Several visitors here have asked what it’s like to have a job as a programmer. Here are my thoughts and suggestions, based on my work as a custom software developer for large non-tech companies – insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, real estate companies, etc.
I won’t talk about how to work at startups or big tech companies, like Google, Facebook (Meta), Netflix, etc. I haven’t worked at those types of companies, so I can’t tell you what it’s like.
Of course, you’ll have different strengths and weaknesses, and different likes and dislikes, so your experiences will be different from mine. But, I hope sharing my experiences will help you have the best programming career possible.
Please leave a comment if you have questions about anything I write here, or something I haven’t written about.
NOTE: There are some post descriptions below that don’t link to a page yet. These are the topics I plan to write about. Please leave a comment if there is another topic you’d like to hear about.
Types of Programming Jobs
Specialization versus Generalization
What to Learn Before Your First Programming Job
How Much Math Do You Need to Know to be a Programmer?
Getting a Programming Job
Questions to Ask at the Interview
The Work Process
Using (and mis-using) Agile and Scrum
Automated Testing
Meetings
Being a Better Programmer
Your Job is to Make Someone Else’s Job Easier
You write code for other humans, not the computers
Learn how to read error messages and debug
Understand the problem, before writing code
Prepare your code for problems
YAGNI – You Aren’t Gonna’ Need It
Break work, and code, into small bites
Improve Code Quality by Refactoring
Code Reviews
Managing a Programming Career
Learn about Your Company’s Business
Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
Dealing with Mistakes
When to Leave
Managing Life as a Programmer
Avoiding Burnout as a Programmer
The Good Parts of Programming Jobs
Pay and Benefits
Intellectual Satisfaction
Improving (a small part of) the World
Action Items
Recommended Books
Technical Books
Non-Technical Books
THis helps immensely. Thanks Scott
When are you adding the other articles btw?
You’re welcome. I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks, but finished that work and will be able to start writing more articles at the end of this week.
Can’t wait for the remaining articles – particularly technical and non-technical books section. Thanks a ton Scott (and lilly )
You’re welcome!
Scott,
This is incredible and an amazing write up! It’s so nice that you have captured a majority of the software jobs out there in this and gave some great insight for both new and experienced folks. Thank you for everything you do for the community
Thank you, Justin. I’m going to work on a few more of them this month.
Eagerly waiting for Technical and Non-Technical book recommendations