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by Samer Ibrahim.
Original Post: Done training, real coding starts Monday... I love my job
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It's not everyday that I feel confident in my career decision. Many days I question why I'm chose to be a programmer. My family wanted me to be a doctor and on those days that I doubt my career choice I'm often wondering what stopped me from going to med school. I was a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry major (it's one track not two) as well as a Computer Science major. I had gone so far as to take my MCATs and even started filling out applications. The health care industry doesn't suffer from offshoring (well for now although some would argue otherwise [0], [1], [2]) and it could not care less about how the economy is doing. I still can't put my finger on what did it but I had a sudden change of mind and those applications never went out.
The pressures of being in IT surround me everyday. Sometimes I'm almost ashamed to say I'm a programmer because of the stigma that goes with it. Programmers are looked upon as dorks, geeks, or whatever you want to call them. In many ways I don't feel like much respect is given to programmers. While maybe I didn't save someone's life today, quite honestly neither did most doctors. (Not to equate the two which I think are very, very different.) I work for an organization where IT is a cost center for the most part, which is sometimes a scary thought. As nice as they want to be about it and as proactive about technology as they want to be, with few exceptions, the truth is technology is not a direct source of income. The fact that may companies would cease to be competitive without us, however, is one of the many ways that illustrate how dependent daily life is on programs. Everyday we hear about offshoring or something else that threatens our industry and we're in a cyclical field. My brother insists that what is happening with programmers today is exactly what happened to the engineers of yesterday. A big boom, then a big burst, followed by offshoring, and then ended with salaries dropping and being worked raw. I'm no expert about what happened to the engineers but I can say so far he has been striking fear into my heart.
Despite all this, every once in a while something happens that makes me think, “Man! I love my job.” Today was one of those days. Several things happened each resulting in me repeating that phrase. I'll just give you a couple of examples.
Today was my last day in training. So we had a farewell event of sorts for our training class and an officer in the company came in with his son to show him what technology can do. That kind of wowed me and made me feel at ease about the companies direction with technology. If he was wanted his son to think more about technology as a career decision surely he was confident about its place within the organization. Next, after the event I went and I spoke to my manager to check in and see if he wanted me to prepare in any way for my scheduled Monday start. To begin with, as we were just chatting I couldn't help but think “what a cool guy” and his manager is amazing too. I keep finding myself saying that at this organization which is the real kicker. Normally I'm not quick to say things like that so when I do I mean it. But more on the technical part of my job, I found out Rob Howard is coming to meet with us soon. Stuff like that just gets me very excited about my job.
Also, I never realized how much I love to code until I went through this two month training program. Don't get me wrong, I love learning about technology as well but it doesn't quench my need to code. I'm dying to start my new position and start coding. I'm really hoping I can make an impact. I'll try my best.
So really I have no idea where I'm going with this all. I'll probably never know whether I made the right choice or not but days like today me feel a lot more comfortable with my decision. I just hope one day, when people think about all the ways computers have changed their life, they think a programmer wrote it and the respect for our field grows. For now, I just have to feel fulfilled without recognition from the general public.
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