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The Worst Development Job You've Ever Had?
manavendra asks: "I'm currently working for a solution provider for telcos, and as part of product migration the entire API has to be 'internationalized'. Owing to a legacy architecture, most (if not all) application logic is still embedded in PL/SQL stored packages. My job: find hard coded strings, and replace with calls to the globalization API.
Yes there is a script written to handle most tasks, but its quite primitive (not to mention fears of automating 'too much'). Boredom is at all time high. Have tried all means of whittling away the time, and hence this question to other Slashdot users: What's the worst ever job you had to do in the name of 'software development' (or as a software developer)?"
nuff said.
I know this is cheating, but I must say: the worst development job I've ever had is unemployment. Lots of work, but no pay. Any job is better than no job, so long as you're getting paid.
You can have the best job in the world and it still sux because of who you work for.
Like when your boss has chronic halotosis (or "halo" for short.)
mine does.
Try to come up with more and more clever scripts for finding where changes need to be made rather than doing it by rote brute force.
Not only does it make better use of your brain and avoid boredom, but until you get to the last 1% of changes, it is the more efficient thing to do. Then, at the very end, cave-in and make 10 changes by hand to get the overall beast to work.
There is nothing more mind-numbing than doing repetitious work that a machine could be doing. It's kind of like moving rocks, only worse, because you can't disengage your attention from the task as much as you can when moving rocks.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I find that the "worst jobs" are often caused by the people you're working with/for.
Sure, you can get a boring job, etc - but life can be made really difficult when you have a "mean" boss. It's time to get out when this happens.
I'll never again explain to a client who doesn't have unit tests how important unit tests are. Nothing is worse than writing a zillion unit tests for someone else's piss poor code that wasn't designed to be tested.
Bored/hate your job? Try working in an IT department(it's like programming, only you have to deal with bitchy people all day, everything is your fault, and you get paid less), or unemployment.
I'm sure I'll get slapped "flamebait" or somesuch, but I'm really tired of these "my programming job sucks because it is not emotionally fulfilling" stories that keep popping up; many of us IT geeks don't have jobs, and you programmers are whining about how rough your lives are because you're getting paid to hit "next" in find&replace? I don't have much sympathy, especially since most of you were paid significantly better than us(on average, a few years ago, a javamonkey wet behind the ears would earn 2x what I did as a sysadmin with several years experience). If you don't like your job, change fields to something you think you'd be good at and find more rewarding.
Please help metamoderate.
Right now, I'll take the "worst development job ever".
That's a really tough way to learn "Never ask before installing software you need." If you hadn't said anything, and had never specified how you fixed the data, they probably would never have cared. They probably didn't even know the difference between Perl and WordPerfect.
Though of course, it may have also taught you "Never take the short way when on an hourly assignment." Unless it wasn't hourly....
...
Coding a 401k tracking and transfer system in UNIBASIC. Hands down. An incredibly aged and horribly designed system (honestly, are any legacy systems WELL designed?) that definitely was NOT defined with extensibility in mind
:-)
That's a good question.
I'm getting the impression that a lot of old code is better than the new guy gives it credit for, especially if there hasn't been a particularly smooth hand-off. The new guy has new and better--or sometimes just different--outlooks on coding than what the original team had.
Of course, some code is just inarguably bad.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Hey, at least you have a fricking job. The company I was doing work for had a massive layoff. The worst job I had is NO JOB!!!
Sounds like a job that would be problematic if you were a bigot.
What difference does it make if they were a 300lb crossdresser?
It's one thing to complain about your boss' lack of competence or crappy attitude. It's another to be a complete prick and complain about factors that don't really influence their management capability (i.e. being fat, gay, and dressing in female clothing).
I wouldn't use an MCSE as a programmer. An MCSD might begin to qualify though.
Hell, there are no rules here. We're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas Edison
People with OCD (like me) often find pleasure in repetitive jobs. Sometimes I'll even repetitively fiddle with something at hand while I'm thinking about something else.
And just because I'm autistic doesn't make me retarded.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
The guys job sounded shitty, even without the boss.
Really? Explain this to me...how does liking men instead of women, and prefering to wear a dress make you unstable?
Behavior that indicated he was unstable was constantly switching his demands, threatening to do people in the ass, having people searched, and hiring incompetents. Doesn't matter if he's a gay crossdresser or not, straight people who wear nice suits can and often do, do similar things.
If he were just gay and wore a dress there shouldn't have really been a problem...unless of course he's a bigot.
Are they paying you for the completed job, or do you at least make some more cash whenever a snag crops up?
You are describing wage slavery. Even the worst job can be defended with 'it's better than no job'.
If he threatened to fuck your asses, take a few weeks of sick, get all emotional and destressed that your bos was joking about raping you and sue for vast ammounts from sexual harrasment :) ... just not enough people in the world like dogbert ;)
Gee...just unprofessional eh?
So you would tolerate that from a straight thin person. I certainly wouldn't.
In either case, would I be concerned that the person would actually carry out the threat? No.
you may have heard the chorus:
Oh yeah, life goes on
long after the thrill of living is gone...
Wow... surely you can inform us of what industry needs this horrible product so badly without breaking your NDA ...
:)
I promise I'll hire you
Joy.
Backup software which doesn't suck is an undocumented sign of the apocalypse. When good backup software also deals with multiple drive libraries in a way which also doesn't suck then we will also know the point where pi repeats.
"Survival of the fittest Max, and we've got the fucking gun!" - Pi
I worked @ Anderson Consulting years ago (contractor in internal IT), and the rumor was that if you weren't promoted in 2 years or so, they'd let you go and bring in some fresh meat. And only about 10% of people were promoted, and that was primarily based on sales skills. Great fucking job they had.
(And the meat was pretty fresh -- mostly hot 25 year-old MBA chicks. It's amazing that companies will blow millions of dollars on bogo-consulting just to have a bunch of pretty girls walking around conceptualizng the intarweb or whatever they did.)
How is this offtopic? In the time it took my to origonally write this response, and now while I'm proofing it, Miyako's post went from "+4: Informative" to "1: Offtopic." Miyako is stating the definitions of (depending on your school of thought) medical and/or psychological conditions that the parent poster obviously either did not know or did not give a shit about.
As someone who _is_ transgendered, being lumped with your "big gay boss" (which says to me you're likely a big bad bigot) is offensive to me and I'd be willing to bet your boss would not want to be lumped in as transexual. Furthermore, I doubt very much that your boss actually crossdressed at work and it doesn't sound like the type of work relationships where you all went out to karaoke every night and had a rockin' party...
You may very well have had a dumbfuck boss (you even may have had a crossdressing boss! who knows!) who could not decide upon a page layout, hired fools, and was very overweight. But I'm not going to go say, "Fuck! My boss was such an idiot! Couldn't decide on a design and hired people who didn't know what the hell they were doing! And did I mention he was a nigger? A day couldn't go by without him saying 'If y'all don't get this shit right I'm gonna force-feed y'all watermelons!'" (Appologies for not being able to come up with a better racist remark....) You'd know I was bullshitting you.
Likewise, I call bullshit on your story.
So don't embelish your stories with lies to make them sound more entertaining. And if you have to, at least try to pick lies that don't create a giant "BIGOT" sign over your head.
-Trillian
it is interesting to read your comments.
replying to some friends who were arguing that creativity is stagnant in the videogame industry, i said that until the utilitarian bottom-line management types understood that programming is itself an art and start giving the artists what they are due in terms of money and freedom , all your gonna get is boring, derivative schlock.
Yes, there is, and you apparently got to experience it, you lucky bastard. It's seeing a former bad boss being led off to server time in a federal PMITA prison, and knowing that YOU HELPED PUT HIM THERE!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I'm being modbombed for my opinions. Check my posting history.
OK, I checked your posting history. I saw Trolls, Flamebaits, Off Topic and so on. Every one of them well deserved with the possible exception of one which was probably considered a little too pro-Microsoft for this crowd. Even that was delivered in a tone I would consider baiting flames.
So, if you consider your karma valuable enough to complain in your sig about being modbombed, simply state your opinion in a (1) non-inflammatory fashion and (2) on topic. If you follow those two principles, you'll be OK.
A refreshing beverage may help as well.
BTW, this comment is completely off-topic and I fully accept any karmic repercusions.
How bad is it to be a MS programmer? I'm not doubting that it's bad or implying that it must be. I'm curious as to how bad it is compared to programming in other environemnts (Unix, Linux, AS/400, MVS, etc). I mean, I truly hate Microsoft for their force- and fraud-related activites, and lots of people joke about how bad it is to program using their technology. Can you give me the technical reasons why it sucks?
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
Using Windows Script and a 3270 emulator to amend 100k+ records in a DB2 database.
They were a little militant about not letting analysts have any execution authority beyond some very locked down JCL, but if RACF will let you update a file and nobody'll be looking at your screen for a number of hours...
Don Negro
Perl 6 will give you the big knob. -- Larry Wall
That's a really tough way to learn "Never ask before installing software you need."
I can't stress how much what you said is one of the most important pieces of advice to be given in my life.
When I was doing a leadership course in the military someone asked if it was okay to do something a certain way, our platoon commander said no, you can't.
He then explained that in the future, that whenever we came to a decision where we had doubts whether we'd be 'allowed' to accomplish a task a certain way, but knew that if the answer was "no" that it would be a hell of a lot harder to complete the task, then the best solution was to do it anyway, the worst that happens (within reason) is that they say you can't do it again. But if any benefit is gained, then you have just taken the initiative, and benefited from it.
Seriously, it changed the way I applied myself, and has paid off quite well.
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
I hate to point out the obvious but wouldn't a UPS have been a good investment?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Worst job ever?
--Getting a call from an America consultant (no names) for this 6 month Clarion gig in Miami for a big insurance company (no names).
--Having done this for a very professional Cdn firm (contract renewed twice) I figured it had to be better because it was American. I take the deal.
--Drive 2 hours to the border. Try to get TN visa. Turned back for lack of documentation (University transcript)
--Drive home. It is a long weekend in Canada. University closed. Wait.
--Endure rigmarole and pay $ for dox. Takes all day. Drive back to border next day.
--Get third degree from US Customs. Reluctantly issue TN visa. Charge 50 USD.
--Drive to Miami. In Titusburg Florida meet hacker legend the Cheshire Catalyst. See a shuttle launch. Highlight of the trip.
--Arrive on the spot. Its now an AMERICAN long weekend. Wait.
--Tuesday. Go to the office. The instant I walk towards the elevator three security guys jump out of nowhere. A Black guy in a suit with sunglasses and a walky talky and two white guys in uniform. They demand to know why I'm there. They check out my story and disappear, and I never see them again, but I know they're watching. This does not happen in Canada (and this was WAY before 9/11 too.)
--At the office, nothing is ready. Run around looking for cables for my computer. Have to install own copy of Clarion 5. Spend rest of day getting LAN access. NT shop. Sys admin has never heard of Groups so I have to be assigned access to each resource separately. CoWorker smiles right in my face as he welcomes me to the shop.
--Wednesday - was given the code I was to work on on a floppy disk. Really. At this time I realized this is an amateur shop. Ask Smiling Coworker question regarding Clarion initialization which I had not done for a very long time. He smiles, answers, and goes and tells my new boss I am incompetent.
--Friday. Fax in my time sheet and phone consultant that its there, like I did at the Cdn job. He tells me the firm is letting me go. I break into a flop sweat instantly.
--I confront the boss. You see, I was not supposed to find out about this then. He tells me this isn't for learning experiences. This is when I figure it out about Smiling CoWorker. I tell the boss I do not appreciate this treatment. I do not raise my voice or use profanity. I pack and leave the office. I do not erase any of my work. Someone had to be the professional there and it wasn't them.
--Leave the building. I never see security, but I can feel their eyes on my back.
--Go back to digs. Call consultant. He asks me what I said to the boss, as the boss called him the moment I left the office. So, not only is this guy heartless and brainless, he's gutless too.
--Cry myself to sleep. I really did and I was 43 at the time.
--Wait a week for my cheque. Intercept it just as they are about to mail it...
--drive back to Canada. Lose about $1,000 and all my respect for American management. I am home before the shuttle I saw take off lands. I later read a book that says 'At a new job, beware the guy who's really friendly'. Too true.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
Dewd! /., while fine occasionally, are not the best use of your life.
You've been told to look busy, right? Frickin' teach yourself something! You should be the tower of power in at least one compiled language, a scripting language, and a few miscellaneous things like XML by the time they have work for you.
Find an interesting market of your company and start preparing for a better position.
Start an online degree.
Playing solitaire and reading
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
One suspects that since this story is secondhand that your coworker exaggerated for effect and left out the details.
Imagine, writing simple straightforward code to your customers specifications. What a radical idea.Uhh sorry but an aspiring engineer is not afraid of RTFM! This guy undoubtedly was. You don't learn enough in classes to never having to read manuals again.