My experience has gone against this. I went through a few companies, some better than others and some in more interesting spaces than others. I ended up going

My experience has gone against this. I went through a few companies, some better than others and some in more interesting spaces than others. I ended up going back to a different company in the field I found most interesting (energy/environment), and it was very much the right choice. A lot of comments here say the most important thing is getting on with your colleagues, and I would say that I think interesting work makes that more likely. If everyone is sold on the direction of the company, then they're more likely to pull together and take pride in their work. Lowever levels of politicking that way too. Zooming out a little: lots of programmers here, right? Isn't it great getting paid to muck around with computers?