I was kind of shocked at the discrepancy between the reality of working as a programmer at a small company and what one learns about how to "do things right the

I was kind of shocked at the discrepancy between the reality of working as a programmer at a small company and what one learns about how to "do things right the right way" - version control system? What is that? Automated testing? Or even systematic testing? No time, we have to ship the next release! Using global variables sparingly? - Hysterical laughter The important lesson for me was not to despair and not to get all preachy on the other programmers, but to see how to make the best of that situation. And while it was a real pain at times, I was able to be productive and get some real work done. Also, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a sore thumb eventually. Do not stop learning new things. Both for pragmatic reasons, and because it helps keeping it fun. It doesn't mean one should use every shiny new thing out there just because. But without knowing what options you have, making the right choice is not trivial.