The author has less than 5 years in the industry. He is still in his engineering honeymoon. In 5 more years ask him how it is going.
5 years seems like enough time Working at MacDonalds for 1 month must be awfull
What's wrong with working at McDonald's? I worked there for a few years and I mostly enjoyed it, the only problem was the low pay. The restaurant I worked at was very well managed so we operated like a well oiled machine and our customers were happy.
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…
> Nobody cares if I'm a few minutes late in as long as I make stand-up. I see this sentiment a lot. What is HN's aversion to showing up to work on time?
I'm pretty sure that a significant portion of programmers are night owls and don't like showing up before 10 AM.
When I was at school we had to interview our headmaster, and somebody asked him if he thought his job was difficult. His answer has always stayed with me: "Compared to lying on a beach drinking cocktails, it's difficult. But compared to a coal miner, it's ridiculously easy." Would I rather be a software developer - even one who is building boring CRUD apps - or a coal miner?
I've never mined coal, but I did fly-in/fly-out work at coal mines surveying, and compared to coding it had the following benefits: - way better pay (not everywhere pays developers like the US) - kept me in shape - I slept a lot better during that job - satisfaction of jobs completed (no maintenance for topo data) - no micromanagment, open plan offices, daily stand-ups - predictable, stable working hours - etc. etc.…
You bring up a really interesting point. My partner does both project management and sound tech work. "I love it when the gigs go well, but good or bad, at the end of the night I get paid for the gig, I come home, and I don't ever have to think about it again if I don't want to."
My job is definitely easier than a 1930s immigrant coal miner's. Is it easier than a 2016 coal miner's? Probably. Maybe. Is it easier than a furniture mover's? No, but it pays a lot more. Is it easier than a 1970s steelworker's? Certainly not, and it actually pays less.
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...
They are barely worth the hassle of relocating from Poland to London. High rent eats up almost all of the gain.
How's that? You net maybe 2-2.5k pounds per month contracting in Warsaw, and 8k for an equivalent job in London. Rent and commute in London is maybe 1k more than in Warsaw.
I get 1500 pounds net per month in Warsaw with 2 years of experience. For London (according to numbeo.com) I would have to make at least 4500 pounds net to have comparable lifestyle. That's 80k pounds per year before taxes - AFAIK not feasible for someone with my experience.
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.
Yeah, but If I had to reverse a linked list without recursion to be hired, I'll be damned if I'm going to allow someone else to be hired without doing that.
put it in a stack then take it back out, first in last out.
I've never been a coal miner, but there is some sort of satisfaction in working with your hands that you don't quite get being a corporate coder.
There's also the black lung that you don't quite get being a corporate coder. I think it's very easy for people who aren't working with their hands every day to sit back and talk about the 'satisfaction' you get. You may get that if you go and do it for a day. When you're doing it every day you're destroying your back, knees, your hands end up cut and calloused, and you're exhausted. And the 'satisfaction' probably d…
I worked a manual labor job (installing industrial epoxy flooring). I distinctly remember being too tired to go to a friend's barbecue on a Friday after working a job 9 days straight, and dust boogers can surely not be a healthy indicator. I'm not sure it's something I'd want to do for years on end (I worked it as a summer job during college), but there's something to be said about the satisfaction. There's less stress involved on a day to day basis. Nearly every day you go home tired, but satisfied you did something tangible. Only very rarely did things go wrong to the point where little or negative progress was made on a project- which I don't find to be the case in software. Seeing a 60,000sqft floor I'd help complete turn out perfect after sweating for a week is comparable to solving a particularly vexing bug, only more tangible. And I made about the same amount as a union laborer as I did in my first developer job.
In many companies the algo part is like 1/4th of the entire interview. The rest like code design, working with product simulations and coding challenges are pretty relevant, even in CRUD land Its just the algo stuff you usually have to review before hand vs all the others
'Its just the algo stuff you usually have to review before hand vs all the others' There's the problem. If it's something you have to review, it's not something you use that often. Unless the job is going to have you using it often, why is everyone's time being squandered on it?
I guess the problem is you need it infrequently but when you do need it it is really helpful to know.
Yeah, but If I had to reverse a linked list without recursion to be hired, I'll be damned if I'm going to allow someone else to be hired without doing that.
put it in a stack then take it back out, first in last out.
Follow up is usually: now do that with O(1) memory.