

What's common knowledge at your workplace, but blow the rest of our minds? - recidivist
http://www.quora.com/Whats-something-that-is-common-knowledge-at-your-workplace-but-would-be-mind-blowing-to-the-rest-of-us?share=1

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greenyoda
The reply from "Tech Recruiter @ Facebook" is probably of interest to a lot of
people on HN.

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orionblastar
As a programmer/analyst I do a lot more than just program. Or did when I
worked from 1997-2001. I had to do the work of other people, communicate with
them, and troubleshoot a lot of issues.

I'm not always at my desk because people need my help elsewhere.

Help Desk gets issues with my programs that are basically tech support issues
a technician should be able to handle. Like MSCOMCTL.OCX is missing or invalid
errors. I have to go to each user's PC and download the latest version of that
file from the server and then run regsvr32 on it to activate it unless it
doesn't require activation.

I'm often found near QA were I go over bugs as they try and replicate them for
me so I can track them down in my code and fix them. I often get asked by a QA
worker to come over to their cubical to look at a new bug they found.

When the DBA messes up on SQL Server, I have to fix it for them and teach them
what went wrong and how to fix it. Most of the time it is an index problem or
they used the wrong foreign key. As a result on Linkedin I get more sponsoring
for Databases than I do with Programming because people remember that I fixed
the database a lot.

The Business Office uses VBA and MS-Word and MS-Access and when they can't get
things to work they call me to come down there and fix their VBA code or data,
etc. They do data entry work and enter null into records, which my code has to
check for before it is processed to avoid invalid use of null errors. Don't
know the client's name on an account, enter null for the first and last name.
Don't know the billing attorney, enter null into that area.

I also have to attend meetings with managers and supervisors who want new
features and programs designed.

I have to do analysis of data and create reports for it. Managers want the
figures to be correct and the correct fonts used on the printers. I use
Crystal Reports and they use a form of Ada in the scripting language that my
co-workers don't understand but I took Ada in college.

Just because you don't see me at my desk doesn't mean I am not working. Most
people judge a programmer/analyst by how many lines of code they write per
day, not how many coworkers and managers and supervisors they help out, how
many problems they solve, how much documentation and reports they write, how
many different departments they work with in a team environment, how they work
with QA to fix bugs, and even the occasional employee who tracks you down to
ask what computer to buy for their son or daughter who is attending college,
etc.

I actually delete more lines of code than I finish shipping with. I always
find better ways to do things and often have to rewrite stuff. If I can use
fewer lines of code to do the same exact thing it saves RAM and runs faster.
So less is more actually.

