exor_one

A few months ago, I quit my first full-time “software engineering” job with a software company, where I mostly debugged old VB6 code for almost a year. Backtrack 5 years: I was an aspiring programmer who wrote little toy applications for fun. As my computer science degree progressed, disillusionment set in as I realized there was not much demand for an average entry-level programmer like me. Sure, I could find software jobs, but they were hardly on par with what I originally envisioned.

Programming is fun when you’re in control of your own project. But try fixing someone else’s broken code from 8-5 for so many months, and then learn that your technical knowledge goes out the window as the market and your company switches to newer technologies (APIs, platforms, etc.), and you will likely become another software burnout with enough time (hence the few long-term software engineers).

What’s wrong with programming as a career when the job is ranked so highly by career gurus like those at Money Magazine? Few of our needs as humans are fulfilled when we code for a living, and even fewer if we are not an alpha geek, or at least highly respected by our peers. This goes unspoken, however, because those software engineering burnouts are good rationalizers, and fool themselves and others into believe they have it good.

The stereotype that programmers are antisocial exists for good reasons. The profession rewards and reinforces characteristics like meticulous attention to detail, a critical eye for what’s wrong, and calculated decisions over spontaneity. While these traits have value especially in the software field and related analytical careers, they make for an awfully antisocial personality. Oh yes, and as a coder you will be staring at a computer for long periods of time.

Things will not get any better for us. Globalization will increasingly commoditize programmers, and the evolution of the industry will progress exponentially, furthering burnout.

Aspiring programmers: beware.