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Computer Software Engineer in list of least stressful careers... WTF?

10 points by goldham 16y ago

russell 16y ago
I think so. I like programming, and I work for smaller companies which tend to have reasonable hours. Since the move from waterfall development to agile with releases ever week or two, death marches are a thing of the past. Or have I just had it lucky?
- stretchwithme 16y ago
  I can think of a lot of careers that are far more stressful, careers where real people are dependent on you doing your job fast and well. All we have to do is write code that does its job fast and well. That seems like a lot less stress to me.
  - benologist 16y ago
    Not to mention ergonomic chairs, air conditioning, coffee and messing around on the net all day. Reddit downtime is the most stressful part of my work really.
ajaimk 16y ago
Think you might have read it wrong. This is an article about High-Paying, Low-Stress Jobs which is what is says a CSE is.
- devinj 16y ago
  It mentions game development. Game development has extremely low pay for the amount of stress it causes. I mean, everybody wants to be a game developer. Any prospective developer is screwed by supply and demand and a broken development model that allows for insane crunch time. Or have things changed?
  - benologist 16y ago
    In some senses it has ... it's a lot more viable to be an indie game developer and work from home now - flash, facebook, iphone, android etc ... all have readily achievable barriers for entry.
    - teaspoon 16y ago
      Does that not exacerbate the supply-demand problem?
      - benologist 16y ago
        There's pretty much infinite demand - those markets are enormous and diverse, iphones the smallest I mentioned with a mere 50m potential customers. However it's very easy to make a game that doesn't stand out and doesn't make money.
j_baker 16y ago
I don't necessarily disagree with the article, but it does a very poor job of explaining why programming is low stress, aside from saying that some programmers work from home.
jsz0 16y ago
Programmers and engineers always think they have the most stressful jobs. Nothing new there. Most don't have experience outside of the industry to realize these are fundamental plight of the working man sort of complaints that apply equally to their jobs as they might to a teenager working at a fast food restaurant.
jarek 16y ago
That article was predictably bad, but what really clinched it was the claim that civil engineering jobs are less stressful because projects have long deadlines without giving any consideration to how much time the job actually requires. Somehow I don't think a five-year project with a deadline three years from now is the most stress-free job around.
- potatolicious 16y ago
  Not to mention, the civil engineer's work can't be patched post-release, and tends to have more severe consequences if it's buggy.
  - jarek 16y ago
    Funny you should say, a couple of days after I read http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/ce131/citicorp1.htm http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/ce131/citicorp1.htm via hn: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1325393 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1325393 I agree, though -- being responsible for people's lives has a certain je ne sais quoi when it comes to stress levels.

10 points by goldham 16y ago

I think so. I like programming, and I work for smaller companies which tend to have reasonable hours. Since the move from waterfall development to agile with releases ever week or two, death marches are a thing of the past. Or have I just had it lucky?

stretchwithme 16y ago
I can think of a lot of careers that are far more stressful, careers where real people are dependent on you doing your job fast and well. All we have to do is write code that does its job fast and well. That seems like a lot less stress to me.
- benologist 16y ago
  Not to mention ergonomic chairs, air conditioning, coffee and messing around on the net all day. Reddit downtime is the most stressful part of my work really.

ajaimk 16y ago

Think you might have read it wrong. This is an article about High-Paying, Low-Stress Jobs which is what is says a CSE is.

devinj 16y ago
It mentions game development. Game development has extremely low pay for the amount of stress it causes. I mean, everybody wants to be a game developer. Any prospective developer is screwed by supply and demand and a broken development model that allows for insane crunch time. Or have things changed?
- benologist 16y ago
  In some senses it has ... it's a lot more viable to be an indie game developer and work from home now - flash, facebook, iphone, android etc ... all have readily achievable barriers for entry.
  - teaspoon 16y ago
    Does that not exacerbate the supply-demand problem?
    - benologist 16y ago
      There's pretty much infinite demand - those markets are enormous and diverse, iphones the smallest I mentioned with a mere 50m potential customers. However it's very easy to make a game that doesn't stand out and doesn't make money.

j_baker 16y ago

I don't necessarily disagree with the article, but it does a very poor job of explaining why programming is low stress, aside from saying that some programmers work from home.

jsz0 16y ago

Programmers and engineers always think they have the most stressful jobs. Nothing new there. Most don't have experience outside of the industry to realize these are fundamental plight of the working man sort of complaints that apply equally to their jobs as they might to a teenager working at a fast food restaurant.

jarek 16y ago

That article was predictably bad, but what really clinched it was the claim that civil engineering jobs are less stressful because projects have long deadlines without giving any consideration to how much time the job actually requires. Somehow I don't think a five-year project with a deadline three years from now is the most stress-free job around.

potatolicious 16y ago
Not to mention, the civil engineer's work can't be patched post-release, and tends to have more severe consequences if it's buggy.
- jarek 16y ago
  Funny you should say, a couple of days after I read http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/ce131/citicorp1.htm http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/ce131/citicorp1.htm via hn: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1325393 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1325393 I agree, though -- being responsible for people's lives has a certain je ne sais quoi when it comes to stress levels.