Search This Blog

Thursday, January 28, 2010

A programmer's life - deeply misunderstood

Random thoughts or rant on a programmer's life, no intention to mock any of my friends or readers of their job... have a sense of humour pls.


The marketing
Always tells the client buzzword Yes latest .NET , Yes scalable, Yes Microsoft, Yes SOA(service oriented architecture, even if its 1 function call 1 page using web service), Yes WCF

The HR/head hunters
Always wonders why programmers are highly paid, especially if the no. of years they worked is lesser than the programmer. Always negotiate the lowest pay for the client/company to make themselves look good.

The team leader/project manager
The programmers are 'plug and play' to them, we can 'be moved around' in their fancy excel or MS project sheet.

The business analyst
Add 1 field here pls is that so hard?

The managers/CEO/COO
Report pls ? manager->team leader/business analyst->user->programmer, and they thought their business analyst do wonders.

The Finance
Sees us as liability.

The server/security guys
No you cant touch production, no you cant access the server , no you cant edit the tables. Seriously guys, do they really know the database REAL purpose than the programmers? They lock you out left, right and centre, the minimal permission is the safest(thats when they dont know how to manage risk they lock you out!) Seriously we are just like the janitors, we just wanna do our job ,fix the shit(program errors/bugs).

A programmer's real life
We are really just janitors, we pick up where/what shit the previous programmer has left, understand the system from the day 1 its built.
We have to always ask for the 2nd/3rd time to the users how they get the error when they just say 'its not working'.

We have to teach them print screen and ctrl-V to word doc or start-all programs->accessories->paint then ctrl-S.

we have to refresh our technical knowledge every 2-3years and yet know what has been going on with Microsoft since the product was developed (whatever language they are in or whatever version).

We have to do the shit and the rest takes the glory and glamour.

So the HR or head hunters wonder why we are paid higher than the usual.



No comments: