Developers that aren’t just developers
In the hosting industry I’ve worked in a wide variety of positions – everything from front line support to upper management. Very few of these positions I would consider to be developer positions, but in almost all of them I’ve developed software in one way or another. I’m always coding to make my environment a little better or my job a little less repetitive. Over the past decade I’ve become a fairly active member in all of the organizations I have been a part of when it comes to the improvement or optimization of business processes using automation.
One of my good friends has been in the same industry I have been in for several years, and he doesn’t do any development at all. He regularly expresses frustration with his positions and becomes disenfranchised with what he does. I wonder if his frustration does not stem at least in part from the fact that he isn’t actively improving his environment. In saying that, I realize that not everyone has the opportunity to do so (and in many ways the fact that I can is a blessing), however his positions are very similar to the ones I worked earlier in my career.
In a discussion with a coworker the other day, they mentioned that they thought I might fit in to the Development department of our company. Currently, I work in an operational department, doing a fair amount of development work, but also maintaining several operational day-to-day responsibilities. Most of the really interesting development I am doing is very “domain specific” (which is probably why I am doing it, rather than our development group). Most of the development projects I’ve really enjoyed in the past were similar.
Comments
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I think if your activly working to make your work better, not only does it give you somthing different to focus on that the repetive tasks but the company values you more.
.. Maybe your friends in the wrong job?
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Nice post. I am also a developer. I am self-employed, but sometimes I will do some work for other people. In my self-employed work, about 50-60% of my time is spent writing scripts that will do things in the time it takes to write a command in the terminal that would take someone days or even months to do by hand. This is a really satisfying factor of being a programmer.
PS. Good to see your not using WordPress
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Great article. I think great work has to do a lot with being motivated.. Also, after reading your blog for a while, I think you can be great developer..
Good luck! Sam