The very best programmers I have ever worked with were mildly to severely introverted, and mildly to moderately (high-functioning) autistic. When I started my career as a programmer, I was very slightly introverted, and more than just slightly autistic. As my career progressed, I became more introverted, and less autistic (I think the latter was mostly due to dietary changes). Since I am personally familiar with introversion and autism, if I was interviewing a programmer for a position at my company, I would look for signs of both of those.

Violinist and Teacher when I'm not writing software...

Confidence? Does that include the confidence to let the interviewer know that you don't want to work with him/her? The most recent interview that I deliberately "flubbed" was with RIM a few years back (shortly before they went bankrupt). I had pretty much decided I did not want to work with the folks that were interviewing me (I thought their interview technique was essentially useless, and they appeared to be having problems with employee retention), when they asked, "How good are you at multi-tasking?" My reply: "I suck at it, and so do you, *especially* if you think you don't." That little truth-bomb was pretty much the end of the interview.

Violinist and Teacher when I'm not writing software...

Speaking of recruiters: When it rains, it pours. (http://howardleeharkness.com/2013/05/when-it-rains-it-pours/) That's happened often enough, I've come to expect it. I recently landed a local contract, and now I'm getting 3-5 calls per day and about 10 emails, up from 3-5 calls and 10 emails per *week* before I landed the contract. This time around, however, I'm seeing ads for contracts that are at least borderline fraudulent. For example: http://howardleeharkness.com/2015/03/strange-contract-posting/ I saw lots of these "H1-b qualifiers" back in the 80's & 90's, after which the people responsible for them started getting a little better at disguising them. But this one is in-your-face obvious. Volt is now on my short list of contract agencies to ignore.

Violins and Accessories

I have used LogMeIn for several things. I briefly used it for logging into my home computer from work (I've since migrated to a laptop that I almost always have with me and that I can tether to my phone). I installed it on a blind user's computer so that I can get her out of a jam (she's getting better at using NVDA, so the trouble calls are getting less frequent, but occasionally Vista screws her around), and I routinely install it on systems of the folks for whom I build websites so that I can tutor them over the phone on how to maintain it themselves. Once they get to the point that they don't need me, they can uninstall. LogMeIn (the free version, no less) has saved me many hours of travel and frustration. Security issues: I use a password generator, and keep an encrypted spreadsheet of the passwords, so a compromised password affects only one application or site. There are some other free alternatives to LogMeIn, but so far, I've found LogMeIn to be convenient, reliable, and easy to use for my purposes.

Violins and Accessories

I am finally back to C++ programming (my strongest skill) after several years away. Fortunately, I work with ITAR sofware, which makes it hard to replace me with an H1-b or outsource my job out of the country. I hope this job is good for at least a couple of years, but I have seen some disturbing signs in the parent company... (they are considering a 2% across-the-board salary reduction, among other things) Having spent nearly 3 years under-employed (I can recall when recruiters hung up on me upon learning that I was a C++ programmer), I have two currently-operating backup careers. Plan A: Texas Certified Concealed Handgun License Instructor. After 8 years in the business, it has suddenly taken off, thanks to Dear Leader. I have no idea how long the current mania will last, but for now it has nearly doubled my total income, with only two classes per month. Plan B: Violin Teacher.What a combo, right? I teach violin lessons 3 nights a week, and my schedule is currently full, and I may go to a 4th night starting in September. I used to do lessons on weekends, but Plan A takes those up now. If I wasn't working a 40-hr day job, I could easily double or triple my student load; the demand for music tutoring appears pretty constant in this yuppie neighborhood. Interesting, most of my students are Chinese or Indian. It seems that those ethnic groups have more appreciation for the positive effects of musical training than the local white yuppies. They tend to be better students, too. Plan C: Selling violins and accessories (see sig), Webhosting, Affiliate marketing, etc. All of my Plan C activities together generate only a tiny fraction of my income, but they are fun. Burning the candle at both ends is really quite exiting... Fortunately, my wife (a CPA) has a real job with bennies, so it is feasible for me to strike out on my own if I need to. I'm also blessed with really good health. Right now, I'm enjoying writing graphics software while I still can, and I will hang on to this position as long as I can.

Violins and Accessories

I subscribe to Joel-on-Software. He runs a place where I think I would enjoy working. I've seen stuff similar to the Stanford Prison Experiment. I dimly recall studying that in psychology class back in college, along with case studies on the Korea and Vietnam conflicts. We even ran an experiment along the same lines ("haves and have-nots"), with similar results. Interesting things that twist your mind around when you get elevated to PHB, which is one of the many reasons that I have resisted becoming a manager. I quit a job about 15 years ago because they insisted on giving me dominion over two direct reports, over my objections. That, of course, has been a career-limiting decision. In more than one job interview, I was asked the equivalent of "You've been a programmer for over 25 years, and you have no management experience? What's wrong with you?" The thing that is 'wrong' with me is that I see no logic in 'promoting' me from a job I love to one that I don't want to do and would probably suck at. (And there is the constantly increasing current of age discrimination, which is remarkably and refreshingly absent from my current environment.) "do you feel like family or like an "asset" at your job." Hmmm... hadn't thought of it either way, but then, like many programmers, I prefer 'communing' with my machine over socializing with my co-workers (however, today *is* Hawaiian-shirt day, as well as lunch-at-the-Chinese-restaurant-day, and I plan to participate in both this week). My current work environment is incredibly stimulating and exciting, and my management (unlike the folks I worked for at the bank) is focused on enabling and encouraging. And I kinda enjoy sippin' from the firehose. What's kinda neat is the fact that the type of software we work on requires us to replace about half of our development machines each year. Much nicer than having to put up with hand-me-downs because there is no budget for PCs. Or having a purchase of a $100 utility refused because "we can do without it." Oh, well, time to go to work... Something I look forward to, for a change.

Violins and Accessories

Your projection is showing. It's called "confirmation bias".

Violins and Accessories

Even back when I was a beginning programmer, I liked two monitors (and that was back when monochrome monitors cost north of $1000). One for having documentation or listings open, and one for doing actual programming. At that time, having two monitors required two computers. When I couldn't get two monitors, I would print out whatever it was that I would have displayed on a second monitor and use a copy-holder. When Windows came along, that helped quite a bit, because I could quickly flip from one file to another, but I still preferred two monitors, and still do. Now that I have a NVidia Quadro that will drive 4 monitors, I dearly love having 3 monitors, one for viewing programming debugging, one for coding, and one for documentation and research. BTW, I keep my email program minimized, and check it whenever I come to a stopping point. Occasionally, I get a question from somebody about why I didn't respond instantly to an email, and I just tell them that if something needs an instant response, they need to come to my cube in person. The 'trancelike' state you describe is called 'Flow', and it is a major reason for my choice of programming as a career.

Violins and Accessories

So, because *you* don't need extra monitors, you assume nobody else does. As I said in another post, I'm glad I don't work for you, and I never will.

Violins and Accessories

"I don't and I wouldn't allow any developer working for me to use more than one monitor without providing actual measured proof that they are more efficient" I'm sure glad *I* don't work for a PHB like you. I have two high-res monitors sitting on my desk, and I'm about to get a third. I love it. I do high-performance graphics software for a living (and teach little kids how to play the violin on the side; if my management ever got to be an asshat like you, I'd be teaching violin full-time in about two weeks, and freelance programming on the side). One thing that managers tend to forget is that techies are largely motivated by getting to play with technology. It's worth real money to you to provide your techies with the latest and greatest equipment. Keeping your employees happy is a BIG part of keeping your employees productive -- and just keeping your employees. Having to replace *one* programmer because you refused to provide her/him with a 2nd monitor will wipe out all of the savings you could ever hope to achieve by penny-pinching on equipment over your entire career. I worked for an outfit like that once. I quit shortly after my request for a faster computer (the outdated one I had was taking several hours to do a typical build) was denied, and I found out that the manager had bought a state of the art system for his secretary, who did word-processing and email all day.

Violins and Accessories