As the senior manager of the software development team, part of my duty is to interview job candidates. One thing that jumped out to me a while ago as I was going through a resume is that a lot of candidates have more interesting jobs at the beginning of their career than their latest employment.My own experience is very similar. The first job I got after finishing college was with a software engineering company for transportation (mainly trains) and traffic control system, where 'engineering' meant exactly that. The company was ISO9000/9001 certified so that means every process and decision had to be clearly documented and signed off. The traditional software development model, i.e. "The Waterfall", was king and the thickness of the requirement and design documents were matched by the comprehensive testing documents. Every change request must be approved, coded, tested, and signed off beforebeing let loose onto the real world. Oftentimes this meant a simple one-line change could take nearly a day to complete.
Despite all that bureaucracy, the year and a half time I spent there was probably the most intellectually stimulating and rewarding time I had and since. Everyday was a challenge and we all felt the responsibility of writing safety critical software where even a small mistake could potentially be fatal. And the fruit of our labour would be used by millions of commuter everyday so we derived a lot of pride and satisfaction from our work.
Compare that against the various jobs I had since then; immigration case system, security trading back-end system, online banking application, corporate tax application, etc. All of them are challenging in some ways but none of them excites me and made me wake up everyday and raring to go to work like my first job. Developing ecto for Windows from scratch was as close as I get of being excited by software development in the last few years, and in retrospect this is a pretty sad state of affair. (Adriaan Tijsseling is the original developer of ecto on the Mac)
Is this why most software applications are mediocre at best, because they don't excite the developers who work on them? Is this why ground breaking and exciting software tends to come from Open Source developer community or start-ups because they are more passionate about what they are working on? What is your experience? Was your first job more exciting than your current one?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-19-2007 @ 12:20PM
Alex Rudloff said...
In my case, no, thankfully ;) But I think you're on to something -- it's important to work on things that excite you. Passion in software development is a key component to developing a worthwhile product.
This job can be too stressful and monotonous to work on something you don't care about.
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2-19-2007 @ 7:23PM
ace said...
It it is always downhill after your first love.
www.aceemploymentservices.net
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2-19-2007 @ 10:29PM
Sheetal said...
Didn't you heard of a quote "Ignorance is a bliss"? The more reality dose you get, the less exciting it gets :)
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2-19-2007 @ 10:38PM
Coder said...
My first job was writing a transcendental math package in microcode on a time-shared microprogrammable processor. Then we I worked on a machine-independent, table driven assembly language debugger. Very cool stuff.
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2-19-2007 @ 10:47PM
Ken Crandall said...
I think it may have something to do with the fact that we don't bring any mental "baggage". At our first job, there are pretty few pre-conceived notions about what is "good" or "bad".
I am more of a systems person, but it is the same situation for myself -- I remember fondly my first job, and the level of learning (not only technical, but also social and political) required to become part of the working world.
I think that later in life we start to develop (hopefully educated) opinions about how things should or should not be done and that colors our outlook. What, in the past would have been soaked-up like a sponge is not put through the selective filtering that our own experience gives us.
I think that it becomes a trade-off between a kind of unfettered joy in finally getting paid to do work, and the responsibility and realizations that our experiences drive us towards -- we get to do more and better things with more responsibility, but with the load of that same responsibility squarely now on our shoulders.
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2-19-2007 @ 11:47PM
Dave said...
My experience is very similar. My first position was in a Cancer research institute, where every piece of software was cutting edge and was using technology that had never been applied to the problems before.
I've never found anything as exciting since...
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2-20-2007 @ 12:18AM
Mason Browne said...
Reminds me of one of my first fun development jobs.
In fact, that photo looks a lot like mine:
http://mygripe.net/2007/02/memories.html
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2-20-2007 @ 1:08AM
Ed Thomson said...
I'll always look back fondly on my first job -- working on a tiny underfunded team writing data visualization software on supercomputers. I loved it because everything was new - it was non-stop learning, almost as much playing as working. (And the playing was on Crays!)
And while no job has inspired me quite as much, or in quite the same way, I can also look back and say that I would absolutely hate that job now. Lots of beauracracy, stupid infighting, and (in retrospect) really poor software.
As you mentioned, being excited about your job certainly means you produce better code. I was fortunate to find a job that suits me - a workplace that's simultaneously very mellow, and very willing to take risks. Lots of smart and dedicated coworkers, good clients, and interesting problems.
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2-20-2007 @ 1:16AM
Alex Hung said...
Don't get me wrong, the project I am working on right now has some of the best code I've ever design and written. The team is the best collection of developers I've worked with. The only problem is that at the current stage of the product development, the work is not very inspiring. Bug fixing can get you excited only for so long.
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2-20-2007 @ 6:44AM
hazard said...
I'm still in my first job (as a programmer) .. been at it for 7 years! It's become quite a love/hate thing as the directors are arseholes [constant turnover of staff] but they keep getting amazing contracts and we have huge freedoms to develop solutions is whatever way we think will work best.
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2-20-2007 @ 9:39AM
wooter said...
Definitely. 100%. Open source coding is so much more exciting, and it really makes a developer *want* to work on the project.
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2-20-2007 @ 11:32AM
goldriver said...
In my case, the first job was the best. I did RF engineering in cellular just as the industry was starting nearly 20 years ago. I think most people bring more creativity to their jobs when they are young. The greatest physicists, artists and musicians do their most enduring work befor the age of 30.
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2-20-2007 @ 1:12PM
John said...
It really sounds to me more like when you are having problems with your girlfriend and then you think back on all of the positive qualities of your ex-girlfriend. Things look so much more attractive in the rear-view mirror. Not to say that your first job may not have been better, but it's easier for it to appear that way.
John
http://www.monomachines.com
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2-21-2007 @ 1:44PM
Mark Thomas said...
Um, isn't this obvious?
If you studied people who WEREN'T looking for a job, you'd probably find they typically have more interesting jobs now.
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2-24-2007 @ 2:28PM
Joost said...
I agree with John, things do look a lot better in the rear-view mirror. And the farther away they are, the better they look.
But Alex: when did those people start their careers? Did they start during the internet bubble, were fired when it burst and were, after that, willing to take on any job they could find?
And another thing: maybe it would be wise for anybody to try their best to see stuff in which they can grow and try new stuff. In the beginning everything is new and cool. The more comfortable you get, the greyer it gets...
Joost
http://www.dgfmedia.net
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2-24-2007 @ 2:30PM
Alex Hung said...
@Joost,
Actually most of them are seasoned developers, way before the internet bubble. The candidates that started just before or around the bubble are the ones that have pretty 'boring' career. Not that 'boring' is bad, just that they don't make me go 'Oh, that's interesting.'.
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5-07-2007 @ 8:19AM
2241 said...
Many people live to survive their poor bosses.
In spite of management they somehow see it to slog on. www.2241glasses.com
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