Why you shouldn't be a programmer

Call this a rant, but my gawd, what a stressful job this can be. Take today for example. In case you guys don't know, I do database systems for businesses. I have a client who is a medium-large size lighting company that has by far the most complex requirement list of any I've ever dealt with. So naturally, every little bug has a butterfly effect that cascades and breaks dozens of other modules. At this point I get an angry phone call that I had 'broke the system' and the sky is falling and if I don't come by in 20 minutes a hitman will be dispatched to claim a bounty on my head.

Everything is always the programmers fault. Riiight, it's never that the end user pressed the button I told them not to unless they wanted certain things to happen, like deleting all the items in a large job. Apparently making applications idiot proof is part of the job, but every time I do, they hire a bigger idiot. And why bother giving warning messages that they are about to delete everything in a million-dollar job when they won't even bother to read them? They say, "Hey, it's a message and I can press OK or CANCEL... let's just press OK since I'm in a hurry". I blame Microsoft really for inundating users for so long with pointless message boxes that they've become accustomed to simply pressing the OK button and getting on with life.

Then there are the times like today, when the systems platform (in this case, Access 2003 running SQL server) simply is messing with us. All settings indicate that it should be working, but it does not. Sometimes the form actually resets itself automatically and the only way to correct it is to rebuild it from scratch. If they ran a lemonade stand, no problem. But I've put over 300 hours alone into this one to get it the way it is now, so redoing it is going to take a lot of effort and take time away from other things that need to get done.

Thankfully, I've managed to get through to most that it is out of my control and I can only do so much when it's Microsoft that screwed up. They've also come to the realization that no other programmer in his right mind would attempt what I've done for them, so replacing me isn't exactly an option.

My only point I want to make is: If you can handle a lot of stress and like money, it's a good job. Otherwise you'd best stick with something that won't kill you by the time you're 40.

/Rant

Railu wrote:Apparently making applications idiot proof is part of the job, but every time I do, they hire a bigger idiot.

hahaha.. gotta say.. i love that part..
and yeah Microsoft is a pain in the behind.
but i guess your great at your job.. so whatever obstacle. i know for sure you'll make it through and further =D

Akhan wrote:

Railu wrote:Apparently making applications idiot proof is part of the job, but every time I do, they hire a bigger idiot.

hahaha.. gotta say.. i love that part..
and yeah Microsoft is a pain in the behind.
but i guess your great at your job.. so whatever obstacle. i know for sure you'll make it through and further =D

I'm pretty good at what I do, but I think I'm more crazy than anything. I accept some of the most ridiculously challenging and impractical jobs and don't charge nearly enough for them. If anyone asks me if I can do a specific task, I always say yes, even if I have no clue how to do it.

I've always found a way but sometimes doing stuff like that makes me wanna cry.

lol
must be a stressful job.
My cousin uncle is a computer programer for well fargo...
He get makes 12,000 dollars a month... That is alllot! But I wouldn't want to die by the age of 40 XD..
Weird, yesterday I was thinking of becoming something that deals with computer as my future career.

Well... you see... every job which involves a fair amount of responsibility has those aspects.

In my case (well... future case), every single accountant I know has quite some stress problems cuz of deadlines to meet, figures that aren't what they should be and all that.

Though I seriously hope I can cope up with it...

Some positive thinking... if those things didn't happen... imagine how boring life would be hahahahaha

My moms b/f thast i have known for 5 yrs know is a comp consultant and he created all the programs here for the casinos for there gambling games and sports books he made up 90 bucks an hr doing that stuff but he said he hated it at times all he did was sit in a office cubicle and work on stuff that people screwed up adn rewriting code and all that but he says very good money but what a pain in the butt, He know lives in washington making 65 an hr and works for Bank Of America doing there programming and all that, he has a website www.lvdude.com ever want to read on him if oyu would like any help Railu im sure he would love to help lol atleast he would understand what your talking about lol when he tries with me man ig et confused lol. he taught me how to create my own windows adn all that and how to write a little code but what a pain you guys go through. well you sound like a smart and good person and i am sure it will all be worth it at the end

RAIL!!! i need you to teach some stuff sometime about computers and programming and other stuff ^^ cuase itreally interestes me even tho i have no clue what anything is saying......once i actualy attempted to learn how to script.....which didnt work out that well cause no one would help me and im just 17 >< so if you could help me understand some things it would be greatly appreciated

MajikNinja420 wrote:RAIL!!! i need you to teach some stuff sometime about computers and programming and other stuff ^^ cuase itreally interestes me even tho i have no clue what anything is saying......once i actualy attempted to learn how to script.....which didnt work out that well cause no one would help me and im just 17 >< so if you could help me understand some things it would be greatly appreciated

Getting into is not hard, you just need a passion for it. It's my personal opinion that anyone can do it. Once you get past the basic concepts, all you need to learn is the semantics of each programming language.

I can learn any new language in a day at this point because I've had to learn so many. It's like learning a language. Once you've learned 2, the rest come easy.

The only one I cannot stand is action scripting (Flash). You can tell they made it for artists first because it does not conform to standards set by all the other programming languages. Even AS3.0, which is supposed to be redesigned because no programmer would ever take AS2.0 seriously, is too mickey mouse. I'm amazed however at some of the games that are being made with it.

I'm going to post some tutorials on programming on my website when I get some time. They will be specifically for games though.