Are There Any Fun Tech Jobs Left?

er0ck asks: "My first job out of college was working for an Internet Startup. They gave me some books and told me to learn Perl. Our office was a refurbished factory, with lots of light and open space. Best of all, we could bring our nerf toys in to work (and use them!). Four months later, the company went under. Several dot bomb jobs later, I work for my state government. Is anyone still having fun at their tech job?" I think that with the economic downturn, more companies are concentrating on survival more than being "fun". Are there any "fun" tech jobs left, or have they all suffered from the Economic Darwinism of the early 21st century?

"[Government work is] steady work, but boring at times. (I don't think they'd approve of the Nerf guns). Without the pressure of staying in business, projects sometimes stagnate, leaving us with little to do. During these slow times, I help behind the scenes at NerfCenter.com; It's a fun site, and they are switching to Perl for their admin backend. It keeps my skills sharp, and wards off the boredom.

My questions to the Slashdot community are:

1. Can you have a fun tech job, without the worry of being suddenly unemployed?
2. If you are you forced (as I am) to get your fun on the side what are some good projects to get involved in?
3. What do you to unwind and have a bit of 'fun' in the workplace?"

Comments

Right...

[SilentChris]

"Best of all, we could bring our nerf toys in to work (and use them!). Four months later, the company went under."

Gee, imagine that.

Re:Right...

[dlaur]

Okay, maybe this is off-topic... you decide:

The really sad part is that people think that you can write software after you "learn" a language. Some college grads come out of school having "learned" a few languages, but unless they were involved in a large scale university project, they haven't learned how to really write software since each of the programs they coded usually didn't grow beyond what could be completed in a semester or two. (Forgive me for generalizing, but this has been my experience with new-hires.)

Additionally, lots of managers where I work think that they can go buy someone some "Java training" or "PL/SQL training" or "Solaris admin training" or whatever and suddenly they will have transformed a junior support person into a senior developer, DBA or sys admin.

This is analagous to sending someone to school to learn the French language assuming that they will return with the skills required to write a novel in French. I only speak one language (English, obviously) and I am nowhere close to having developed my skills with the language to the point where I could write a novel.

I don't care what language I work in as much as I care about the archiecture of the system, the process used to design/code/test, how much peer review and interaction is involved, what scheduling methods are used, whether or not I can live with the mandated coding standard (I have curly brace issues...), whether there are enough iterations in the schedule, how much time is dedicated to refactoring, whether the scope is well defined, etc, etc, etc...

Re:Right...

[haizi_23]

I worked for an I-builder (building corporate websites as consultants) company for a year and a half. The thing that really signalled the end for me was when they brought in a few marketing execs and decided that as part of our voracious hiring strategy, the most important thing to advertise to potential job applicants was "company culture". This meant bragging about how we all got weekly massages, and company sponsored happy-hours, and free beer at the end of the day on Fridays, etc.

In other words, they started placing a lot of emphasis on totally superficial crap. The real way to attract good people, and therefore to stay in business, is to promise them (and deliver)interesting projects that are well-managed.

In my mind a "fun" job is one that has you doing interesting technical projects, and Nerf toys has nothing to do with it. Of course, a good work environment with a lot of personal freedom is essential too, but I think if you find good projects with good people involved, a fun work environment is likely to follow naturally. Unless of course you're working for the govt., or a govt contractor.

What is a "fun job"?

[BillyGoatThree]

Playing with nerf guns in a converted factory is fun...but is it a job?

My job is as a programmer/admin. I enjoy it and the company receives good value. Pre-1995 this would have been defined as heaven. To you dot-bomb losers it is apparently hell.

What a dumb question

[GoofyBoy]

"Are there any more Fun jobs?!??!!"

Yes, there are. For years people have been loving their jobs because they enjoy what they are paid for. Not for playing around in a sandbox like you are in Grade 1.

And its not only tech people who enjoy their job. Its doctors (excitement/feel like they are helping people), ministers/counsolers (spiritual fullfillment) and even fishermen (enjoy the surroundings/hard-work enjoyment).

I think this guy needs an attiude change/reality-check.

Re:What a dumb question

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the poster deserves harshness. It might wake the poor bloke up. Our company is currently saddled with a group of programmers who think the job should be fun. They constantly whine about when will the stock options be worth something while they spend most of the day shooting pool and playing pinball. The VP of Engineering finally got fed-up with one group (18 months = kludgy coredumping mess) and gave the project to another group. In eight weeks, the non-whiny crew managed to turn out a rock-solid chunk of code that had all the basic functionality.

I'm personally fed up with these losers who want the company to entertain them 24x7 and pay for their lunches to boot. A previous poster hit it spot on. You should enjoy your job -- fun, however, is not a requirement.

I want to come into the office sometime in the morning, get some work done, then leave around 8 or 9 hours later. I don't want to spend 2 hours playing foosball so that I can stay at work until midnight.

And don't give me that "recharging the batteries" routine. Yes, there are definitly times that you need to step back from a problem and clear your head. A walk around the building should do the trick. Don't interrupt 3 other productive folks so you can "recharge your batteries".

Flame off.

Ever consider...

[pongo000]

...teaching others what you know about IT? I teach at several local community colleges, after five years of consulting work and finally being laid off at my last job. The pay is decent ($35-$40 per classroom hour), I can set my own schedule, and I can teach pretty much what I want the way I want. It gives me a great excuse to play on lots of *nix machines, write programs, and learn from my students as well.

Instead of lining the pockets of greedy company owners/CEOs, I work for a non-profit organization which is there to support you, rather than hinder your progress. Layoffs? College enrollments are on the rise due to the massive numbers of IT layoffs! Have you ever heard of a college instructor getting laid off? It simply doesn't happen, because of the inverse relationship between IT employment levels and the need for college-level IT instruction.

Plus, I find teaching to be immensely satisfying, both on a personal and spiritual level. What more noble endeavor is there than to help others? I can safely say that I've never felt "personally satisfied" at any consultant gig I've done.

If you're happy following all the other unemployed IT sharks that are being chummed by headhunters with no jobs to offer and companies intent on building their resume files for when the "turnaround" comes, more power to you. If you're looking for something that's not only fun, but honorable, check out your local colleges.

Depends what you mean by "fun"

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I'd just like to point out two oft-overlooked facts here.

1. If your idea of a "fun tech job" involves spending a week learning HTML, reading the first five chapters of a book on Perl and then calling yourself an expert web developer, you're SOL. With the worsening world economy, employers will be laying people off or slowing down recruitment. Consequently, you're going to need to know your stuff if you want to get a decent job. This is fine for the people who do, and always have, bother to learn their subject and keep their skills up to date. It's tough luck for those who've only been in the market for a year or two, who started right in the middle of the never-going-to-make-it dot.com boom, and who have gotten used to being hired even though they have no great skills to write home about.
2. On the other hand, as companies need to employ fewer but better quality staff to keep going in an adverse climate, they will need to offer genuinely good deals in order to attract those staff. Average IT workers want the average rate; good workers want several times that, and a few nice perks, among them an enjoyable job. Conversely, good companies that treat their staff well do tend to get well-motivated and loyal staff in return. The productivity of those staff is much higher, and the reason that such good companies tend to do well relative to others, even in an adverse business climate. It's a shame so few management groups recognise this clear and well-proven fact about working conditions and act accordingly.

job fun != nerf toys

[Laxitive]

I have a bit to comment on this. I've heard way too many people equate jobs where you get to do whatever you want, with jobs that are fun. Job enjoyability very little to do with a lot of the things tech guys harp about.

For me anyway, an funfactor of a job has very little to do with foosbal tables, or nerf guns, or anything like that. A job is enjoyable if I get to do work that's enjoyable. For the past few months, I've been working at an embedded tech company that's somewhat prosperous.

At the beginning of the term, the boss just came over, dropped a couple specification manuals on us (me, co-worker), and told us to implement it. That was cool. No micro-management - we went to him when we had questions or doubts. For starting from scratch, and not knowing the hardware or the codebase, we got a decent amount of work accomplished.

The answer to your question is YES. There are really nice, enjoyable jobs out there. Find a company that's doing interesting work - no, not the next e-business we're going to revolutionize the world with our web-frontend loss-leader 'solution' funded on venture capital and no chance of profit.

It's about the work man. I became a programmer because I love programming, because solving hard problems using logic (I love math too ;)) makes me feel good.

So what sets you off? compilers? virtual machines? optimization? datbase? graphics? ai? infrastructure? app-coding? embedded systems? low-level?

There's tons of companies out there doing interesing stuff, that need good people to work on interesting problems. So find one and get in.

If you're not into your work, no amount of nerf playing will take away the fact that you don't enjoy your work - it just means you'll get less done, and be dead weight for your company and get fired, or not be fired (which indicates bad management and that the company is headed nowhere fast).
-Laxitive

Re:fun?

[dTaylorSingletary]

warning: asshole alert

enjoying your job has nothing to do with hippy-dom, new flavors or old flavors alike.

it's about mindfulness, and life positivity.

Re:Is being an NFL Quarter back "fun"?

[Skyshadow]

You're off base in pretty much everything you said.

First, have you ever *watched* football? Do me a favor -- watch the Monday Night game this week and look at Brett Favre's face when he's playing and then tell me he's not enjoying himself. Sure, these guys get paid a lot, but the best players you see are in the zone. That's where you want your people, too.

The idea that you should "give up the idea of having fun at work" sounds like the refrain of a manager bent on shooting themselves in the foot. Say it with me: Happy people are productive people. Happy people are people not blowing out the door at 5 (like your post implies you do). Happy people are more original and have better ideas and generally do their jobs better.

Remember: fun doesn't have to mean doing no work. Fun can mean taking your people to Dave & Busters once a quarter if you make a tough quota. Fun can mean buying lunch for everybody and having a bonding session. These things don't create huge disruptions or take a lot of time but create a much better working environment.

Beyond that, remember that the really legendary workplaces -- places like EA way back in the day -- weren't sweat shops. They were places where people didn't have any huge need to go home, where they felt inspired, etc.

Language doesn't matter

[Tim Macinta]

The really sad part is that people think that you can write software after you "learn" a language.

On the flip side of the coin are the people who think that you are unqualified for a particular project because you haven't learned a particular language or flavor-of-the-day API. As you did an excellent job of pointing out, software engineering skills are by far the most important factor that determine the quality of a developer's work and these skills are largely language and API independent. This (among other reasons) is why MIT teaches (or used to teach anyway) their computer science courses with obscure languages like CLU and SCHEME - because it is the engineering principals that matter and not the language.

So to the original poster who chided the company for hiring somebody who didn't know Perl to write Perl, that may have actually been a very good decision if the guy had substantial software engineering skills. It takes a few days to pick up a new programming language, but years to develop good software engineering skills.