I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
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I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
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Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#2It's weird because I have met very, very few IT workers who aren't happy with their jobs. Maybe they'd rather be working for themselves or would change something about the process that's used but most people I know fundamentally love the work. I'll admit though in these times when I feel like I have slightly fewer options I tend to feel more upset about little things that I would otherwise let slide but I try to keep that in check. I can't speak for other professionals inside the IT umbrella but I love programming and most other programmers I know love it too.
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#3Fuckers need to try cleaning chemical reactors.
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#4Fuckers need to try cleaning chemical reactors.
Could you go into more detail? That sounds pretty interesting.
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#5I absolutely love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else.
However...I have had very few jobs where I was happy. I think there are 2 primary reasons.
1. I want to work on what I want to work on. When I work on anything else, all I can think about is what I really want to work on. In a job situation, I rarely work on what I want. (OTOH, a job that has me working on what I want is usually a great job.)
2. I want to work when I want to work. Sometimes, 8 to 5 works, often it doesn't. We were simply not meant to sit in cubicles without windows all day long. Enough said.
There are lots of other things most of us don't like (difficult people, crappy code to maintain, poor management, difficult deadlines, etc.), but those are all part of the territory. I could live with them if I could work on what I want when I want.
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#6Unless you are passionate about programming you are never going to enjoy programming. I have been programming for the past 19 years. I am a fanatic programmer. I have to code every day (learn new frameworks, try out different algorithms, come up with problems and write code which solves those problems, optimize your earlier code, redesign or rearchitect, try out code project samples etc). Again you will really enjoy if you are going to do what you wanted and that to solving challenging problems. I can code even when I am 70.
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#7I think he confuses unhappiness with annoyance. Let me give a real world example.
Almost everyone has been in line for an ATM at one time or another and been stuck behind someone who clearly can't comprehend the machine. It's very annoying. If you talk to a person waiting in line under those circumstances they will seem like an unhappy person. But talk to them once they are on their way and they'll not only seem happy but probably hold no ill will towards the person who couldn't grasp the machine (because they realize the person had no malice they just couldn't do that paticular task).
To me that's a little what IT is like. You catch someone in the middle of fixing a few seemingly stupid mistakes or after a day filled with them and they'll seem unhappy.
Same with programming. Nothing's more annoying then spending a half hour tracking down a problem only to find someone didn't increment in a loop (or some other stupid mistake). But given time the rational mind kicks in, realizes everyone makes mistakes, and is back to being happy with their job.
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#8It's a living-to-work vs working-to-live question, really.
As it turns out, far more people choose to compartmentalize their work-life into an annoying, necessary evil than to dial back their standard of living while dramatically increasing their work responsibilities.
And this is true of more than just programmers. I've heard similar from accountants, lawyers, cooks, bank reps -- basically everyone I've ever worked with.
They'd all much rather do the sort of work they're currently doing, but at a smaller company or on their own. They just never make a change because, in the end, they value the increased leisure time and higher standard of living more.
(To be fair, in the US some aspects of our economy also have a big impact on that choice. Namely, retirement and insurance opportunities that don't really exist for the self-employed and small businesses.)
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#9Fuckers need to try cleaning chemical reactors.
Could you go into more detail? That sounds pretty interesting.
Depends on the size. Small ones might be removed from their housings, and a worker basically crouches inside cleaning it manually with gloves + gasmask. The one advantage of work like that is seeing yourself accomplish something in a known unit of time. The disadvantage is that it is horrible work, compared to sitting and typing and having a vague sense of ennui.
Re: I've met very very few IT workers who are happy with their jobs
#10Fuckers need to try cleaning chemical reactors.
Could you go into more detail? That sounds pretty interesting.
About 16 years ago, as I was shoveling ice in the back of a freezer trailer, burying fish, cold, miserable, smelly, wet, freezing my ass off, I had a thought: Sell out? A nice office job? Sounds freakin great!