Why I Like My Job
Recently I've been reflecting on my life's choices. Just a reflective kind of mood, I guess. I chose to become a programmer when I was 18 years old. That was 6.5 years ago, and a pretty young age to make life-changing choices - at least in my country. That choice pretty much set the course for me for the next 9 years, as I was going to study in the university for 3 years and then work in the same place for the following 6 years. That's a lot of burden on 18-year old shoulders.
So I got to thinking - if I had to make the same decision again, would I choose the same way?
And what I answered myself was - Hell yeah! I love being a programmer, and the main reasons are:
- It's challenging work. I get to use my brain to solve problems.
- I get to create stuff. At first there is nothing, but after some creation there is something that people can use, and it makes their life easier. Well, most of the time.
- I'm no artist, and can barely draw an image of a person without him looking like he just fled Chernobyl, but after writing software I can sometimes look at it and say: "Hey, I just made something pretty".
- I get to work with some really smart people, and learn from them.
- I get to learn so much about myself, as a person. Debugging one of these random-looking bugs can really tell you what you're made of.
- The pay isn't bad.
- I'm pretty good at it, or so I'd like to think.
It's hard work, but I guess I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't really think of anything else I would have preferred to do. I like to write, but I don't think I could have done it full-time as a reporter. Blogging pretty much scratches that itch for me.
Speaking of scratching itches, if only I could write some software that killed all mosquitos, I'd be a much happier person now. Probably richer too. The bastards are driving me crazy.