoustic analysis, etc etc. The programming involved everything from writing device drivers and tracking systems (the newly developed hardware would just be shipped up from England and I had to get on with it) to reports and plots (remember Calcom plotters anyone?) and analysis of the results. I had crash courses in underwater acoustics, signal processing, UHF and VHF radio and underwater telephone usage, use of theodolites for surveying, etc, etc. One day I'll write a book about it! Part of the job involved going out to sea - in submarines and yucky little diesel boats, going around in helicopters from A to B (much faster than by sea) and traipsing through the heather with a theodolite on my back. I stayed there for 3.5 years and moved on when the development was nearly finished. 'Twas the best job I ever had - downhill from then on, oh, except when I worked on the Sea Harrier flight simulator Sea Harrier[^] - but that's another story. Ah, those really were the days...
It’s not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it’s because we do not dare that things are difficult. ~Seneca
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
Anonymous12345678 wrote:
I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation?
I suspect that every company is different, so in that sense most such experiences are likely to be abberations. Mine certainly was. I didn't join my first company as a software developer but an electronic engineer. The short version is that I ended up on Defence projects, which were mostly support work rather than new development - and a lot of paperwork (we called them "rusty washer reports"). Eventually several of my team got drafted into writing bids for new contracts, started defining instrument fits for new ATE (Automatic Test Equipment) systems and defining high level software architectures. We did enough of them that by the time the inevitable happened and we won one of them we had some pretty advanced concepts ready to fly - but no teams to implement them. So, when we were informed by the MoD that we were the preferred supplier I went to my boss and suggested that I take time out to get up to speed on the instrumentation framework (a thing called TIMS, or Test Instrument Management System) and language (C++ - I already knew C) before it got urgent. He agreed, I scrounged a copy of Visual C++ 1.52 and 3 months later I took charge of two other engineers and mentored them as we got the thing going. However, by the time the system reached the integration phase I'd become so fed up with the stress and long hours that I left for a marine navigations systems company, where I stayed until leaving to found my own company.
Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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My first programming job was for the Science and Engineering Research Council (a UK government R&D facility). I was given food and board, plus about £8 per week. But, I had full access to a Prime 400, GEC 4070, IBM 360/195 and a FR80 Graphics processor (a two tonne graphics processor, things was big then those days). I was programming in Fortran and a preprocessed "structured" Fortran variant called "Ratfor". But documentation took up a large (and dull) part of my time. Now, too. It's a fact of life. Documentation is part of the job, but consulting companies are not paid by the quality of documentation, just the weight. The guys on the front line who code in front of the clients are paid better, so it makes good accountancy sense to move them to more programming and leave the docs to the lower paid peons. Move up in the company, or move out! (or learn to love documenting - oink, oink, flap, flap, floss, floss!)
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
You remember Prime? Wow! My dad used to work for them in their Engineering department and then he moved to Kuwait for a few years as their sales person in the GCC particularly at the Petroleum companies. You're one of three that I have ever heard of that knows of Prime. I'm genuinely impressed.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
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I hate to complain about my job considering how much unemployment there is but, is my situation normal as a first programming job? I was hired into a technology division of a consulting company. I was led to believe that I would be programming and that is my official title. The first month I went through a 1 month training program with a large number of other new hires to learn SAP/ABAP. I did do alot of programming in the training program. However, the project I was put on after the training program involves zero programming. 100% of my job is writing documentation for old programs written by other people. And none the other new hires I've met are programming either. In fact only a small percentage of the people I've met at the company actually seem to program. I was wondering is this what your first programming job was like or is my company an abberation? ps Sorry this is a cross post. I forgot that nobody reads the work/training issues forum. Moderators, if you want to get rid of one please get rid of that one.
My first programming job (1987) at DEC's AI Technology Center (Expert Systems Group) was *awesome*! When I joined the team, I was sure I knew more than anyone else and was convinced I could finish my tasks WAY before their allocated time. When I moved on (7 years later, and after forming several life-long friendships), I realized how little I actually knew, was amazed at how smart everyone else was, and constantly fretted about how overly optimistic our deadlines were. :) It was a great job - I wrote code 24 hours a day (well OK, maybe 23). My management was technically savvy, yet kept out of our way most of the time - they were true enablers - they made it possible for us young un's to do our job. DEC was one of the best jobs I've ever had. The ability to work directly with folks like John McDermott and developers of VMS 1.0 was amazing. And the cafeterias and helipads were pretty darn cool, too! • DEC memory 1[^] • DEC memory 2[^] /ravi
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