For anyone getting into development as a career: The reality

all depends on what kinda job you get.. my was in research.. so i got to Implement idea's no one had tried before... including coding Evolution, natural selection and religion ...

Just find the right job for you
 
Grant Petersen said:
And are you having fun?
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well one always in life choose the lesser evils, between the availible choices. it pays my bills, but i'm definitly not going to go ZOMG code code code when i get home in the evenings.
 
Yeah, that's why I'm a bit hesitant to go into coding as a career...

I work in support, so when I get home at night it's a relief not to have to deal with users and to just be able to focus on the system I'm working on. I'm worried that if I do it as a job, it will just become work and stop being fun.
 
tdwtf said:
Software development is a unique profession in that we can use our skills both on the job and for our hobby. And unlike accountants, who generally don’t rush home to balance the family budget, many of us actually do tinker with code for fun.
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I agree with what this author is saying, we are lucky! 100% of all the decent developers I know code for themselves, whether it's for extra cash on the side or just for fun.

Obviously not ALL developers do this, but any worth their salt are. We have so much to learn in this profession and our tools are changing so quickly and so often that if you aren't keeping up in your spare time you're doomed to being 55 and fixing what will then be "legacy code".

IMHO those who aren't doing this were those guys in my ComSci classes who never enjoyed what we learned or the practicals we did, but where there because they though developers earn big bucks. And they are the ones giving the IT industry a bad name.
 
dequadin said:
IMHO those who aren't doing this were those guys in my ComSci classes who never enjoyed what we learned or the practicals we did, but where there because they though developers earn big bucks. And they are the ones giving the IT industry a bad name.
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Sounds about right.
 
I'm going to agree with the smaller crowd here, my development in terms of a programmer was as follows:

Highschool: Programming is AWESOME!
1st Year University: Progamming is cool!
2nd Year University: Data structures and Algorithms look interesting
3rd Year University: Oh God not another Neural Network, it's just another stupid algorithm and I've got a Graphics project to do, so tedious, perhaps I'll just change one of my practicals.

Pretty much it's all the same stuff over & over & over, soooo boring. Now all I can think about is what I want to study next so I don't have to do Computer Programming my entire life, I already find AI and Graphics boring I can't imagine doing Business Applications all day long, it's like a never ending informatics module, kill me now, at least some of the AI stuff were semi challenging.
 
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There is a reason why i try not to apply for these even tho i am sure i can pull of some amazing things :p
 
Gnome said:
Pretty much it's all the same stuff over & over & over, soooo boring. Now all I can think about is what I want to study next so I don't have to do Computer Programming my entire life
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I know exactly how you feel. Even though I've only been employed in a development role for 4 years now, I'm already becoming extremely bored. I'm always trying to do "whiz-bang expert systems" with a "plug-in based system with extensible, run-time parsed UI templates". Just to keep things interesting.

What interesting career alternatives are there? Zoo-keeping?
 
I also break the rule, making my apps over complicated to challenge myself cos the work is so damn boring. When I'm at home I am so depressed from my boring day i dont even feel the need to write any code
 
Maybe it is just the industry that I am in, but most of my work is not boring.

I don't mind doing the boring work. Sure, it is boring and I don't want to do it, but once I'm done with it, I know I can start working on something else I'll probably enjoy.

Not many people get paid to do something they enjoy, most people hate their jobs!

I've been coding for a few years now and most of the time, I can't wait to get to work. If I didn't need to work, I would probably still spend most of my time coding. I consider myself lucky to be a programmer.
 
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