Ask HN: Do you regret becoming a programmer? - casper345
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pr813
Yes. I think I could have excelled in other areas. As a programmer I'm just
average or below average.

I was quite motivated and bright in my youth, and could have picked a number
of careers where I had some skills. Decided to go with programming because I
was excellent in math (and liked it), and wanted to do something applied
instead of teaching. Coming from a poor background, I had ZERO knowledge about
what programming is really like as a career, and what other applied math
careers exist out there. I thought if you study math, you become a teacher.
There were also other areas besides math that I liked and excelled at, so I
could have picked a number of those.

So when I started with CS, I was already late in the game compared to others
who started younger, had very little support in my learning and no peers to
connect with as a woman in 90's/early 00's. It resulted in stumbling around a
lot in my career and ending up as a probably below average programmer. Also
realized too late that it's going to be very hard to find any math-intensive
work as a programmer unless you hold a PhD.

Add to that some discrimination - I think young girls today have it a bit
better than before, but women above 35, moms? Not many people want that. I had
to remove my picture from LinkedIn because it got me less recruiter hits WITH
a professional picture.

~~~
itamarst
For what it's worth, there are areas where you can do math-intensive stuff
without a PhD.

E.g. personally after not doing anything math-y for two decades I stumbled
into a job doing image processing.

There's also graphics programming, although I get the impression that can be
extra toxic environment. However,
[https://twitter.com/sehurlburt](https://twitter.com/sehurlburt) will
occasionally post links to companies that aren't toxic that are hiring people,
and some of them are welcoming to people without prior knowledge of the
specific domain. E.g.
[https://twitter.com/sehurlburt/status/1043182104140345345](https://twitter.com/sehurlburt/status/1043182104140345345)

~~~
shoo
> For what it's worth, there are areas where you can do math-intensive stuff
> without a PhD.

i agree. there aren't a huge abundance of such job opportunities, but there
are a few out there. for me it was a few years doing development with splashes
of applied operations research (discrete optimisation, liner programming,
etc).

------
sosilkj
Yes. i wish i'd gone into finance or accounting or something. i believe i
would be in a much better place financially today, and the career path would
have been much easier to navigate: ever met someone in finance who studied for
months to get ready for an interview? me neither.

the software profession is very two-tiered: you either get a job at a FAANG or
FAANG-equiv firm whre the pay is good and there are the opportunities for
growth ... and then there's everything else.

in many places it goes like this: you're very much treated like a cog,
managers -- and "project managers" especially -- won't have any real
understanding of what engineers do, there is disorganization, lack of
planning, and/or engineers have never been challenged to grow, and over time
you end up dealing with lots of tirefires.

if i knew of a way to do something different while maintaining my current
income, i would do it.

~~~
abenedic
> ever met someone in finance who studied for months to get ready for an
> interview? me neither.

I have. My roommate in college. A lot of students in his group studied very
year for internships with finance companies.

------
bobochan
Not once. I have been doing it for just over 30 years now and I run up the
steps to fire up emacs every morning. I have lived through an amazing time,
from an Apple ][+ with 16k plugged into a black and white TV to mobile and
communication technology today that feels like science fiction.

I am very excited to see what the next ten years or so will bring.

~~~
chrisbennet
Same here (30 years). If I didn’t have so much interesting work I would
program in my free time. I just really like it.

------
rajeshpant
No regrets in becoming programmer.

But I regret the way programmers are treated in industry these days. It went
from a niche profession to industrial worker. Being a programmer these days is
similar to a worker working in a car assembly line.

~~~
zzzcpan
Yeah, it seems programming as a career sucks. But the ability, skill itself is
wonderful, nothing else compares to it.

~~~
sova
Very much agree with you here. I have not been able to secure the superb job I
dream of yet, but my skills have gotten to the point where a teenage version
of myself would definitely ask, "How the hell did you do that?!" =)

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phakding
This profession lifted me out of poverty and made it possible to take up
hobbies without having to think about money. I am thankful.

~~~
iothetiger
Same story here. Never got a BA, mainly because I was raised in a culture of
poverty. By the time I was working as an engineer in 2000's SF it never made
sense to go back. Now I feel discriminated against by organizations who feel
it is a requirement. Luckily at 39 years of age with former employer prepping
for an IPO I'm ready to go back to my blue collar roots and start building
homes in the Sierra foothills.

------
27182818284
I think I regret becoming a programmer, but I do not regret knowing how to
write programs. If that makes sense.

~~~
casper345
As In programming has helped your mind think in different ways, but the
profession is no longer appealing to you?

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vinayms
No. I always had a purpose to program more than the client needing it. I have
always worked on products, and was always allowed to explore my creativity, so
that might also be a reason. Programming was always "goal oriented" for me -
either having to simulate an engine for my BE project, or creating components
for our products to differentiate from our competitors, thus maximizing hikes
which allowed me to pursue other interests, or lately, starting my own
company. So, while I have experienced several minor burnouts, which lasted
many weeks to a few months, I have never had any regrets. I hope to gracefully
transition to pursuing other interests in a few years, and I will fondly
remember this programming phase.

Based on that experience, my guess is that those who regret are usually those
who just go through the motions. They most likely don't have side projects, or
ideas to pursue, and the monotone of programming gets to them. Lets face it,
our industry is all about repackaging the same old solutions, but for
different clients, and that's quite boring. I like to imagine that engineers
in other fields do a lot more than what programmers do, which makes things
different even when repackaging solutions, but I could be wrong. In Indian
context, there are many people I know, ranging from senior engineer or VP,
working in multi national companies, with very good salaries, but are quite
disenchanted with their jobs because they are nothing more than glorified
bricklayers working in India while the architects send out instructions
sitting in USA or Europe.

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aprdm
Allowed me to travel the world always making the top percentile of the local
population and have a very good life.

Super creative and challenging job ! Maybe I was lucky in that I worked in
amazing companies but I've never had jobs where I felt like a cog.

I've also never worked at a FAANG. Only think I would say is that every
company I worked (for the most part) had an R&D department or mentality and
was product driven. Needless to say software was always the differentiator of
the product.

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HNHNHNHNHNHN
Regret is a subjective feeling, not always related to validity or usefulness.
A better question could be what pitfalls to avoid when becoming a programmer,
or when choosing a career path, etc.

The question may also suffer from sampling bias:

-Is a programmer and does not regret it (represented)

-Is a programmer and regrets it (represented, less likely to respond)

-Is not a programmer and does not regret it (not represented)

-Is not a programmer and regrets it (not represented)

~~~
casper345
Also my question is not about improving oneself in programming. Today there is
alot of glamourizing of programmer sso would be interested to hear from people
on the other end.aka I'm looking for subjectivity

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parvatzar
I have no regrets as such on choosing this profession, since its been a
passion since the very first time I saw a computer. The regret however, is
doing this for over 6 years now and not having upgraded with a post graduate
degree i.e either a MS or MBA. This gradually becomes a regret when I see my
colleagues from engineering having moved on to higher or better positions
financially.

------
Someone1234
Do I regret working certain places and on certain technology? Sure. But I
cannot think of another career that still pays reasonably well, offers
creative freedom, good job prospects, advancement avenues, and a fast changing
ecosystem to keep things fresh-ish.

Only large downside is the age-ism in the industry. Hopefully I won't be
looking for work in my 60s.

------
leed25d
I have been programming professionally since 1974. I have never had any
regrets.

~~~
abenedic
> I have never had any regrets.

You have lived a very charmed life.

------
twoquestions
No, I took this job to free people from having to do unnecessary work.

I just wish it resulted in people having more choice in how to use their time,
rather than cutting regular people out of their livelihood and concentrating
wealth.

------
plinkplonk
a more interesting question might be "Do you regret _staying_ a programmer
(after the first n years)?"

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jperras
Sometimes.

I studied physics at a well respected, internationally recognized university,
and had made all the right connections to get into a masters/PhD programme for
particle physics. I ended up not pursuing that path because at the time I
found programming & software development more interesting, and more lucrative
(this latter is still true - there's no money in physics).

But, at times, I wish I could go back and do it all differently. I often
lament the knowledge I've essentially forgotten, and leaf through some old
textbooks and papers nostalgically.

------
mrdependable
I enjoyed programming when I was younger, but didn't really consider it as a
career until I needed to make money. I've had other jobs and this certainly
takes the cake compared to those, but I hate that all my productivity requires
me to be sitting in front of a computer. I don't really get any satisfaction
from my work either, but I've accepted that as part of life. Need to put food
on the table somehow. If I had to do it over again though, I probably would
choose something that requires me to be out and about more.

------
stephen82
Have I regretted for majoring Computer Science?

1 million percent yes!

Have I regretted becoming a programmer?

I have no idea, as I was never given the opportunity to become one!

I'm 36, a genuine generalist, the standard "jack of all trades, master of
none", and obviously I'm doomed in this miserable field.

Am I looking for something else to do?

Yep, but I have no prior experience to anything else.

If I had the opportunity to travel back in time and kick my butt for choosing
computers and technology, I would gladly do so.

I miss my childhood so much...no cell phones, no internet, no FaceBook or
Instagram.

I feel like a 90 year old grumpy grandpa -_-

------
arayh
When I was younger, I was deciding between a career as a programmer or an
artist. I went with the logical conclusion that the former would be more
financially stable than the latter. I don't regret this decision, as I do find
programming work compelling. There are always many new things to learn and new
challenges to overcome.

------
alimw
Yes. If you don't know how to do the grunt work then noone's going to be able
to make you do it. In one job I ended up spending most of my time programming
for my junior's project simply because she couldn't (or wouldn't) do it
herself. When the company was taken over she kept her job but I lost mine.

------
krapp
No.

I do regret going to school to become a programmer so close to 40, because
being a 40 year old programmer with newbie skills and no professional
experience makes getting hired in an already difficult market just slightly
more difficult.

So now I pay down my student loans doing other things and write code on the
side and educate myself online.

------
growlist
Absolutely not. Programming is about the only thing that keeps me going in
tech. I cannot wait to ditch the data and application software consultancy I
am required to do at present, because they lower my salary and kill my
motivation.

------
lastofus
I regret that I will have RSI pain in my arms for the rest of my life. Chronic
pain is depressing.

------
aogl
tldr; "no"

I have been programming since I was 11 when I first started in Turbo Pascal
and Borland C++ (somewhat simultaneously), I then started working as a
teenager doing freelance work and getting some cash on the side (which was
great). I never had internet back then as it wasn't around yet, so learning to
get programs to work and debugging things was a minefield, and I loved it!

I then moved countries and got work visas on my ability, bought houses and
raised a family, spoilt everyone along the way.

I'm glad I made those decisions more than 20 years ago, and I still enjoy
everyday and what I do!

~~~
rboyd
twins. I was born in 82 and the borland pascal and c++ compilers were my first
"real" languages after some qbasic.

that feeling when you'd stay up all night long stuck on a problem with nowhere
to turn for help, then finally, eureka.

oh also, mode 13h.

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dirtylowprofile
No regrets.

------
Koshkin
I wish I did.

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sh87
No, not yet.

