Software as a profession sucks, a rant.

[jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org (Jarod Wilson)]

On Oct 23, 2009, at 10:42 AM, David Rosenstrauch wrote:

> On 10/23/2009 08:53 AM, Matthew Gillen wrote:
>> On 10/22/2009 11:33 AM, David Rosenstrauch wrote:
>>> On 10/22/2009 11:08 AM, Mark Woodward wrote:
>>>> What does BLU think?
>>> I think a lot depends on what company you work for.
>>
>> Ditto that.
>>
>>> ...
>>> IME the negatives you point out appear far more often in larger  
>>> and/or
>>> more mature companies.
>>
>> I would venture to say it happens a lot in companies where software  
>> is
>> not the core product.
>
>> But
>> there will always be companies that are "high-technology", who have  
>> the
>> values you seem to be nostalgic for.  Likewise, there will always be
>> customers for those companies, businesses for which technology (and
>> software in particular) /will/ be a competitive advantage.  It's just
>> that the pool of companies in that category is smaller than it used  
>> to
>> be (it used to be everyone, but now a lot of core business software  
>> has
>> become a commodity).
>>
>> Matt
>
> I would say that's exactly right.  If the OP wants to keep doing
> exciting interesting tech work, he needs to seek out companies where
> technology *is* their business.

Yep. I work for a not-huge, but certainly-not-small company (north of  
3k employees now, I think?), and its quite interesting and exciting  
here. Its the biggest company I've ever worked for, and by far the  
longest I've worked anywhere now. Historically, I've gotten bored w/my  
job after a year or so, because it ends up being more of the same. For  
the most part, that's not the case here, there is always something new  
and different to work on, lots of innovative and exciting new stuff  
happening all the time. Technology, and in particular, open source  
technology, most certainly is our business.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org