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What If You Could Do It All Over?

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Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#11

Post by courtf »

api wrote: post #4
person_of_color wrote: post #2

Definitely not be a software engineer. No one told me how incredibly low the social status is. EDIT: I guess it was suspicious that 99% of my high school circle picked law or finance or business courses instead.

Hah. Nope. A career where you can make money and move up over time is not low status. Try being a blue collar member of the working poor, or someone deep in debt from a useless degree working a dead end service job. Software is a very cushy job compared with what more than half this country has.

I've done those things, and so has my husband. Not sure either of us would go back, but software has some uniquely frustrating aspects and tends to attract a certain type of oblivious, entitled asshole. You get real tired of fiddling with tiny complicated things for hours on end while some puffed up middle management bro breaths down your neck. I've thought more than once about going back to serving drinks at the bars, but I guess I have higher aspirations now. Sort of a blessing and a curse.

Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#12

Post by Nav_Panel »

person_of_color wrote: post #2

Definitely not be a software engineer. No one told me how incredibly low the social status is. EDIT: I guess it was suspicious that 99% of my high school circle picked law or finance or business courses instead.

Status is always relative to social context. I'm sorry you feel that way about your place in whatever your local social world is.

Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#13

Post by spacechild1 »

telesilla wrote: post #3
person_of_color wrote: post #2

Definitely not be a software engineer. No one told me how incredibly low the social status is. EDIT: I guess it was suspicious that 99% of my high school circle picked law or finance or business courses instead.

Couldn't you build something beautiful and useful and add to the world's treasures? That's not the mark of a low status person.

How many software developers actually get a chance to “add to the world's treasures“? Building yet another CRUD web app doesn't meet the definition in my book. I'm not saying it's not possible, but you have to be rather lucky.

Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#14

Post by phnofive »

person_of_color wrote: post #6
api wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. Nope. A career where you can make money and move up over time is not low status. Try being a blue collar member of the working poor, or someone deep in debt from a useless degree working a dead end service job. Software is a very cushy job compared with what more than half this country has.

It's the lowest of the white collar jobs.

I think it may be on the lower end for a number of reasons which lead back to the low barrier to entry - there’s no need to pay your dues with a decade of schooling, in hundreds of thousands in tuition, and to professional associations, state boards of licensure, or both.

However, there are crappy doctors and architects - just like there are famous software engineers. Prestige - outside the ingroup - is a function of the accessibility, value, and quality of your work. Like the Taiwanese folks who built a mask availability tracker...

Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#15

Post by ronyeh »

person_of_color wrote: post #2

Definitely not be a software engineer. No one told me how incredibly low the social status is. EDIT: I guess it was suspicious that 99% of my high school circle picked law or finance or business courses instead.

Upvoted though I disagree with you. I'm sure there is a wide variance of outcomes in software, but I think if you work at it, you can make a fulfilling career out of software. Don't give up, as it is possible your current job just isn't a right fit for you.

Counter anecdote: I know law and finance and business folks who wished they studied more computers.

Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#17

Post by quickthrower2 »

It’s worth thinking about how we measure how “good” a life is and if that is superficial and too much influenced by fashion. For example the cliche is go travelling or get rich starting a business. “I raised kids” doesn’t have the same boastworthyness in a lot of circles, but arguably it’s more interesting. Or maybe not. What’s the life well lived metric?

Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#18

Post by konjin »

person_of_color wrote: post #2

Definitely not be a software engineer. No one told me how incredibly low the social status is. EDIT: I guess it was suspicious that 99% of my high school circle picked law or finance or business courses instead.

Just curious what do you think a high social status position is and what does that entail?

Re: What If You Could Do It All Over?

#19

Post by Tade0 »

person_of_color wrote: post #2

Definitely not be a software engineer. No one told me how incredibly low the social status is. EDIT: I guess it was suspicious that 99% of my high school circle picked law or finance or business courses instead.

Care to elaborate?

I find this take really interesting, because my (and my peers') experience so far has been very different.

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