I just want to note how jealous I am of all professional devs jobs. I one day hope to be able to get one without a degree.
I know it’s hard work and very challenging at times so I am not saying it’s easy by any means, but man I wish my days went by as fast at work as when I code
When I code, literally 5 hours goes by and it feels like 5 minutes.
When I goto my current job, 5 hours feels like 5 weeks. Maybe even longer. I don’t know if that ever changes as the years go by, but I am 1 year in and there’s never enough coding time in a day to satisfy me. If I could legitimately code for 10 hours a day, I would be in Heaven. I literally don’t think about anything else and have to force myself to stop and do normal human functions when I’m in the coding zone.
50+hours of time to code in a week and a boatload of money… wow. Dream life.
Well, I do enjoy my job. But it is a job. I mean, yeah, I usually enjoy the coding - it’s like I get paid to solve puzzles all day. But there are a lot of other things - dealing with designers, product owners, bureaucracy, code that doesn’t work, libraries that aren’t well documented, etc. It can be a stressful job at times. But yeah, I do like it.
I agree with Kevin. I’m glad this is my job (compared to others I’ve done), but it’s a job and the weekend is never long enough. I often say that programmers are people who are paid to be frustrated.
It’s true that some days I get to sit uninterrupted with an interesting problem and the time goes by quickly. Some days I storm out early because I get blamed for a problem I’ve been warning people about for six months. Earlier this week, I was so mentally exhausted by 3 pm that I spent the last couple of hours staring at the wall and then went to bed at 7pm. Most days I’m on some scale from “interested and engaged” to “annoyed”.
Also, I’m not working 50+ hours unless I’m getting paid overtime. (Actually, even when that has been an option I almost never have.)
The stories about tech debt, working conditions, overbearing owners or co-workers are not limited to software. People do shoddy work or there’s too much to do and there are tools (of the human kind) to be found in every industry.
I’m learning to code at age (almost) 50, and having worked in various employment since I was 15, I’m really excited about the options coding can offer.
