Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#251

Post by andy9775 » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:09 PM UTC

rjbwork wrote: post #235

andy9775 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a side question, did you end up pursing a CS/Engineering degree? I'm trying to get a dev role and have a business background and looking for some advice on getting in.

I can give you a little advice from seeing some non-degree-having peers make it. Have some idea what you're doing. Talking the talk is great, but you must be able to walk the walk. Apply to everything that sound like you can/want to do it, even if you don't technically meet the requirements. Those are mostly for HR pre-filtering since HR doesn't really know what they're talking about in 99% of cases - they're just lo…

Great thanks. I've built stuff before and have been learning/coding for the past ~4 years so I don't classify myself as a complete beginner.

When applying without a CS background how tough are the technical interviews? Do they tend to expect more or are they more lenient and look more at fit and ability to grow?

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#252

Post by johnnyfaehell » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:09 PM UTC

AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #249

Though I've been writing software for 15 years, and have worked in the technology industry exclusively throughout my life, I have spent only one year of my professional career as a developer. My job was always a managerial/project management kind of situation - I have equal competency in technology and media/content, so I could always carve out a niche. Then, one day, I decided to abandon my cushy job at Amazon to be…

I think you're problem was going for a start up and not going for Enterprise. Majority of start ups have no idea what they're doing.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#253

Post by andy9775 » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:10 PM UTC

alawrence wrote: post #248

andy9775 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a side question, did you end up pursing a CS/Engineering degree? I'm trying to get a dev role and have a business background and looking for some advice on getting in.

I have a similar background in that I was primarily self-taught before finding a paid apprenticeship that lasted almost a year and then being employed as a consultant by the company. If you can afford it, I'd recommend pursuing a formal route. It exposes you to a lot of ideas and ways of thinking that are hard to get in practice. After having programmed for around 4 years now, I often wish I'd studied CS. In lieu of…

I eventually want to purse the formal route and do a part time BSc or perhaps get a MSc, for now I need something to pay off loans

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#254

Post by bobby_9x » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:12 PM UTC

1stop wrote: post #83

sumedh wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know this cooperative(aka socialism :) sounds good on paper but it does not work most of the time in real life. If someone takes a risk to build something valuable, he/she deserves to get rich.

Paying people the same value they contribute is not socialism. It's called: Being a good person. Capitalism seems to have made us all think it's completely okay to exploit someone else's surplus labour. How is the risk the founder takes that different to Employee #1's? Their payout is usually vastly different, but their contribution not so much.

I'm fine with this, as long as the risk/reward ratio is equal.

Maybe each employee has to donate credit to the company for expenses if they don’t have the cash?

I started my company with bank loans and credit lines. If it goes bust, it's my reputation and I will have to pay back the money.

If someone isn't willing to risk this as well, they aren't an equal partner and shouldn't share equally in the reward.

Some people aren't willing to risk this much, yet still want to contribute. They are employees.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#255

Post by jkereako » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:13 PM UTC

spacecowboy_lon wrote: post #78

onion2k wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its depressing to make comparisons, but 99.9% of developers will never make half of what a specialized MD or successful lawyer or someone in finance might make. Why not make a much less depressing comparison and compare developer wages to manual labourers or retail staff? Compare a typical developer to a typical retail worker and we get way more money for way less stress. We're not at the top end of the scale, but we…

Less stress? Retail workers turn up a 9 leave at 17:30 - they dot get called up outside of work in an emergency to fix some one elses code that causing a problem.

I assume you have never worked in retail.

As a retail worker, the pay is at or just above minimum wage and benefits like PTO and health insurance do not exist because the jobs are usually part time. Additionally, retail work always comes with irate customers who will piss you off, your coworkers off and your bosses off. So everyone is angry. Retail workers often do not have a set schedule, this is especially true during the holiday season. They have to find coverage before taking an unpaid day of leave. Lastly, because no real skill is needed to work in retail, workers are easily replaceable. 1 mistake can get you canned.

How is a situation like that more stressful than being on call of which you get paid to be on?

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#256

Post by cwt » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:13 PM UTC

I am moderately happy. There is no one big thing right now that would dramatically change my happiness as a working programmer/dev. There are little things that could be changed by me or the people I work for that would increase my happiness. But I am happy with the big picture and how things are moving. Day to day is a rollercoaster. Finding new bugs can be frustrating. Bashing your head against bugs that don't make sense can be horrible for happiness, but at the same time, once you solve it and the weight is lifted off you feel great. The hardest part for me is believing in myself, that I am capable of solving something that I am having trouble understanding. That and dealing with corporate America.

I don't see myself working as a programmer my entire career. I have about 5years professionally, but how much longer, I don't know.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#257

Post by smutton » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:14 PM UTC

I enjoy an environment that respects developers, their comfort, and their passions while pursuing new techniques and technologies to better their stack and make developers' lives easier.

However, I temporarily gave that up to see how I'd like the corporate world of Java programming. Although I don't mind working around people (previously worked from home), I will say this: I care more about the software instead of someone's weekend.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#258

Post by dev360 » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:15 PM UTC

49531 wrote: post #199

I worked in landscaping and then as a custodian making $7/hr before I started learning to code. Working as a programmer has transformed my life. I've got a lot of autonomy in my days, I enjoy solving technical problems, I get to work from home and see my 2yr old grow up. Yeah it sucks when your manager puts heavy deadlines on your team, or having to do things you don't necessarily agree with, or navigating corporate…

I joke with programmer friends that we should become gardeners instead. I guess the appeal of physical labor is you get to leave work at work.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#259

Post by cauterized » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:15 PM UTC

Well, it's intellectually engaging, and (if you have halfway decent ergonomics) not particularly physically taxing.

Is it what I'd do with my time if I didn't have to make a living? Maybe a few hours a week.

Is it more enjoyable than most of the alternative ways I could imagine making a living? Hell yeah!

Does it have its exhausting, hellish days and political bullshit? Doesn't everything?

Could I stand to do it in a bureaucratic corporate setting, doing nothing but maintaining a small corner of some horrible enterprise monstrosity and filing TPS reports? Probably not.

How happy am I doing it in the small company / startup setting I've been in for the last 15 years, with plenty of autonomy and a decent proportion of green-field work? About as happy as I'm going to be working any "day job".

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#260

Post by tetraodonpuffer » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 3:16 PM UTC

majewsky wrote: post #242

tetraodonpuffer wrote: post #239

I started learning how to code at 14 when my parents bought me a Sharp MZ-700 instead of a C64 like I asked (I guess the salesperson had a better commission on that!) and since there were basically no games I had to write my own, that was about 30 years ago and I've been programming ever since I still love coding, getting in the zone, learning something new, in general the feeling of being able to make the computer d…

> I would honestly take a 50% pay cut if I was able to just deal with the code working at home, I am a fairly frugal person and wish there was something like basic income so I could just spend my days programming on projects that interest me. You're not the only one. :)

sometimes I wish that all these software-made billionaires instead of buying the n-th yacht or mansion set up a fund where you could apply and get to work on open source projects at reasonable living wages, sort of like a "basic income for coders" basically.

Pipe dream, I know, one can always dream though, I definitely envy artists / craftsmen that can live off their work, but I don't see that possibility for us programmers as it's not like you could open a "virtual shop" with code you worked on on your own because it interested you and people could see and "ohh, this distributed database election system by teatraodonpuffer looks nice, what's the sticker price? sure, I'll buy it"