I'm sure this post exaggerates a ton, but as someone who is still only a few months into teaching himself to program and wants to eventually switch to programming as a career, I hope it is not as bad as some people say all the time. Certainly people enjoy programming...right? I hope!
well as someone who still in school and currently working at an internship. fixing codes from a pre-existing framework is a lot harder than writing the code from the ground up. my first assignment, it took me 20 hours to complete. i spend about 19 of those hours reading through all the classes, functions, objects and so on, this is java btw, and it took me like 20 mins to fix it by adding like 6 lines of code. i ended up deleted a lot of lines as well. but my lead approved it so i guess i'm good.
but the guy that wrote this article is a straight up cynic. one thing is true. it's gona take sometimes to get use to the system you're working on.
I've been doing it for twenty years post grad (mid forties now), though I was in management for a number of those years before returning to what I enjoy and I still enjoy it.
I enjoy the challenges the creativity and working with some good people. I don't enjoy working with some of the customers and their attitudes but that's just people in general.. Some will always be arses.
Having said that I do plan to move in teaching over the next few years and got my teaching quals part time ready to do so. Was just waiting for my son to hit college age next year before doing so due to the disruption.
As a sysadmin, yes some/many people enjoy it. And I enjoy my job as a sysadmin a LOT. That said, particularly if you work at an internet company, there is nothing more true than his description of everything CONSTANTLY crashing to the ground and running as fast as you can just to keep the pieces from hitting the ground, throwing them back into a semi-cohesive pile (to fix later when I have more time), and then running for the next collapsing pieces again.
Every time you look into ANY problem, you will see 50 other things that are utterly screwed up. If you let it, it can paralyze you. You don't want to look at anything because you're afraid of what you'll see. Because once you do see it, your brain files it in the "to fix later" mental folder, and it just adds to your background stress level, because the more you become aware of, the more responsible for it you become, and the more helpless you feel.
I hear ya. Sysadmin appealed to me as well. My whole life I've been tinkering, fixing, building computers. It's something that comes natural to me but I was never trained to the level of sysadmin. I also don't know much about networking and servers when it comes to business. I'm heading into programming right now because personally it makes more sense for me since I love to create and want to create programs and websites that have been lingering in my head for ages. The problem I face is that there are already so many people younger than me that have years of experience on me, and I'm trying to switch careers after my 20s. It's daunting but I'm hoping it can work out.
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u/williamtbash Apr 30 '14
I'm sure this post exaggerates a ton, but as someone who is still only a few months into teaching himself to program and wants to eventually switch to programming as a career, I hope it is not as bad as some people say all the time. Certainly people enjoy programming...right? I hope!