Just curious, how is it like to work as a developer. I mean, as a profession and not a hobby or freelancing.

From devRant, so far I know that you work in an office, the managers and bosses are assholes, and people always write unmanageable and undocumented code.

What else is it like? Do you get to work alone or do you have to work with people? Do you stay there all day long?

I know its still going to be a while for me, but I want to know how it will be like.

I dont go to an office, I work from home, once a week the team Im part of gathers at office and We have a good time working together and catching up in each others lives.

The company owners are ppl who understand and push us for better solutions (they are great devs too).

So it depends, obviously the worst places produce the longest and more frequent rants, but that doesnt mean thats the average place.

When a developer is a fresher most of the time he or she is arrogant ( I will use she ) . She fights with seniors to prove that her way of doing the things are right, over the time she learns and get mature. Over the time she becomes humble , over the time she becomes more open to accepting the things suggested by seniors. And one day she became that senior with whom a fresher fights.
P.s. I am faminist that's why she else you can read it with he also.

Until now right from the beginning of my career, I've mostly been an individual contributor or I've worked with small teams. Small teams are good. You get to work with both talented people and "A holes" . In short, it'll be fun. As an individual contributor, life is sometimes easy because you can make quick decisions. And difficult also, because you'll be mostly a loner and there'll be no people around to talk with.

Depends of company and role.

I would say it is just like school, you have some good colleagues and some bad, you do some things which you love but some things you hate with it. And there are teachers (bosses), can be good, motivating or bad and egotistical! But you earn money, so yeah, like a school that pays!

Depends on company and assholes in it.

I currently work within a larger IT team but I have my own projects to maintain and manage for 1 section of the business, every now and then there’s cross project work where another team or two are required for changes due to company workflows or system integrations.

So if you can get along with the other people there’s usually just workload related stress but if other people you need to work with or below (management) are just arrogant and full of shit, then struggles get real.

Well devRant may have a bias since ppl that love their jobs probably wouldn't be on here.

Also in general there will always be more ppl that complain then ppl that tell your they love something.

I think usually you work alone. Boss gives u a task and you do it though you can ask ppl for help.

For most people their team is sitting next to them and you can also IM them. And you'll talk with users via email, phone, face to face.

Sometimes you have meetings.

And as they say depends on team and manager. Honestly my team has been sorta becoming more and more a mess IMO but I just have to deal with it.. Unless I can find a better job.

Well, ot not that bad and when it is you can always go elsewhere. Given the current market situation, there is huge demand for skilled developers - smart companies don't give a crap about years of experience just how good you are, so there is plenty of opportunities even for just graduated that know shit. So, yeah, depends on company and colleagues but luckily there is plenty to choose from.

Personally I go to work everyday, sometime give it few more hours from home, sometime I cut it short at work. I mostly enjoy the goal we are working towards, company of my colleagues and sometimes interesting problems and toys to play with (we do hw as well). In general company is stupid, but I kinda like my part and I'm too lazy to freelance and deal with small clients.

I'm 17 myself, but work as a developer whilst being in school (about 6 hours of school, and 6 hours of work per day, sometimes more). I'm one of two shareholders of the company, we have our office in town (which we actually just use when needed, mostly we work from home). I can't tell you anything about being employed as a dev, but being one of the managers is pretty neat. I love my job and so do the others (1 full-time, some part timers, soon another full timer), the most important thing is keeping everyone happy and motivated - remember: team work is everything! I will be definitely doing my job full time when I finish school in 11 months, totally looking forward to it! :-)

@jackconnorhull
College or high school?
I had no idea a teen can work as a developer. I would have thought they'd throw you out the door the minutes they learn your age or something.

@Michelle if a teen can jailbreak iOS he can be hired though I think if you're underage, there's some more paperwork involved. All those YouTube teens is another example. Just uncommon I guess.

@billgates
I know that teens can work, but I didn't think they can work in a professional company like as a dev.

@Michelle I had to undergo a 10 month long court process to validate my legal capacity - I'm currently attending an academic high school (Gymnasium in German) :)

@jackconnorhull
Oh, I see. It's cool that you had the patience to deal with that.

I'd rather wait until I turn 18, because all that seems like too much work lol.

It has good and bad days, but I'd say that it's a nice job.

I work in a small company. We're 9 devs working together in one room. Usually 1 or 2 devs per project. We ask each other for opinions, help and code reviews. We're in the office all day and eat lunch together, but we can also work from home. We have free coffee and food in the office. We can arrive and leave at any time we want, as long as we complete our work in time.

But it's also very stressful. Estimates are always wrong, so projects get delayed and you're asked to work late. You get pressured to deliver bad code that barely works because the client was promised the application by the end of the week. Then, when everything breaks because it was rushed and not tested properly you have to go back and fix the mess you did and don't remember how it worked. And again you're pressured to do it quick because it's supposed to be deployed by the end of the day.

@shellbug
Oh, that was really helpful. Thanks for adding your input! :)

@Michelle you're welcome. Any other question you want to ask about the job?

@shellbug
I do have one. I heard that your boss chooses your position reguardless of what programming languages you know.

For example, let's just you want to work with Python or C++, but your boss gives you web development.

Is that true? And if it is, will they give you something else if you ask?

@Michelle depends on what job profile you are hired ! If I hire you as python dev then asking you to do Java development is illegal at many places and unethical at most places! Having said that, there little choice on what area you want to work on using python (say you like neural network and project from scratch), might not what your work will land up on.

Also, think from employer perspective, if they hire you as python Dev (on which they tested your proficiency while hiring you) and put you on java development for which they have no clue how good you are, gives them diminished returns from you and possibility of losing you as this is not where you want to progress your career in.

Having said that, I've seen many places that, the discussion takes place on checking existing employees willingness to switch due to prevailing situations (like no more python projects left, sudden influx of Java projects etc.)

Ultimately, as much as you need job, they (employers) also need people to do their work. So it is with mutual consent! If not, you simply leave!

@Michelle what @yendenikhil said. That can always happen, but if your boss is nice they'll ask you if that's ok for you.

I'll also add that you should ask things like these in your job interviews. Prepare a list of questions that you'll want to ask your interviewer so that you know if that is the company you want to work at.

@yendenikhil @shellbug
Oh, I see. That was my main concern. Thanks to both of you! :)

Developer is just one of many professions. It's not that different from other office work. If we have medRant, saleRant, artRant and so on, I'm quite sure majority of rants will still be about stupid colleagues, annoying clients/customers, and etc.

But to answer your question, it's all based on the company culture and the service/product the company is selling. Unlike some profession like medical and government services, we have more choices and freedom.