I burned out in my junior year of college (Penn State -- Computer Science major). I toughed it out, swearing that I'd never get a programming job once I graduated.
Well, almost three years later, I'm a developer, and I love it. I've loved it ever since I stopped writing linked lists and solving the 8 queens problem in Prolog.
Computer science in college sucked. Programming for real is cool. I get to work with new technologies all the time and work on new projects every few months. Sure, there're things that suck, like maintainence work and jerk managers, but you have that anywhere. And I've found that the good parts of the jobs usually far outweigh the bad parts.
As for pay, I started out very low on the salary scale (at the time, my high-school teacher girlfriend, also fresh out of college, was making the same as me), but things are much better now. I think I'm making about 2.5 times what I started at, so your career will go places quickly. Yeah, things are looking a little down these days, but it can't last forever.
I know a lot of people are weighing in on this one, but I was in exactly the same situation as you, and now I'm doing very well in a job that I like a lot. Hopefully things work out just as well for you!
Slashdot Mirror
I burned out in my junior year of college (Penn State -- Computer Science major). I toughed it out, swearing that I'd never get a programming job once I graduated.
Well, almost three years later, I'm a developer, and I love it. I've loved it ever since I stopped writing linked lists and solving the 8 queens problem in Prolog.
Computer science in college sucked. Programming for real is cool. I get to work with new technologies all the time and work on new projects every few months. Sure, there're things that suck, like maintainence work and jerk managers, but you have that anywhere. And I've found that the good parts of the jobs usually far outweigh the bad parts.
As for pay, I started out very low on the salary scale (at the time, my high-school teacher girlfriend, also fresh out of college, was making the same as me), but things are much better now. I think I'm making about 2.5 times what I started at, so your career will go places quickly. Yeah, things are looking a little down these days, but it can't last forever.
I know a lot of people are weighing in on this one, but I was in exactly the same situation as you, and now I'm doing very well in a job that I like a lot. Hopefully things work out just as well for you!
John Hofmann