Sitting at a desk, eyes glued to a screen, drinking cup after cup of coffee, heavy metal blaring from your headphones, eating junk food at your desk because you dare not tear your eyes away from the screen. Let’s be honest – this is how most devs are portrayed by the media. When we see devs in movies, they’re usually hackers who live in their parents’ basement. While this may appeal to the reclusive, caffeine-addicted sides of some of you, this image has left others asking, “is coding boring?” We believe that coding is anything but boring, and we’d like to tell you why.
Let’s Hear From the Devs
Growth hacker, Pavel Malos approached some developers to find out exactly what a day in the life of a coder looks like. Here’s what he found out:
For Wesley Bitomski, “Code Poet and Systems Architect,” the majority of his day is spent sharing ideas with other engineers, writing documentation, reading and debating with his colleagues. Somewhere in the midst of all that, some coding work happens. Some days are taken up by meetings that entail reporting on the work that was done and planning a way forward. In his company, management is succinctly aware that most devs try to get out of meetings and back to solving problems, so they keep meetings to a minimal. As for the rest of his day, Wesley spends his day debating about which programming language is best, and eventually agreeing to disagree. As he puts it:
“For the rest of the day, I debated the merits of JavaScript’s design with a frontend engineer while I finished up some hanging work from the prior sprint and got going on my week’s work. And the guy legitimately likes JS, and wants me to as well. The very idea of liking JS is strange and alien to me. Why would I want to do that to my brain, when the likes of Go, Scala, Racket, and Python have got my back and are far better designed? He’s a weird dude, and I love him like a brother. He probably feels the same way about me, especially the weird part and hopefully the brother part” (Source: Medium).
For coder, Edmund Elder, “sitting before the screen and writing new lines of code all day is far from reality.” He describes his work as thinking, reading and learning new things – it’s 30% work and 70% discovering new things. When he works remotely and needs to find a solution to a coding problem, Edmund walks his dogs in the forest while “thinking about threads or complex UI-handling problems” (Source: Medium).
Wes and Edmund are just two examples of developers who certainly don’t fit the Hollywood-created stereotype. They are well-balanced individuals who share a love for learning new things and solving problems. Most of all, they both have a sense of humour. The common thread is that coding is certainly not boring – its interactive, engaging and fulfilling.
Let’s Look At The Stats
A study conducted by Stack Overflow showed that out of all the developers surveyed, 73.7% ranged between feeling almost completely satisfied and being completely satisfied with their careers. This points to the fact that the vast majority of developers are confident that they have made the right decision by embarking on a career in coding.
Source: Stack Overflow
The same survey showed that developers are generally also satisfied with their jobs and those who are not, are not faced with an insurmountable challenge in finding another job, due to high competition amongst companies to snatch up the best devs. With these exciting prospects, it’s safe to say that coding is a sought-after career path – it’s certainly not a boring, dead-end street. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The development industry is experiencing an unprecedented boom – if you’re considering a career in coding, there really is no better time than the present to take the leap.
Coders are Creatives
Graphic designers, animators, editors and copywriters are often thought of as being creatives. But they’re not the only ones who turn campaigns and projects into things of beauty. Coders play a big role in conceptualising and bringing projects to life. At its core, creativity is about solving problems, and that’s the essence of what coders do. Emily Kager, mobile developer at open source software company Mozilla, has a degree in neuroscience but a year after graduating, she decided to learn how to code. In an interview with Scott Morris from The Hard Refresh, Kager said: “I love that with programming you have the skills to make anything you want, and I also love getting to solve puzzles with code, thinking creatively, and using problem-solving skills every day at my job.”
So let’s throw away the age old stereotype of the coder who is driven close to insanity by his/her job. Yes, you’ll have those kinds of days – just like in every other industry, but coding is what you make of it. Not all the jobs you tackle will be the most creative and engaging, but you can take on freelance projects that speak to your passion if you have the time. Think laterally, be proactive and most importantly, keep learning – that’s the key to never getting bored and keeping your mind engaged.
Eager to learn the ropes and find out whether a career in coding is for you? Talk to one of our course consultants and we’ll give you free, practical advice on what to do next.
