What do you think about your career as a programmer?

[FakezZ]

First of all I want the opinions of people that work as developers/programmers/software engineers etc. So I would like to follow this career path, but I have read quite a lot of "horror stories" on the internet. Stuff along the lines of a lot of overtime, constantly having to learn new stuff on your own, bad working environments and job instability. I would like to hear some more opinions on this before I make up my mind. Thanks!

 

Edit: To clarify, I am talking about programming in general, not just Game Development.

[minibois]

Well I am doing a study Game programming right now and would love to program games later.. And heard these stories too.

I get what they say, with constantly learning.. You have to constantly learn new things to keep up.

Job instability.. Well, languages can just disappear from one day to another, but I don't feel like that is entirely true.

[Samfisher]

First of all I want the opinions of people that work as developers/programmers/software engineers etc. So I would like to follow this career path, but I have read quite a lot of "horror stories" on the internet. Stuff along the lines of a lot of overtime, constantly having to learn new stuff on your own, bad working environments and job instability. I would like to hear some more opinions on this before I make up my mind. Thanks!

Nothing to do with programmers, more like the whole game studio goes into crunch.

[Prashank]

For me, as a developer, "overtime" is a choice and "constantly having to learn new stuff on your own" is fun.

 

Most bad cases are either result of bad workplace or lack of interest in their work.

[FakezZ]

Well I am doing a study Game programming right now and would love to program games later.. And heard these stories too.

I get what they say, with constantly learning.. You have to constantly learn new things to keep up.

Job instability.. Well, languages can just disappear from one day to another, but I don't feel like that is entirely true.

Yeah I know, I am not too afraid of constantly learning, but working conditions and the overtime is kinda scary

[FakezZ]

For me, as a developer, "overtime" is a choice and "constantly having to learn new stuff on your own" is fun.

 

Most bad cases are either result of bad workplace or lack of interest in their work.

What about free time? I would not like to like always work overtime and have to learn new stuff when I'm not working, being left with no time of my own

[minibois]

Yeah I know, I am not too afraid of constantly learning, but working conditions and the overtime is kinda scary

What have you heard about the conditions??

And the overtime, yeah.. The deadlines are sometimes pretty insane and you end up with errors.. and fixing those errors and getting more..

[DavidTheWin]

It very much depends on the company you work for and where in the company you work. I work for a large Swiss investment bank and in my team overtime isn't rare but it definitely isn't common, only when something like a release goes wrong or we have a production issue. In other teams it might be every day if everything you work on is completely fucked. My team doesn't mind me getting to my desk at 9:30-10am every day and leaving a bit later whereas other teams want you in at 8am every day because that's how their team works. This varies team to team and company to company. Same with bad working environments, very much depends on the company you work for and the team you work in. 

 

As for learning new stuff, you have to do that in pretty much every job to stay on top of your game. With programming this is probably even more prevalent but again depending on the industry it's not like every week you're trying something new. Once a company has a large system in place written in one language on one system, the cost of rewriting it in whatever the latest buzzword technology is becomes prohibitive. On the other hand, if you're a startup you don't have any existing infrastructure and you can experiment for quite a bit longer before settling. You can see this happening with Facebook, at first they said "work fast and break stuff" and now they're very well settled. Another thing to note is there's an idea perpetuated among say the silicon valley type startups that if you aren't programming for 18 hours a day then you aren't a real programmer and you obviously don't really care about your job. This attitude also depends on where you work and where in the company you work. I personally disagree with it. To me programming is a job; one that I enjoy sure but I don't want to take my work home with me.

 

Job instability depends on how you look at it. I think the turnaround time in programming jobs is higher on average than say a car factory or a salesperson. I don't see this as being an issue of job stability but more the fact that developers in general want to be using the newest thing and after using the old newest thing at their old job for 3 years until it stabilised they want something new. Fact is, if you're skilled enough then in this market there's always going to be a job for you so there isn't as much risk involved with job-hopping as there might be in other industries. However, some people prefer to go contracting in which you do sacrifice job stability (your contract can be dropped pretty much whenever) for a shit-load of extra money.

[FakezZ]

What have you heard about the conditions??

And the overtime, yeah.. The deadlines are sometimes pretty insane and you end up with errors.. and fixing those errors and getting more..

You know like insane coworkers (not really a problem with being a programmer) and managers being dicks because they do not understand the technical implications and how much work what they're asking needs. Also where are you working and what is your experience, I would love to know! (It is ok if you don't want to share, I will understand )

[FakezZ]

It very much depends on the company you work for and where in the company you work. I work for a large Swiss investment bank and in my team overtime isn't rare but it definitely isn't common, only when something like a release goes wrong or we have a production issue. In other teams it might be every day if everything you work on is completely fucked. My team doesn't mind me getting to my desk at 9:30-10am every day and leaving a bit later whereas other teams want you in at 8am every day because that's how their team works. This varies team to team and company to company. Same with bad working environments, very much depends on the company you work for and the team you work in. 

 

As for learning new stuff, you have to do that in pretty much every job to stay on top of your game. With programming this is probably even more prevalent but again depending on the industry it's not like every week you're trying something new. Once a company has a large system in place written in one language on one system, the cost of rewriting it in whatever the latest buzzword technology is becomes prohibitive. On the other hand, if you're a startup you don't have any existing infrastructure and you can experiment for quite a bit longer before settling. You can see this happening with Facebook, at first they said "work fast and break stuff" and now they're very well settled. Another thing to note is there's an idea perpetuated among say the silicon valley type startups that if you aren't programming for 18 hours a day then you aren't a real programmer and you obviously don't really care about your job. This attitude also depends on where you work and where in the company you work. I personally disagree with it. To me programming is a job; one that I enjoy sure but I don't want to take my work home with me.

 

Job instability depends on how you look at it. I think the turnaround time in programming jobs is higher on average than say a car factory or a salesperson. I don't see this as being an issue of job stability but more the fact that developers in general want to be using the newest thing and after using the old newest thing at their old job for 3 years until it stabilised they want something new. Fact is, if you're skilled enough then in this market there's always going to be a job for you so there isn't as much risk involved with job-hopping as there might be in other industries. However, some people prefer to go contracting in which you do sacrifice job stability (your contract can be dropped pretty much whenever) for a shit-load of extra money.

Wow, first of all thanks for your detailed answer and the time you took! And also that's exactly what I'm afraid of the most, that I will have to be programming constantly. Don't get me wrong, I love coding, hell I am learning new languages and making programs as a hobby, despite being pressured time-wise by school. But, I thing that doing nothing but programming all day will get really boring really fast... Now, from what I understand you usually work overtime when there is a release close, so it is not that common, but not rare either. Also, do you have any regrets on your career choice? Again thanks for your time

[minibois]

You know like insane coworkers (not really a problem with being a programmer) and managers being dicks because they do not understand the technical implications and how much work what they're asking needs. Also where are you working and what is your experience, I would love to know! (It is ok if you don't want to share, I will understand )

Currently not working. I am in my 2nd year of game programming and will do an internship at a game development company.

Will probably experience what the gaming industry is like next year.

 

From my understanding, the 2 lead people there are programmers themselves too, so I suppose they would understand what we are doing.

[FakezZ]

Currently not working. I am in my 2nd year of game programming and will do an internship at a game development company.

Will probably experience what the gaming industry is like next year.

 

From my understanding, the 2 lead people there are programmers themselves too, so I suppose they would understand what we are doing.

Oh ok I wish you luck in the job market And yeah, you're probably right about that last one too...

[Brenz]

As DavidTheWin said it is very much dependent on your employer.

 

Personally myself or any of my team have ever done overtime. We use agile and scrum which means that we actually tell management how long we think each task will take and we are assigned work every two weeks to take that amount of time so there should never be a reason for overtime.

 

As for working conditions they are great. Free drinks, fruit, bi-weekly massages, summer party, team building events, other work meals and long holidays can be booked just weeks in advance due to the two week sprints.

 

Finally job security wise again its all going to depend on your employer but nobody in my office has been made redundant while I have been there and we continue to grow our dev teams.

 

However on the opposite side of the scale I know others who are forced to work loads of overtime for low pay and no perks. My advice would be when looking at getting a job look around and don't rush into a job because that's when you will accept something worse than what you know you are worth.

[cluelessgenius]

well ill have to aggree with the dudes it sure does depend on the employer but as far as learning new stuff goes i think you wont find a job where thats not the case and also i dont see that as something bad. a lot of overtime is required sometimes depending on the projects you have but if you love what you do i think its not that bad to put a few more hors into it but that being said we here do get paid or can at least use our overtime later. i dont know if thats the case everywhere. but also if the salary is big enough id think doing overtime without mentioning it is kinda implied. "whatever is needed to get the job done" is my motto on this. also those horror stories make it sound like you are looking for some easy peasy hanging around job and thats not the case. id say yes programming can be hard sometimes but if you put your back into it and you really love to do it then its all not that big of a deal.

as far as instability goes id say if your good at your job its not a problem but you really need to stand out of the croud because theres enough bad programmers out there. even mediocre ones exist more than enough but if you can prove you are exceptionally good for some reason then youll be fine.

[Ciccioo]

You know like insane coworkers (not really a problem with being a programmer) and managers being dicks because they do not understand the technical implications and how much work what they're asking needs.

that's something you need to take into account the day you decide to get into the business world. whatever job you do (programmer, astronaut or burger flipper) you will have a boss, and if you're lucky you will find someone wise who knows how to value people and doesn't want to just take every single drop of energy out of them. so this is just about jobs, not necessarily programming. you will have to learn how to deal with those situations when you face them

 

when you will be looking for a job keep in mind what you want and the environment you want to work in, and try not to settle for anything less than that. programming is a field with a lot of demand as far as i can tell, so there is an encouraging chance that you will find a workplace that fits your needs and ambitions (if you're reasonable about them :rolleyes:)

[beingGamer]

I am working as a .net developer since 3.5 years

I would say working environment depends on the company.

The one where I work mostly are under 40 in age and everyone is constantly overloaded with projects

hence no one has time to bitch and stuff, but they surely give you time when you need help

Overtime also depends on company and the project you working on, some projects have specific time allocated per day- so you work that much hours that day and you leave for the day

some companies pay you for the extra time you spend working

learning new things which is most important for every individual- be it learning new technology/ways of coding or be it pressure handling.

everything helps you in future

[DevBlox]

It depends where you work. If you're forced to have overtime and you don't want to, that's really not your fault, it's someone from management making you do it, quite a bad environment imo. As for learning on your own, you will ALWAYS have to do that, though you will often have mentors and you might get sent off somewhere to learn, it depends on the company aswell. But it is fun if you have a thing for development of new stuff.

[AraiBob]

First of all I want the opinions of people that work as developers/programmers/software engineers etc. So I would like to follow this career path, but I have read quite a lot of "horror stories" on the internet. Stuff along the lines of a lot of overtime, constantly having to learn new stuff on your own, bad working environments and job instability. I would like to hear some more opinions on this before I make up my mind. Thanks!

 

Edit: To clarify, I am talking about programming in general, not just Game Development.

 

In the computer career, such things as overtime, self-learning, bad bosses, etc are 'par for the course'. On those occasions when you have a good to great manager at a good to great company, overtime is what you do because the project is interesting (not an order). Self-Learning is a fun thing, not a punishment. and so on. It can take years to understand how things should work, as opposed to what you encounter on your first few jobs. Be prepared to leave a 'shitty' job at a moments notice. No need to be loud as you go out the door. Who knows, in 10 years you might be back at that company, and now you get to call the shots when it comes to how things are done, and how to manage.

[AraiBob]

First of all I want the opinions of people that work as developers/programmers/software engineers etc. So I would like to follow this career path, but I have read quite a lot of "horror stories" on the internet. Stuff along the lines of a lot of overtime, constantly having to learn new stuff on your own, bad working environments and job instability. I would like to hear some more opinions on this before I make up my mind. Thanks!

 

Edit: To clarify, I am talking about programming in general, not just Game Development.

 

Let me add one more thing. Being busy is an indicator of being successful. An old saying in the IT industry. "If you have more than a three year backlog of work, hire somebody. If you have less than a year of work backlog, put out your resume."