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Comment by vacri | Hacker News Reader

I've worked a variety of jobs over my life, and I have to say that I find it funny the degree to which software developers whine over how difficult they have it. Software development is one of the cushiest jobs around. Indoor work; no heavy lifting; little to no customer contact; little to no shift work (unless you're in ops); generally intellectually stimulating; easygoing dress code; generally get to be constructive and creative; very well paid; self-trained is an entirely viable way to get that paycheck (not a lot of self-trained lawyers out there...); generally easy office life; generally get the better computing equipment; conferences are frequent perks of the job; you're not on your feet for your whole shift unless you choose to be; occasional option to work from home; skills are in demand... the list goes on and on.

Every time I see one of these articles, I wonder if the author ever spent much time working a menial job.

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I like to say being a Developer is like being a Doctor, in terms of stress but my software mistakes never killed any one (I have a deep history with ecom, and not flight controls or self driving cars thankfully). However people around me have ACTED like someone was going to die because of mistakes (but no one does).

Here is a quick list of "stressful days"

- Found my own bug, total damage at point of discovery $250,000 close to 3x my salary at the time. - Over charged a customer, about $15,000 (on a $100 purchase). Our accounting department had to wire transfer her money, so she could pay her rent and eat till her refund went through. - The job where the "clients" would call on every holiday, drunk, high or just being entitled assholes demanding the insane. This got to the point where the family had a pool at holidays on "who, what and when" the issue would be. - Any major data migration, ever. You can never have enough dress rehearsals for these things, and your always going to find a major problem at the last minute.

Were these things stressful at the time, you bet. If you heard the story today would you laugh with me as I told them, probably. Im not sour grapes, but please don't tell me this job is always easy or sunshine and roses.

I do agree with your FINAL point, and everyone I know in this industry who is amazing has some horrid job in their history, roofing, shoveling pickles, shoveling pig manure that list goes on and I have the data to back you up on that part!

I agree with a lot of your points here. But lets not give the viewing public the idea that being a programmer is an 'easy' job.

First programmers suffer from the same lack of loyalty that permeates most companies these days. They can and will be let go pretty much the moment it is financially convenient to to so. As a software developer, it burns that much more when you were a large factor in the reason the organization was successful.

Second, since people can be self trained, and they are, this is a hyper competitive field to work in. Everyone says they can do everything, and resumes are no help in distinguishing candidates. While at same time many people directing the work of software developers have no idea what they are asking for in terms of complexity, while being given business driven time frames.

This is a hyper competitive field that inflicts serious mental stress on the people performing at high levels. I have many a day where I long for the simplicity of a'menial job' where only really thing you need to be successful is a positive attitude.

But your first point is largely the problem I have with these screeds - these are problems with being an employee, not a developer. It's not like developers get less loyalty than other employees.

I agree that development is not easy, as it requires considerable skill to be good (and hence the big paypacket), but the skill required for the job is somewhat orthogonal to working environment.

I dunno. I've worked in retail, phone tech support / general support, as a medical tech, and had a ton of friends in hospitality, and I'd rather deal with the rare error like zer00eyz had than deal with the general public every day. I'm working 12-hour days at the moment due to crunch time, coming home exhausted, and I still would not trade this job for any of the other jobs I've had, judged purely on work environment.

I absolutely do not agree, software development can be extremely difficult job (just as like any other ones by the way). It all depend on the environment.

Yes, it's not a physical job, but you have to be able to handle the amount of psychological pressures that is put on you which can be way higher than on other more physical jobs.

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