4 ms·

Do you / commenters here really “enjoy” programming as a career as much as when they first had enough skill and enthusiasm to build things? I think this is a b

Do you / commenters here really “enjoy” programming as a career as much as when they first had enough skill and enthusiasm to build things? I think this is a big misconception among devs with less than five years of exp.

faanghacker 7y ago
I started programming when I was 11. Taught myself C++ from that age. Solved tons of tough problems in personal and school projects before going into industry at age 22. Now at 35, I definitely think it's time to move on. I won't lie about my lack of interest in the field. The problems are less difficult to solve, but also much more frustrating. A lot more black boxes that you can't reverse engineer when you get stuck. Working with other people in a big company means things move far slower than my ability to get things done. Plus the proliferation of different tech stacks means that despite the big job market, most of the new jobs require specific knowledge that I don't have, and my existing experience with low level coding and problem solving don't carry much weight.
- randomidiot666 7y ago
  > Plus the proliferation of different tech stacks means that despite the big job market, most of the new jobs require specific knowledge that I don't have, and my existing experience with low level coding and problem solving don't carry much weight. None of those jobs _require_ specific knowledge upfront. The problem is clueless fuckwits in HR filtering out CVs based on keywords. General problem solving ability and knowledge of fundamentals means you can actually learn any of the latest shitty frameworks in a few hours on the job.
- CheesecakeFred 7y ago
  >The problems are less difficult to solve, but also much more frustrating. A lot more black boxes that you can't reverse engineer when you get stuck. Working with other people in a big company means things move far slower than my ability to get things done. The part about black boxes you get stuck on strongly resonates with me. Programming can be a lot of fun, when you can rely on your own, or well documented programming. But enter the world of development in big companies where everything specification never leaves alpha phase, is done in retrospect, only on request, 3 month later then needed and if missing half of the absolutely needed information is the best case, it's just so miserable.
wolco 7y ago
I still do but I work in php. Depends on your stack. Things just kept getting better for me. I was using it before and after the peak and it is still much larger than it initially was. But hate
xwdv 7y ago
“Programming” is not a career, it’s a function of the job. It’s like saying all a woodworker does is cut wood. No, a woodworker builds furniture, a developer develops applications. It helps to think of pure programmers as assemblymen working on a factory floor, nothing more nothing less.
- algaeontoast 7y ago
  To clarify, by "programming" I meant the act of working in a mostly technical role and writing code / architecting systems. The contrary would be working as a PM, TPM or other product / strategy focused position.
scarface74 7y ago
Yes and no. I like building things involving computers. I started programming as a hobby in the mid 80s when I was 12 in BASIC and 65C02 assembly. I don’t think I’ve done a pure hobby project since graduating from college in 1996. I got bored with “programming” about 4 years ago and I belatedly discovered “the cloud” and started moving into more architectural roles I enjoy being able to do the full stack [1] and jump back and forth between the different parts without having to worry about either the infrastructure gatekeepers[2] or having to wait for resources. Any resource I need is just a yaml file or script away. I also enjoy the force multiplier affect of being able to lead projects. [1] full stack: front end, middleware, databases, CI/CD, CloudFormation templates, network configuration, etc. [2] yes at a larger company I would expect to have access to a Dev account to play around with and get my infrastructure as code templates approved.
distantaidenn 7y ago
I'm actually writing an article on this now. My career in web development started over a decade ago. I'm done with it. I'm currently moving on to specialized interests (theory, ML, and BI). As for keeping up my chops, I've also switched to mobile and desktop development, as they aren't such a moving target and it's just so much more pleasant. Web technologies were fun when I started back in the late 90s early 2000s. Learn the basics, build a server from scratch, throw a few languages and frameworks under your belt, and you were good to go. Of course, you can still build things simply, but good luck getting hired without the latest arcane tech stack in your resume (that will no doubt be forgotten in a few years). In addition, web development skills have become a worldwide commodity. I am done with the web.
mech422 7y ago
I read years ago (on here I think..) the average programmer switches careers after 10 years. If you make it past that, you're probably in it for the long haul... One thing I think a lot of us forget is how _lucky_ we are to be working on interesting projects/tech. I started my career as a maintenance coder and if I had continued doing that, I never would have lasted this long... And yes, though not as often as I used to, I still have times when I have to scratch a particular itch for 24 hours straight or I have to jump out of the shower to test something that just popped in my head :-)
allo37 7y ago
It's funny, when I started I found programming tedious and thought that writing some software with 100 layers of abstractions so computers can talk to other computers was boring and soul-sucking. I liked designing small embedded systems that actually did something in real life with a simple program in C or C++ driving the whole thing. Then one thing led to another and I got a job more on the pure software side of things, and realized as long as there is some interesting problem to solve it's really not so bad what the end application is. I find a lot of these comments are depressing. I feel like no matter how complicated the stack becomes, computers are made by humans and therefore can be understood by other humans. I always pity people working in medicine who have to debug what seems like a proof-of-concept that has been endlessly patched by evolution for the past few million years into a working product. But hey, I only have 5-ish years experience working full time as an engineer so I guess I'm still a baby. I wonder how I'll feel about all this 15 years down the road.

faanghacker 7y ago

I started programming when I was 11. Taught myself C++ from that age. Solved tons of tough problems in personal and school projects before going into industry at age 22. Now at 35, I definitely think it's time to move on. I won't lie about my lack of interest in the field. The problems are less difficult to solve, but also much more frustrating. A lot more black boxes that you can't reverse engineer when you get stuck. Working with other people in a big company means things move far slower than my ability to get things done. Plus the proliferation of different tech stacks means that despite the big job market, most of the new jobs require specific knowledge that I don't have, and my existing experience with low level coding and problem solving don't carry much weight.

randomidiot666 7y ago
> Plus the proliferation of different tech stacks means that despite the big job market, most of the new jobs require specific knowledge that I don't have, and my existing experience with low level coding and problem solving don't carry much weight. None of those jobs _require_ specific knowledge upfront. The problem is clueless fuckwits in HR filtering out CVs based on keywords. General problem solving ability and knowledge of fundamentals means you can actually learn any of the latest shitty frameworks in a few hours on the job.
CheesecakeFred 7y ago
>The problems are less difficult to solve, but also much more frustrating. A lot more black boxes that you can't reverse engineer when you get stuck. Working with other people in a big company means things move far slower than my ability to get things done. The part about black boxes you get stuck on strongly resonates with me. Programming can be a lot of fun, when you can rely on your own, or well documented programming. But enter the world of development in big companies where everything specification never leaves alpha phase, is done in retrospect, only on request, 3 month later then needed and if missing half of the absolutely needed information is the best case, it's just so miserable.

wolco 7y ago

I still do but I work in php. Depends on your stack. Things just kept getting better for me. I was using it before and after the peak and it is still much larger than it initially was. But hate

xwdv 7y ago

“Programming” is not a career, it’s a function of the job. It’s like saying all a woodworker does is cut wood. No, a woodworker builds furniture, a developer develops applications. It helps to think of pure programmers as assemblymen working on a factory floor, nothing more nothing less.

algaeontoast 7y ago
To clarify, by "programming" I meant the act of working in a mostly technical role and writing code / architecting systems. The contrary would be working as a PM, TPM or other product / strategy focused position.

scarface74 7y ago

Yes and no. I like building things involving computers. I started programming as a hobby in the mid 80s when I was 12 in BASIC and 65C02 assembly. I don’t think I’ve done a pure hobby project since graduating from college in 1996. I got bored with “programming” about 4 years ago and I belatedly discovered “the cloud” and started moving into more architectural roles I enjoy being able to do the full stack [1] and jump back and forth between the different parts without having to worry about either the infrastructure gatekeepers[2] or having to wait for resources. Any resource I need is just a yaml file or script away. I also enjoy the force multiplier affect of being able to lead projects. [1] full stack: front end, middleware, databases, CI/CD, CloudFormation templates, network configuration, etc. [2] yes at a larger company I would expect to have access to a Dev account to play around with and get my infrastructure as code templates approved.

distantaidenn 7y ago

I'm actually writing an article on this now. My career in web development started over a decade ago. I'm done with it. I'm currently moving on to specialized interests (theory, ML, and BI). As for keeping up my chops, I've also switched to mobile and desktop development, as they aren't such a moving target and it's just so much more pleasant. Web technologies were fun when I started back in the late 90s early 2000s. Learn the basics, build a server from scratch, throw a few languages and frameworks under your belt, and you were good to go. Of course, you can still build things simply, but good luck getting hired without the latest arcane tech stack in your resume (that will no doubt be forgotten in a few years). In addition, web development skills have become a worldwide commodity. I am done with the web.

mech422 7y ago

I read years ago (on here I think..) the average programmer switches careers after 10 years. If you make it past that, you're probably in it for the long haul... One thing I think a lot of us forget is how _lucky_ we are to be working on interesting projects/tech. I started my career as a maintenance coder and if I had continued doing that, I never would have lasted this long... And yes, though not as often as I used to, I still have times when I have to scratch a particular itch for 24 hours straight or I have to jump out of the shower to test something that just popped in my head :-)

allo37 7y ago

It's funny, when I started I found programming tedious and thought that writing some software with 100 layers of abstractions so computers can talk to other computers was boring and soul-sucking. I liked designing small embedded systems that actually did something in real life with a simple program in C or C++ driving the whole thing. Then one thing led to another and I got a job more on the pure software side of things, and realized as long as there is some interesting problem to solve it's really not so bad what the end application is. I find a lot of these comments are depressing. I feel like no matter how complicated the stack becomes, computers are made by humans and therefore can be understood by other humans. I always pity people working in medicine who have to debug what seems like a proof-of-concept that has been endlessly patched by evolution for the past few million years into a working product. But hey, I only have 5-ish years experience working full time as an engineer so I guess I'm still a baby. I wonder how I'll feel about all this 15 years down the road.