So all you salaried programmers/workers in a programming related industry, what would you say are things to expect in a programming job? I'm considering going into the industry (I'm still young) and I'd like to hear about what it's like. Thanks a lot!

That two workplaces could be so different that if one were to give a general tip they could contradict each other.

With that said. Generally it's payed pretty good. There are exceptions of course.

For my case, its more important to write good code than to write code as fast as possible.

Another thing is that you might have to be available for people to call you in the middle of the night if something breaks. This is usually not put on one person though. So you might get a day or two at a time. Then the responsibility cycles.

In these situations it's usually not important to write a good solution, just a quick fix to make the problem go away until you can take a better look at it after som proper sleep.

Hope that makes things clearer.

As @BigBoo no two places are the same, as for clean VS fast it’s a battle you will find in every job you do where deadlines outweigh clean code.

I recommend as clean as possible in the timeframes you have, at least it will make some sense at a later date when you are forced to refactor or rebuild that section of the project.

Also don’t be me, and end up with more projects then days in the week you personally look after. You end up going to fast sometimes to keep up with the expectations of impossible deadlines - mind you I do enjoy the challenge it presents at times so I guess I’m a sucker for pressure.

Write and sell your own software

Stick it to the man

@C0D4 @BigBoo Doesn't sound too bad. How often do programmers get promoted to a management role, would you say? Or are promotions usually to a higher level of programming?

@Orni for where I work, not often at all.
If the right person leaves you may get to team lead or something but we have a single manager covering most of the teams.
But on the other side we are always working with new stacks and platforms so professional skill sets usually increase instead.

@Orni It happens as often as you want it to happen pretty much. If you don't want to become a manager I don't see why you should become one. It's not the only way to get a promotion.

As long as you are vocal about what you want and reasonable about it. There shouldn't be too much problems unless you are really bad.

In my country it's very hard to fire people. So if you are in a similar country. One red flag is.

One strategy for firing people is to "promote" them into a job that is so boring and dreadful that they quit on their own. But you basically have to be pretty much worthless for that to happen.

@rutee07 you sure that's not an overflowing dishwasher?