Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What's your working day like?

news.ycombinator.com

171–180 of 443 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#172

I'm in a dev-ops/developer/architect role at SAP cloud infrastructure. [09:00] Alarm goes off. I'm totally not a morning person, but because the alarm is so late, I usually convince myself to get up immediately. [09:40] I leave my apartment and read a newspaper on the tram. [10:00] Upon arriving at work, I fire up my PC, but let it sit while I visit colleagues and chat with them about our progress and impediments. So…

Are you seeing a lot of benefit from daily meditation? Does having it be firmly scheduled help it become a regular habit?

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#174
Profession: Research Assistant (CS - Systems)

- [05:00]: wake up, coffee, breakfast, read

- [07:00]: arrive at work - look for papers and read abstracts set the good ones aside to do a second pass on later

- [08:00]: code / run experiments / simulations /etc (depends on what part of the project)

- [10:30]: check HN, news, internet stuff

- [11:00]: seminar / talks / meeting / lunch

- [13:00]: review papers put aside, write documentation, project report, etc.

- [14:30]: whatever needs more time from ^^^

- [16:00]: Go home, read, watch tv, bike, exercise, eat, play go

- [21:00]: Bed

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#175

Profession: Software "Engineer" [06:15] First alarm goes off; [06:45] Finally wake up, get out of bed, shower, shave, make espresso for me and the wife [07:15] out the door, 30 minute commute to office [07:45] breakfast bagel at my work cafe [08:00] arrive at desk, begin contemplating work -- work on something I procrastinated on the previous day so that I can have a good standup report [9:00] everyone arrives at off…

> [08:00] ... work on something I procrastinated on the previous day so that I can have a good standup report lol, me too, I'm afraid to admit. Every dang day.

I want to assume many of us are like this.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#176
post #146

Profession: Software "Engineer" [06:15] First alarm goes off; [06:45] Finally wake up, get out of bed, shower, shave, make espresso for me and the wife [07:15] out the door, 30 minute commute to office [07:45] breakfast bagel at my work cafe [08:00] arrive at desk, begin contemplating work -- work on something I procrastinated on the previous day so that I can have a good standup report [9:00] everyone arrives at off…

Many people complain about the usual work chaos. I'm also an engineer and I don't get it. For me, having other people come and ask questions is not distraction but an opportunity to help, learn to know their point of view, learn new things. Meetings are a way to influence the direction of the company however small my influence may be. Other people talking can really distract if it's heavily on topic, but usually also…

I enjoy helping when people come up to me with legitimate questions, for all the reasons you mention. It feels like half the time, I'm being bugged not for any real reason, but because the person couldn't bother to put some effort in first.

For example, I've become known as "the regex guy" at the office. I know regex really well as well as the ins and outs of the regex engines of languages we use. I don't mind when I get called over to help with a tough regex, or optimizing something. But way too often whatever I get interrupted and cross the building just to replace ".*" with ".+" or something equally simple.

I usually just type the solution and tell them my copy of Mastering Regular Expressions is on the office bookshelf if they'd like to borrow it, the first chapter should cover all the basics. I'm also very happy to explain the basics of regex to someone in my down time, but very few people have taken me up on that offer.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#177
Profession: Web developer - full time, remote flexible, team of 3 developers, 1 project manager, 1 designer

[7:00] Alarm goes off

[7:45] Actually wakes up, shaves

[8:00] Jumps in the shower, brushes teeth

[8:15] Gets dressed

[8:25] Drives to 7-11 for a Rockstar Zero and Quest Bar

[8:35 - 8:45] Boards the train

[9:10] Arrives at work

[9:15] Yells at computer with Black Screen Of Death caused by IT department remotely installing security updates, or keychain failing to update to my new password, etc.

[9:30] Actually gets computer in a working state. Dicks around for 20 minutes on Facebook & HN.

[9:40] Morning restroom time

[9:50] Team standup and then I try to actually get into my zone

[10:30] A minor issue happens with one of our services. Someone asks me how a piece of 5+ year old code works and why it's failing. Tracks down bug for a few hours.

[12:30] Lunch time

[1:30] Begins actual work

[3:00] Gets a request to quickly implement something because it "should be simple".

[5:00] Heads home

[5:45] Stops at grocery store to buy a block of cheddar cheese

[6:15] Arrives home, melts the cheese in the microwave, and eats it for dinner

[7:00] Works out for a few hours, often playing Xbox on my treadmill or working on shoulder strength with my total gym

[9:00] Has some Muscle Milk and some brazil nuts

[10:00] Takes a long shower because I don't pay for water

[10:25] Crashes on bed with laptop playing some lecture

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#178
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people complain about the usual work chaos. I'm also an engineer and I don't get it. For me, having other people come and ask questions is not distraction but an opportunity to help, learn to know their point of view, learn new things. Meetings are a way to influence the direction of the company however small my influence may be. Other people talking can really distract if it's heavily on topic, but usually also…

Hmm. How about actually building stuff? For most software engineers, thats a very important part of their job/life/happiness. That requires long focus and flow. And in my personal opinion has a great sense of fulfillment attached to it compared to lot of scattered micro impacts. Ultimately you need to learn to balance both otherwise it gets very frustrating​.

Do you have to personally write every single line of code or are you happy when the whole team builds the code?

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#179
post #144

I am seeing a lot of depressing posts here (and mostly in humor, I think) Lots of talk about sleeping in, procrastinating, pretending to work, etc. etc. I used to be a Software Engineer and I can relate extremely well. Now I am attempting to be a travel writer and photographer, driving around Africa. I spring out of bed in the morning, and have some of the best days of my life, day after day. It's hard, but I love it…

Can you comment on how easy it is to "go back"? I've always heard it's difficult to find employment as a developer once you have a gap in your resume.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#180
County IT Analyst (Basically a software engineer without the fancy title) - full time, office

- Wake up at 6:30 am

- Head out at 7:10 am

- Enter office at 7:30 am

- Check emails, take unassigned servicenow tickets that came in later from the previous day.

- Make coffee, get productive around 8:30am.

- Work on anything I'm assigned on and off. Distractions everywhere but I pull through and get a lot done. Take a break after 2.5 hours of work

- Lunch at 11:30am

- Production slows down, slog through the rest of the day, take a break around 3pm, write some notes if needed to remind myself the next day, get off at 4pm.

Sometimes meetings pop up now and then but it's usually like this every day.

Post reply on HN