Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » A Career in Computer Programming

March 13, 2007

A Career in Computer Programming

Why a Career in Computer Programming Doesn’t Suck (A Response)

Programmers need to be lifelong learners. I’m not sure what else to tell you. Lots of people change their professions. It’s not too late for you. Alternatively, you could find a job using a stable technology that you enjoy. Maybe you should find somewhere that will let you use C or C++, both of which are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

To the readers, pick a field that’s compatible with your own nature. You’ll be much happier. If you find that you’ve chosen the wrong field, change it. It’s just a job. Find something you actually enjoy, even if it means a massive career change. It’s better to be poorly-paid and happy than highly-paid and miserable.

by curiouscat Tags: Career, Students, Technology
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7 Responses to “A Career in Computer Programming”

Google Summer of Code 2007 Says:
March 18th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Google Summer of Code will pay about 800 students $4,500 to work on open source software development projects this summer at over 50 open source organizations including: Gaim, Drupal, EFF, Haskell.org, OpenOffice.org, Subversion and Wordpress.
CuriousCat: Programming Ruby Says:
November 24th, 2007 at 10:11 am
“American Rubyists frequently take up all the points of Ruby’s power, expressiveness, and efficiency, but they don’t seem to register the point that Ruby was designed to make you feel good…”
CuriousCat: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
“Get interested in programming, and do some because it is fun. Make sure that it keeps being enough fun so that you will be willing to put in ten years…”
CuriousCat » Who Killed the Software Engineer? Says:
February 26th, 2008 at 11:55 am
1. Mathematics requirements in CS programs are shrinking.
2. The development of programming skills in several languages is giving way to cookbook approaches using large libraries and special-purpose packages…
CuriousCat: Programmers at Work Says:
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:48 am
Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google: “If you want to know what programmers do, the best thing is to read their code, but failing that (or in addition to that) you need to read interviews like this…”
CuriousCat » Programmers Says:
March 7th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Dinosaur Comics: “programming is for folks who are thrilled when a computer reminds them they’re missing a bracket or a semicolon”
Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Programming with Pictures Says:
July 16th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
“Carnegie Mellon University’s Randy Pausch…argues, many computer science departments are a quarter century behind on adapting their instructional methods for the purpose of attracting and retaining students…”