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Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

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Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#121

Post by tomcam »

robocat wrote: post #95
klabb3 wrote: post #49

This whole article is great advice for playing the career game, or “how to fit in and not get bullied at school”. Note that it comes at a cost, and that cost may or may not be worth it to you. Note also that playing a game for a long time you forget that you are playing a game, and you start incorporating the rules of the game into your mind. Some people are more resistant to this effect than others, and some people…

The article finishes with: At the end of the day, your life happiness will not be dominated by your career. Either talk to older people or trust the social scientists who have: family, faith, hobbies, etc etc generally swamp career achievements and money in terms of things which actually produce happiness. Optimize appropriately. Your career is important, and right now it might seem like the most important thing in y…

I’m on the wrong side of 60 and have loved being a programmer for 4 decades. I don’t mind saying it’s a substantial part of my identity.

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#122

Post by Raidion »

andsoitis wrote: post #64
strict9 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are definitely the outlier and the version of php that fb uses can barely be called php when they more or less rewrote how it works under the hood. But this isn't a dig at php, just stating chosen languages/frameworks matter a lot. I think it speaks volumes about a company's tech philosophy if they still mainly use php and jquery for web development.

What about if they use Java or C++ or Erlang for production code, rather than, say, Go or Rust?

The state of thr deployment pipeline and tests matters a whole lot more than the specific language.

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#123

Post by bruce511 »

klabb3 wrote: post #49

This whole article is great advice for playing the career game, or “how to fit in and not get bullied at school”. Note that it comes at a cost, and that cost may or may not be worth it to you. Note also that playing a game for a long time you forget that you are playing a game, and you start incorporating the rules of the game into your mind. Some people are more resistant to this effect than others, and some people…

>> If you have the privilege to choose what game to play, I recommend picking not by the rewards of the game – but based on how you like the rules of the game.

It's kinda both though isn't it? Sure we all want to play the game with the "right rules", but at the same time I also care deeply about the rewards - I want time with the family, I don't want to worry about money every night, and so on.

But I agree, rules first. You can live on less money, but bad jobs destroy the soul.

I would add this. Wherever you end up, understand that there are rules. They may not be intuitive. They may not be logical. But they exist. Don't assume. If you don't like the rules, or can't do the rules, change the game - you're not going to change the rules (and fighting to do so is exhausting.)

For reference, I've spent my whole career building boring Crud apps in a language you've never heard of. It's not sexy, but it's given me a great life - more than I would have hoped for.

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#124

Post by Tijdreiziger »

grovesNL wrote: post #103
trentgreene wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are very much legally in the clear to call yourself an engineer, even if your actual title is "Solutions Engineer" (i.e., sales). You cannot however represent yourself as a licensed professional (engineering or otherwise) without actually having that license. That's what's illegal.

That could be the case wherever you live, but this isn't true in general. The word "engineer" is protected title in some countries (without requiring additional qualification such as the word "professional" or "licensed").

Your username suggests you’re from the Netherlands. AFAIK ‘engineer’ is not a protected title here (as opposed to ‘ingenieur’, which is protected).

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#125

Post by edgyquant »

tomcam wrote: post #121
robocat wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article finishes with: At the end of the day, your life happiness will not be dominated by your career. Either talk to older people or trust the social scientists who have: family, faith, hobbies, etc etc generally swamp career achievements and money in terms of things which actually produce happiness. Optimize appropriately. Your career is important, and right now it might seem like the most important thing in y…

I’m on the wrong side of 60 and have loved being a programmer for 4 decades. I don’t mind saying it’s a substantial part of my identity.

By wrong side I assume you mean you’re my age (30). We should all be lucky enough to acquire the wisdom of a 60+ year old.

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#126

Post by onion2k »

robocat wrote: post #95
klabb3 wrote: post #49

This whole article is great advice for playing the career game, or “how to fit in and not get bullied at school”. Note that it comes at a cost, and that cost may or may not be worth it to you. Note also that playing a game for a long time you forget that you are playing a game, and you start incorporating the rules of the game into your mind. Some people are more resistant to this effect than others, and some people…

The article finishes with: At the end of the day, your life happiness will not be dominated by your career. Either talk to older people or trust the social scientists who have: family, faith, hobbies, etc etc generally swamp career achievements and money in terms of things which actually produce happiness. Optimize appropriately. Your career is important, and right now it might seem like the most important thing in y…

I think this used to be true when a single blue collar income was enough to provide your family with food and shelter and a bit extra. Today if you're not earning an above average wage you just can't have the family, hobbies, etc. Life got a lot more expensive.

The pursuit of money isn't what makes people happy, but a lack of money definitely stops people being happy.

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#127

Post by tomcam »

edgyquant wrote: post #125
tomcam wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m on the wrong side of 60 and have loved being a programmer for 4 decades. I don’t mind saying it’s a substantial part of my identity.

By wrong side I assume you mean you’re my age (30). We should all be lucky enough to acquire the wisdom of a 60+ year old.

Made me smile. You’re very kind, neighbor (Redmond representing).

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#129

Post by bqmjjx0kac »

bruce511 wrote: post #123
klabb3 wrote: post #49

This whole article is great advice for playing the career game, or “how to fit in and not get bullied at school”. Note that it comes at a cost, and that cost may or may not be worth it to you. Note also that playing a game for a long time you forget that you are playing a game, and you start incorporating the rules of the game into your mind. Some people are more resistant to this effect than others, and some people…

>> If you have the privilege to choose what game to play, I recommend picking not by the rewards of the game – but based on how you like the rules of the game. It's kinda both though isn't it? Sure we all want to play the game with the "right rules", but at the same time I also care deeply about the rewards - I want time with the family, I don't want to worry about money every night, and so on. But I agree, rules fir…

> For reference, I've spent my whole career building boring Crud apps in a language you've never heard of.

Well now I have to guess. ColdFusion?

Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)

#130

Post by wrp »

hinkley wrote: post #116
klabb3 wrote: post #49

This whole article is great advice for playing the career game, or “how to fit in and not get bullied at school”. Note that it comes at a cost, and that cost may or may not be worth it to you. Note also that playing a game for a long time you forget that you are playing a game, and you start incorporating the rules of the game into your mind. Some people are more resistant to this effect than others, and some people…

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut

"I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me." - Cary Grant
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