Programming as a career

Can we swap careers? Because I can tell you that doing IT support for 15 years has sucked way more than I imagine being a programmer would have.

xp the zuck is definitely portrayed as an asshole in The Social Network, but his attitude toward those twins was basically otm and well aligned with your feelings I am guessing.

Programmers are the magicians of the modern age

― calstars, Sunday, June 8, 2014 2:36 PM

I wish I had have given up on both attempts at programming and IT careers long before they happened

On my desk at work I have five (count 'em) Blackberrys rebuilding while I curse the chimps who made BES.

I wish I had have given up on both attempts at programming and IT careers long before they happened

otm

i'd love to know what i was doing now in the alternate universe where i never thought "spending every evening staring at the computer" was in any way sufficient grounding for an attempted (flunked) CS degree or IT career

I'm going to be doing a lot less programming per se, after finally having mastered Windows desktop app development (after yeeeears of mostly-backend web development and deployment) I have accepted a position as an enterprise service bus developer. So I'll be connecting services and defining queues and working with project teams to determine how to hook their projects up to the ecosystem.

fwiw I don't think I've ever felt a business client was dumb, although moments where they might not understand the concepts they're asking for me to implement has definitely happened

I wish all the luck to anyone having a rough time of it with their job, though!

hi guys

do u mind not bumping this thread the week I go back to 14 hr days studying evenings in computer science PS yr new job sounds boss mh

computer science is awesome and is not just programming so you are good

feel like programming is better than it used to be. wish we'd had unit tests and code reviews when i was a programmer, i wouldn't have sucked so bad.

my coworker is annoyed because I get to move back to a cubicle from our team cave and will no longer be on a scrum team

actually I'm taking the cube he had before we moved in here. muahaha

friend just moved to california because he was hired by facebook.

said friend, for as long as i've known him, used to have socialist and even some anarchist tendencies, used only debian, hated microsoft, loved open source, liked kernel programming, turned down a job at google, and was just generally super geeky.

i guess this is what fatherhood does to a man?

yup, makes you sell out and suck

feel like if u guys h8 programming so much u shd at least move to ca and make bank

nah i just dropped out of college instead and had a miserable life instead

*cutcutcut*

xp one could conceivably end up in san jose or something. is it worth the risk?

no one can make u go to san jose if u dont want to

he definitely wanted to. i'm happy for him

I like working with scientific data that's not people's personal info, makes me feel mildly ethical

xp one could conceivably end up in san jose or something. is it worth the risk?

If you can get a big salary, sure, why not. SF is always accessible via rail.

OTOH all the dweebs looking to disrupt something or other.

OTOH all the dweebs looking to disrupt something or other.

+ forthcoming crash + worthless equity instead of cash + lack of professional engineering culture + “boys being boys”

yall know u dont have to work for a startup tho u cld go work for an agency that then hires you out on a contract basis to whatever companies and you make a ridiculous hourly rate w no investment or real responsibility, dont have to worry abt acquiring/managing clients like if ur freelance, and can take time off between jobs if ur fed up

tbf u dont have to be in cali to do that anyplace w a decent tech/finance/etc sector is good

youll end up working on pretty lame/tedious/soul crushing stuff a lot of the time but hey if u already h8 programming whats the diff and the benefits of $$$/time off are pretty great

Yeah. I’m fortunate. If you’re interested in systems or scientific computing, it’s easy to find a position in Boston with excellent compensation, strong engineering culture, and technology that’s understood and documented. Hell, I’m writing Erlang professionally. Erlang!

sounds like a greeting erlang mlady! maybe u shd say that to ur cpu when u fire up in the morn

lol

sounds like a greeting erlang mlady! maybe u shd say that to ur cpu when u fire up in the morn

LOL

Are you programming professionally? What are you doing?

lagoon is a web developer, mostly frontend, iirc

omg he develops the web?

only the interesting parts

We should start a consultancy.

ya i wild say im more of a designer but i am getting a little better at programing, i made a jquery function yesterday that i was proud of

not really doing anything professionally atm, been on extended hiatus the last few years doing freelance stuff here and there and even doing a bunch of not sitting in front of a computer type work which was p cool but imna have to get back to the grind soon tryina figure out what to do

We should start a consultancy.

― Allen (etaeoe), Wednesday, October 1, 2014 12:53 PM (27 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im in get at me dawg

Hell, I’m writing Erlang professionally. Erlang!

How are those loops treating you oh wait.

where do I send my resume I will consider menial tasks but the money must be exceptional

computer science is awesome and is not just programming so you are good

Been struggling with this myself, last few classes I've had trying to get a CS degree were the most miserable of my life, and I've gone through getting a Humanities grad degree. Is the CS degree worth it?

I actually don't know that much about it. I took a logic design course in undergrad that I thought was awesome (though just reading nand2tetris is probably more fun). and most of the grad students that I met in CS (I'm EE) were doing cool things like writing experimental shit for 3d phones.

I loved nand2tetris!

im in get at me dawg

Does your ILX mail work?

ya i think so, i just tried to to DM it to u but i couldnt find u did u go off the tweets or something

do any ilxors have web scripting type expertise? my company is looking for someone for a quick freelance turnaround job. i feel silly advertising it on ilx but i'd prefer to give the work to someone i [somewhat] know if possible

I'm looking for a new software engineering job and I thought with 7 years (5 for real) on my rez, that I'd have gotten something a lot sooner than I have. I've been looking since late March, have had something like 8 on-site interviews, and 7 have already passed on me (the 8th said they'd get back to me by yesterday, so either their discussions are lengthening out or they're contacting the other candidate before they get to me).

I just need to vent/commiserate a little. I don't know if 8 on-sites is a lot, but doing that many (plus the coding challenges to get to that point) has exhausted me, and that I've yet to get an offer makes me feel undeserving as a programmer. (Thought tbf, a lot of questions have been intro algorithm stuff that I've forgotten about, since I don't actually use them at work.) I ought to take a break, but then someone gets in touch with me and I feel like I can't pass up any opportunity. I'm sure being in SF means I'm competing with loads of other people, but then, the demand should be there too.

That might be the only place where it's a problem at that scale. At that software architecture conference I was at in NYC, we were commiserating about how it's nearly impossible to find anyone to fill positions that require some experience.

xp

Did you get that CS degree in the end?

Just keep going, it'll happen. It's tough everywhere. Craft yourself a silver bullet. etc etc . Well that's what my friends are telling me, I've been applying since February and not had a single interview yet - and that's just for office admin or Excel work.

I'm am also trying to get my foot in the door on programming now but with no degrees or previous work experience it's not going to be easy, and at my age I don't see it happening ever.

Ste, I dorm nt finish the CS degree because for the type of development I was and have been doing, the program was not offering me anything useful. (I mean, maybe I'm working for the wrong companies, but I only ever use hashes and arrays.)

A lot of places have been asking me for my Github link, even though I've only used it for coding challenges. However, you might use that as a portfolio to show to recruiters. Also, concentrate on learning front end languages, especially React, which is the hot new thing.

Apropos of nothing, but I just looked at attending a full time clown college.

I work at a university and get a tuition waiver. Considering whether to get a second BA (which will interest me but will not help my career prospects), or do CS. Just wondering if anyone here is, like me, by inclination more "right-brained" humanities inclined and how they fared learning CS.

I'm a BA in English and an MA in Humanities, and I sort of stumbled into CS. That was about 7 years ago, and I'm struggling to find a new place, but I right now am working full-time as a developer.