What is the best part about being a Software Engineer?

Post by goldbrick » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:04 PM UTC

Flashuk100 wrote: post #29

jon-wood wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like people overstate just how massive the divide between SF unicorns and everywhere else is. While I admit I'm not on the 100k+ salaries of the big five, I'm definitely not struggling and pulling all nighters - I work 8 hours a day, 90% of the time from home, with the odd evening of working on something if I'm particularly into it. For that I get paid a decent salary for my area, get to do a job I find intere…

As a comp sci student up north, are the salaries in London worth the hassle of living in London? Don't get me wrong I like visiting London, but I wouldn't want to live there unless the incentive is too good to pass up.

Post by pc86 » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:05 PM UTC

PaulRobinson wrote: post #107

Software engineering is not a flat domain. I work in a web-based e-commerce outfit with 30+ other SEs who are all really into their work, smart, and committed to doing the Right Thing. This is a good gig. If I was working on a COBOL app on a mainframe where all the documentation was in German - and I was offered the chance to interview for that gig just a year ago - I doubt I would have as much fun. As a Ruby/Go/Rust…

Post by ak39 » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:11 PM UTC

epalmer wrote: post #88

I don't develop more than 30% of my time but I love it none-the-less. I'm 62 years old. I find software architecting, developing, and operational troubleshooting to be fun, requires a holistic view of a problem set, requires creative problem solving and more. I find development an outlet to create (make) stuff. I work at a university on the east coast of the USA and am on a high performing team that has not lost a me…

Post by maxerickson » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:15 PM UTC

lostcolony wrote: post #117

vitno wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, you get payed far more. A steelworker in 1975 made on average $7.11.[1] This is about $31.47 in 2016 dollars. Not bad at all, but I'm still guessing you make more. [1] http://articles.mcall.com/1985-07-19/news/2489404_1_steel-in...

Really? 31.47 * 52 (weeks) * 5 (days a week) * 24 (hours a day) = $196,372. In some place other than San Francisco (so pretty much guaranteed lower cost of living). Plus benefits, overtime, much lower likelihood of losing one's job, a pension...

Post by dkopi » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:18 PM UTC

naivepiano wrote: post #94

askyourmother wrote: post #16

For me, the best part is interviewing for new jobs. You have not lived till you are asked to reverse sort a binary tree, whilst skipping on one leg, having to show you are passionate about the job! The disappointment was that the actual job did not entail data structures, Algorithms or even skipping! Just CRUD web apps.

OMG I remember interviewing for a company asking all the right questions and talking about nice tech stacks and whatnot. People were nice too. Then I got an offer and I accepted it. First day in the job I figure that their main tech/language was TCL (of course they never mentioned it in the interviews). Stayed 2 weeks and went off running. The possibility of being stuck with some backwater tech killing off your futur…