5 ms·

Programming is not a Glamorous Job

24 points by fatalerrorx3 14y ago

dsyph3r 14y ago
I'm not so sure that public percepiton is different. Loads of people I know still think that because I'm a programmer I must be an expert in fixing printers, or formatting spreadsheets.
- avenger123 14y ago
  Totally agree. Just because a movie came out and there is a show about startups doesn't mean its gone mainstream. Far from it. To top it off, what is represented in the media is such a small slice (ie. the startup scene) of what real world software developers do that its almost meaningless.
leugim 14y ago
Programming is funny if you do because you want.
jacques_chester 14y ago
Most lawyers don't fight exciting cases that expose a complex web of deceit. Most police don't get into firefights with mastermind serial killers. The families of martial arts masters have a homocide-by-mobsters rate that is in line with the general population. Aliens do not invade very often. None of these facts make for good entertainment.
- moron4hire 14y ago
  Biggest disappointment of my teenage years: no induction into a secret cadre of American ninjas to go along with my black belt to help our master avenge his murdered wife. I blame it on our instructor not having a murdered wife. Just a wife few would miss if she were.
jamiltron 14y ago
My girlfriend worked in crime scene investigation. I think they probably have it way worse than programmers when it comes to public perception of the job based on shows and movies.
- fatalerrorx3 14y ago
  Good point, and I agree with that lol, being that I used to be a fan of the original CSI series.
TallboyOne 14y ago
I hate these broad sweeping titles on HN. Speak for yourself. I love my job, I work from home in an amazing home office I designed. I filled it with plants, little bonzai trees, art on the wall, inderect lighting for the evenings, and all the best work equipment money can buy. My environment is pretty much an extension of me. I have awesome clients that invite me out for events, I go to programming conferences and have a great time, I can buy pretty much anything I need to (not a rolls royce, or anything that expensive, but anything I realistically need is mine.) and it even sounds cool. I tell people what I do and they're really interested. I can travel whenever, wherever - as long as they have internet and I can bring my laptop. And if you aren't known... then make yourself known. No brainer. It's tricky but not that bad to build a small network, just interact with the people you look up to in your career on twitter, go to events and network, build something that a lot of people use and love. If you love your job you may have quite a lot of failures building this 'thing' but eventually you'll hit on one that people really love. Lastly but not least, its FUN. FUN FUN FUN. I wake up some days at 8am, eager to make some french press coffee, heat up a danish in the microwave and just look at some code. It's really probably the best job in the world I think. Disclosure: I am not a corporate programmer -- I would imagine in that exact scenario you are treated less than you are really worth, so I'm not trying to downplay the frustration I'm sure many of you guys face. I'm talking from my point of view that the statement "programming isnt glamorous" is just silly.
- cwarrior 14y ago
  How many hours do you usually work per week ?
  - TallboyOne 14y ago
    Depends, really. Speaking in terms of hours per day, some days 1-2, some days 12 or more.
- wildmXranat 14y ago
  I agree with your level of enthusiasm. As I am in the same field, I can relate to the bad and the good sides of being a developer/contractor etc. There are downsides and frustrations that I encounter on regular basis, and while I have learned to avoid and cope with them, they do exist. Managing relationships in your team, building a rapport with your management and teammates, delivering products that match or exceed expectations, contribute to the bottom line profit pool and balance it all with a healthy time schedule and proper nutrition. All these can be flipped to be negative, which can turn a career into a miserable chore. Notice that I'm aiming to dissociate the programming aspect from the that list. I believe that a programmer doesn't face a unique set of problems.
banachtarski 14y ago
Being a doctor is also super glamarous. You lead a team of extremely attractive individuals and identify diseases that are as rare as a narwhal. Who the hell ever cared about how TV portrays a job anyways?
dasil003 14y ago
Is this just another form of the lament of geek culture going mainstream? Because the idea that software engineering could or should be represented realistically in media is completely ridiculous. Of course they over-glamorize it because that's what media does. Point me to a profession that is not glamorized, villified or otherwise sensationalized by television and I'll show you a really boring job. So no, programming is not glamorous, but it's a damn good job (at the right companies) if you can get it.
- h2s 14y ago
  It's the ultimate irony. People of all walks of life will tell you that the way their profession is depicted in the media is unrealistic and silly. And yet we all seem to share the equally silly misconception that those who work in the media are attempting to depict us realistically and failing.
kimagure 14y ago
"Most of us are indie programmers" I would think most career programmers work for corporate entities, but neither I nor the author have any statistical evidence presented.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
jcheng 14y ago
I get to work with highly intelligent people, doing work that impacts tens or hundreds of thousands of people. My day-to-day involves taking the most powerful and complex invention in history, and bending it to my will in ever more elegant and sophisticated ways. For my efforts I'm paid X times the average US wage and receive regular kudos from strangers on Twitter and blogs. My friends and family assume I must be a genius to be able to do what I do. On my best, most satisfying days, I'm not so sure they're wrong. I'm just an ordinary programmer at an ordinary startup, but from where I sit this job is amazingly glamorous.
bcl 14y ago
I don't do this for the glamor. I do this for myself and the users. Everything else is gravy.
ErikAugust 14y ago
As someone who worked more than a dozen jobs that no movie has ever depicted as glamorous before becoming a professional programmer, I can say the pay, benefits, relative career security are amazing. Not to mention, the feeling I get from solving problems and creating things others (and myself) find useful (and fun) for a living. Quit programming for a month and work as a menial worker. See how you feel. I dare you.
- stuff4ben 14y ago
  I agree. I've worked as a developer in places from startups to financial institutions to large fortune 100 tech companies. Definitely not glamorous but sure beats working fast food that put me through school 15 years ago. I derive my enjoyment from solving problems using a computer and seeing people who use what I create enjoy what I've created. I definitely didn't do it for any sort of fame or glamor.
  - ErikAugust 14y ago
    Right, and to add: It's an awesome profession: the tiny chance of becoming rich and/or famous coupled with the safe odds of relatively good pay, benefits, job security. Every other "rich/famous" profession is completely all-or-nothing: actors, musicians, artists, athletes, etc...
    - UK-AL 14y ago
      Many other professions allow you become rich. Too become rich as programmer you need to own some part of the company. You can do that in nearly every proffesion.
hsmyers 14y ago
Could be worse. Could be an artist and therefore free to starve to death in a garret any where in the world, so that your agent can become rich when you're dead. Or as others have said, pick your profession. To paraphrase C&W, "What's glamour got to do with it?"
fatalerrorx3 14y ago
Moral of the story: 1and1 VPS Hosting can't handle the HN effect.
- jacques_chester 14y ago
  You may have heard the saying "Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to WordPress".
  - fatalerrorx3 14y ago
    Fixed and all it took was a WP cache plugin, thanks.
nicholasjarnold 14y ago
Stop worrying so much about how other people perceive you and your profession. Anyone worth talking to is going to realize that what they see depicted in a Hollywood film and B(or C)-level shows on Bravo is probably not representative of the vast majority of real experiences in the field. I say stop worrying, not because I simply don't care, but because no matter what we're needed now and will continue to be needed in the future. If public perception sways a bit and begins to define us as 'lazy slacker partiers', then we should just get back to the keyboard and create something. It's just a function of society trying to come to terms with something that many of them don't have the slightest clue about. We all try to categorize the new and unknown using simplistic stereotypes. It's part of how we build mental models of how the world works. With time, people will begin to understand more realistically what we do. Until then, let's just enjoy our relatively high job security, satisfaction and compensation while continuing to push technology forward.
- fatalerrorx3 14y ago
  Good points. What's funny is that by posting this, it's almost like temporary fame, albeit to mostly techies like myself, but none-the-less it's kind of ironic how that happens.
Millennium 14y ago
Most jobs are not glamorous in and of themselves, but can be glamorous for what you do with them. Programming is no different: it's the project, not the job, that makes the glamour.
codgercoder 14y ago
and don't forget the fact that there is new competition coming on the market everyday that is probably paid a tenth as much as you are.
codgercoder 14y ago
I agree that glamorizing programming is not particularly helpful, except that coder-entrepreneurs can get more attention from venture capital. Glamorizing programming, along with the app-stores, is pushing the independent programming business into a "blockbuster" mentality, a winner-take-all situation where a small number of practitioners do very well and most don't ever make their development money back. Thanks, Steve Jobs!
demian 14y ago
Why not embrace it? It's not all negative. God knows that, as well as other STEM careers, we need less social stigma.
ExpiredLink 14y ago
"Why a career in computer programming sucks" http://www.halfsigma.com/2007/03/why_a_career_in.html http://www.halfsigma.com/2007/03/why_a_career_in.html
BjoernKW 14y ago
Well, so is being a lawyer or a doctor. Those jobs aren't what TV series and movies would have us believe either. Most lawyers don't try high-profile murder cases. Most doctors don't save countless lives during their day-to-day work. Even the most glamourous job of all - being a rock star - isn't really all that glamourous if you take a closer look at it. Those rock stars who ultimately love what they do and hence take their work seriously have to work very hard and be very disciplined to make it. Same thing applies to programmers. Sure, most programming jobs are in a corporate environment and working in such an environment can suck quite a bit. However, the more your work sucks the more potential there is for actually changing something for the better, even more so if you're a programmer. Programmers can create wonderful designs and feats of engineering with little more than a bright mind and a computer.

24 points by fatalerrorx3 14y ago

I'm not so sure that public percepiton is different. Loads of people I know still think that because I'm a programmer I must be an expert in fixing printers, or formatting spreadsheets.

avenger123 14y ago
Totally agree. Just because a movie came out and there is a show about startups doesn't mean its gone mainstream. Far from it. To top it off, what is represented in the media is such a small slice (ie. the startup scene) of what real world software developers do that its almost meaningless.

leugim 14y ago

Programming is funny if you do because you want.

jacques_chester 14y ago

Most lawyers don't fight exciting cases that expose a complex web of deceit. Most police don't get into firefights with mastermind serial killers. The families of martial arts masters have a homocide-by-mobsters rate that is in line with the general population. Aliens do not invade very often. None of these facts make for good entertainment.

moron4hire 14y ago
Biggest disappointment of my teenage years: no induction into a secret cadre of American ninjas to go along with my black belt to help our master avenge his murdered wife. I blame it on our instructor not having a murdered wife. Just a wife few would miss if she were.

jamiltron 14y ago

My girlfriend worked in crime scene investigation. I think they probably have it way worse than programmers when it comes to public perception of the job based on shows and movies.

fatalerrorx3 14y ago
Good point, and I agree with that lol, being that I used to be a fan of the original CSI series.

TallboyOne 14y ago

I hate these broad sweeping titles on HN. Speak for yourself. I love my job, I work from home in an amazing home office I designed. I filled it with plants, little bonzai trees, art on the wall, inderect lighting for the evenings, and all the best work equipment money can buy. My environment is pretty much an extension of me. I have awesome clients that invite me out for events, I go to programming conferences and have a great time, I can buy pretty much anything I need to (not a rolls royce, or anything that expensive, but anything I realistically need is mine.) and it even sounds cool. I tell people what I do and they're really interested. I can travel whenever, wherever - as long as they have internet and I can bring my laptop. And if you aren't known... then make yourself known. No brainer. It's tricky but not that bad to build a small network, just interact with the people you look up to in your career on twitter, go to events and network, build something that a lot of people use and love. If you love your job you may have quite a lot of failures building this 'thing' but eventually you'll hit on one that people really love. Lastly but not least, its FUN. FUN FUN FUN. I wake up some days at 8am, eager to make some french press coffee, heat up a danish in the microwave and just look at some code. It's really probably the best job in the world I think. Disclosure: I am not a corporate programmer -- I would imagine in that exact scenario you are treated less than you are really worth, so I'm not trying to downplay the frustration I'm sure many of you guys face. I'm talking from my point of view that the statement "programming isnt glamorous" is just silly.

cwarrior 14y ago
How many hours do you usually work per week ?
- TallboyOne 14y ago
  Depends, really. Speaking in terms of hours per day, some days 1-2, some days 12 or more.
wildmXranat 14y ago
I agree with your level of enthusiasm. As I am in the same field, I can relate to the bad and the good sides of being a developer/contractor etc. There are downsides and frustrations that I encounter on regular basis, and while I have learned to avoid and cope with them, they do exist. Managing relationships in your team, building a rapport with your management and teammates, delivering products that match or exceed expectations, contribute to the bottom line profit pool and balance it all with a healthy time schedule and proper nutrition. All these can be flipped to be negative, which can turn a career into a miserable chore. Notice that I'm aiming to dissociate the programming aspect from the that list. I believe that a programmer doesn't face a unique set of problems.

banachtarski 14y ago

Being a doctor is also super glamarous. You lead a team of extremely attractive individuals and identify diseases that are as rare as a narwhal. Who the hell ever cared about how TV portrays a job anyways?

dasil003 14y ago

Is this just another form of the lament of geek culture going mainstream? Because the idea that software engineering could or should be represented realistically in media is completely ridiculous. Of course they over-glamorize it because that's what media does. Point me to a profession that is not glamorized, villified or otherwise sensationalized by television and I'll show you a really boring job. So no, programming is not glamorous, but it's a damn good job (at the right companies) if you can get it.

h2s 14y ago
It's the ultimate irony. People of all walks of life will tell you that the way their profession is depicted in the media is unrealistic and silly. And yet we all seem to share the equally silly misconception that those who work in the media are attempting to depict us realistically and failing.

kimagure 14y ago

"Most of us are indie programmers" I would think most career programmers work for corporate entities, but neither I nor the author have any statistical evidence presented.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

jcheng 14y ago

I get to work with highly intelligent people, doing work that impacts tens or hundreds of thousands of people. My day-to-day involves taking the most powerful and complex invention in history, and bending it to my will in ever more elegant and sophisticated ways. For my efforts I'm paid X times the average US wage and receive regular kudos from strangers on Twitter and blogs. My friends and family assume I must be a genius to be able to do what I do. On my best, most satisfying days, I'm not so sure they're wrong. I'm just an ordinary programmer at an ordinary startup, but from where I sit this job is amazingly glamorous.

bcl 14y ago

I don't do this for the glamor. I do this for myself and the users. Everything else is gravy.

ErikAugust 14y ago

As someone who worked more than a dozen jobs that no movie has ever depicted as glamorous before becoming a professional programmer, I can say the pay, benefits, relative career security are amazing. Not to mention, the feeling I get from solving problems and creating things others (and myself) find useful (and fun) for a living. Quit programming for a month and work as a menial worker. See how you feel. I dare you.

stuff4ben 14y ago
I agree. I've worked as a developer in places from startups to financial institutions to large fortune 100 tech companies. Definitely not glamorous but sure beats working fast food that put me through school 15 years ago. I derive my enjoyment from solving problems using a computer and seeing people who use what I create enjoy what I've created. I definitely didn't do it for any sort of fame or glamor.
- ErikAugust 14y ago
  Right, and to add: It's an awesome profession: the tiny chance of becoming rich and/or famous coupled with the safe odds of relatively good pay, benefits, job security. Every other "rich/famous" profession is completely all-or-nothing: actors, musicians, artists, athletes, etc...
  - UK-AL 14y ago
    Many other professions allow you become rich. Too become rich as programmer you need to own some part of the company. You can do that in nearly every proffesion.

hsmyers 14y ago

Could be worse. Could be an artist and therefore free to starve to death in a garret any where in the world, so that your agent can become rich when you're dead. Or as others have said, pick your profession. To paraphrase C&W, "What's glamour got to do with it?"

fatalerrorx3 14y ago

Moral of the story: 1and1 VPS Hosting can't handle the HN effect.

jacques_chester 14y ago
You may have heard the saying "Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to WordPress".
- fatalerrorx3 14y ago
  Fixed and all it took was a WP cache plugin, thanks.

nicholasjarnold 14y ago

Stop worrying so much about how other people perceive you and your profession. Anyone worth talking to is going to realize that what they see depicted in a Hollywood film and B(or C)-level shows on Bravo is probably not representative of the vast majority of real experiences in the field. I say stop worrying, not because I simply don't care, but because no matter what we're needed now and will continue to be needed in the future. If public perception sways a bit and begins to define us as 'lazy slacker partiers', then we should just get back to the keyboard and create something. It's just a function of society trying to come to terms with something that many of them don't have the slightest clue about. We all try to categorize the new and unknown using simplistic stereotypes. It's part of how we build mental models of how the world works. With time, people will begin to understand more realistically what we do. Until then, let's just enjoy our relatively high job security, satisfaction and compensation while continuing to push technology forward.

fatalerrorx3 14y ago
Good points. What's funny is that by posting this, it's almost like temporary fame, albeit to mostly techies like myself, but none-the-less it's kind of ironic how that happens.

Millennium 14y ago

Most jobs are not glamorous in and of themselves, but can be glamorous for what you do with them. Programming is no different: it's the project, not the job, that makes the glamour.

codgercoder 14y ago

and don't forget the fact that there is new competition coming on the market everyday that is probably paid a tenth as much as you are.

codgercoder 14y ago

I agree that glamorizing programming is not particularly helpful, except that coder-entrepreneurs can get more attention from venture capital. Glamorizing programming, along with the app-stores, is pushing the independent programming business into a "blockbuster" mentality, a winner-take-all situation where a small number of practitioners do very well and most don't ever make their development money back. Thanks, Steve Jobs!

demian 14y ago

Why not embrace it? It's not all negative. God knows that, as well as other STEM careers, we need less social stigma.

ExpiredLink 14y ago

"Why a career in computer programming sucks" http://www.halfsigma.com/2007/03/why_a_career_in.html http://www.halfsigma.com/2007/03/why_a_career_in.html

BjoernKW 14y ago

Well, so is being a lawyer or a doctor. Those jobs aren't what TV series and movies would have us believe either. Most lawyers don't try high-profile murder cases. Most doctors don't save countless lives during their day-to-day work. Even the most glamourous job of all - being a rock star - isn't really all that glamourous if you take a closer look at it. Those rock stars who ultimately love what they do and hence take their work seriously have to work very hard and be very disciplined to make it. Same thing applies to programmers. Sure, most programming jobs are in a corporate environment and working in such an environment can suck quite a bit. However, the more your work sucks the more potential there is for actually changing something for the better, even more so if you're a programmer. Programmers can create wonderful designs and feats of engineering with little more than a bright mind and a computer.