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

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

#331

Post by hellameta »

dev360 wrote: post #258
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.

The appeal of physical labor? People only do physical labor because they are either unlucky or simply lack the knowledge to choose another path. I don't expect that to be the popular perspective on "PC" hacker news but that is the real world for you. Show me a gardener who wouldn't want to make 6 figures instead of breaking their back day in and day out for close to if not minimum wage? Appeal? Yeah right.

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

#332

Post by mej10 »

I love it. My job is full of interesting challenges and the things I do really matter to the business. My ideas are thoughtfully considered. There is something to learn from everyone on the team. I feel like the company cares about its employees and there is a lot of room for growth, both personally and for the business. There are occasionally tedious things we have to do, but they at least have clear reasons that they need to happen -- it isn't just bullshit being handed down by management.

But it wasn't always that way -- my last job wasn't very challenging and it felt like I was just a cog in a giant machine (which, I was). It was pretty soul crushing despite being a "good" job. I felt bad about hating it so much, because compared to most people's jobs it was still much, much better in every aspect.

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

#333

Post by dacracot »

I'm 33 year veteran of programming. I'm more or less 7 years from retirement. I've worked as a civil servant, at two startups, a large corporation, and for a three letter government agency. I made a decision early in my career not to move into management, but to advance to the "team lead" position at most.

I love and hate my job every day. I have no better time than when I am coding, but I hate frameworks pushed in lieu of design and architecture. I am a polyglot (C, Java, SQL, PL/SQL, XPath, JavaScript, XSLT, bash) and enjoy coding in all of them. I am looking to learn a few more (Python, Lua) giving the time. When a team pushes something like an ORM in order to be "pure Java" it makes me sad since it is seldom accompanied by rational comparison for design factors and true reasoning. I make a good living, well above average, since it is our industry that is driving the world economy. I believe it will continue to do so for some time. My personal motivation to do insanely great things is nearly expired. I have not the will to fight for better implementations with my current employment. I'm generally too tired at the end of the day to work on my personal projects, but not entirely. If it were not for the cut in pay, I would love to start teaching programming. Maybe I can do it part time after retirement.

In re-reading my text prior to posting, it seems like a description of burn out. Perhaps, but I am not unhappy, just unmotivated by the mundane nature of my work. I work to pay my bills and make it to retirement, not to change the world. I hope that whomever reads this can find both motivation and compensation. Good luck.

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

#334

Post by ryandrake »

gizi wrote: post #220
laxatives wrote: post #20

6/10. I'm less than 3 years into my career, but I think I've worked for some of the best companies with great pay, benefits, environments, etc, including a tech giant and two startups. End of the day though, work is boring. Its always work. Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich and their priorities are more important than your own. The only things I really look forward to are vacations and ev…

> but 99.9% of developers will never make half of what a specialized MD or successful lawyer or someone in finance might make. It is exactly the other way around. Mark Zuckerberg is a PHP programmer, not an MD or a lawyer. Same for Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and another host of lesser known billionaires and millionaires. In other words, an MD or a lawyer could impossible make what a successful programmer mi…

You're talking about the 0.1% of programmers who became millionaires and billionaires. The parent comment was specifically about the other 99.9% (and he/she even specified the number).

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

#335

Post by klibertp »

kendallpark wrote: post #268
phatbyte wrote: post #121

Move! Here's the thing: I love programming, I've been working has a web dev since I was 18 (34 now), but I always loved design and creating desktop apps. And recently I've been learning Swift and mobile design. This year, the startup I was working with went bankrupt, and I just dive into depression and self-confidence as a developer. I couldn't stop thinking to myself: "oh no, not again all those web dev interview pr…

> I got burnout of web dev, I just couldn't see myself doing it any longer. I hate JavaScript and the whole current ecosystem, it's a fucking mess, I don't want to have anything to do with it. PHP bores me to death, it's getting more and similar to Java syntax. Traditional web apps are dead. Everything is an API with a frontend-app, and that's fine, but I'm done. I fear I'm on this path. PHP is dead to me. I also hat…

> I also hate the JS ecosystem

Why?

> I'm not fond of JS as a language in and of itself

You could use one of many languages compiled to JavaScript.

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

#336

Post by varjag »

ryandrake wrote: post #327
laxatives wrote: post #20

6/10. I'm less than 3 years into my career, but I think I've worked for some of the best companies with great pay, benefits, environments, etc, including a tech giant and two startups. End of the day though, work is boring. Its always work. Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich and their priorities are more important than your own. The only things I really look forward to are vacations and ev…

Thank you for pointing out the fact that software compensation peaks early, and you pretty much hit a ceiling unless you win the startup lottery. A lot of people see the early money and forget this. As a software developer, 20 years into your career, your buddies that majored in finance, marketing or anything else, really, will likely have eclipsed you in terms of compensation, as they'll be senior directors of this…

There's not enough director or VP positions in the world for every buddy out there.

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

#337

Post by softawre »

hellameta wrote: post #331
dev360 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The appeal of physical labor? People only do physical labor because they are either unlucky or simply lack the knowledge to choose another path. I don't expect that to be the popular perspective on "PC" hacker news but that is the real world for you. Show me a gardener who wouldn't want to make 6 figures instead of breaking their back day in and day out for close to if not minimum wage? Appeal? Yeah right.

You are right. But... I'd be a gardener. If it paid me the same I make now. At least for 3 months a year?

I worked at Lowes in college hauling lumber and I miss it dearly (rose colored goggles and all). I was in the best shape of my life, I didn't think about work (lumber?) at home. It was a simpler life.

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

#338

Post by nilkn »

Jonovono wrote: post #300
nilkn wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think most developers should be paid similarly to a highly specialized doctor? First of all, you might be thinking of doctors like neurosurgeons. Less than 1% of practicing physicians in the US are neurosurgeons, and some neurosurgeons make as little as $250k (often ones with special academic appointments). Not all of them make $1M/year or even $700k/year. Second of all, you might in general be overestimat…

They never said programmers SHOULD make as much as doctors (or lawyers or finance).

Why feel depressed about it then? The statements were also factually misleading -- (far) more than .1% of programmers make more than half of a specialized doctor on average.

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

#339

Post by efaref »

Ntrails wrote: post #74
dansingerman wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware of imposter syndrome? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome You may not be up to your job, but probably more likely it's that.

Being aware of it does nothing to remove the certainty that at some point the people you work with are going to turn around and tell you to go home and never come back. Just as soon as they realise you're worthless. The most interesting thing I've seen written was on here, pointing out a problem in the logic. "If they haven't noticed you're as stupid as you think you are, they themselves must be even stupider. Theref…

> "If they haven't noticed you're as stupid as you think you are, they themselves must be even stupider."

Ah, the old "I'm not ok, you're not ok" section of the OK Corral[1].

[1] http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/ok_not-ok.ht...

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

#340

Post by ryandrake »

reustle wrote: post #15

I worked for a few years as a programmer but also exercised my people skills over time (being in NYC). I eventually realized I didn't want to write code for work anymore, only for fun. I eventually did a bit more management related stuff at one of my gigs, and now I run a small development shop which requires very little coding on my part. I'm really happy with how things have turned out.

Great story, I'm jealous! Assuming by "run" you mean you own the shop, I would love to learn in more detail how you were able to leap from day-to-day programming to being able to afford your own company.

I see a lot of responses like that in this wonderful thread: I used to program for a few companies, then I got into management a bit, and now I own my own company. That's listing step 1, 2, 3, and then jumping to step 59!

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