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I started my software career at a software consulting company (Science Systems) in the UK in '95, although my first programming course was in the early 70s. I've contracted in many fields, but I've been in an environmental regulatory agency for 12 years and it will be my last regular employment. Working here I feel like I've contributed to society and the work is very varied (hence the 12 years!)
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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Part of my goal of getting into healthcare was that I wanted to feel like I'm contributing something great to society. It's been an interesting month-and-a-half so far, and I don't anticipate anything pushing me away at all. 12 years is quite a long while! I've only been in the real professional world for almost 2 years.
I did a large amount of development work for about 2 years in a warehouse environment, to support their processes and data entry, but I didn't have the official title of developer. And they didn't exactly treat me as a developer -- just as a regular warehouse associate, but with my own desk and PC. Haha.
But I'm curious to see where I can go with this. I've been wanting to get to this point for about 8 years now!
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
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Gratz on the recent job advancement and good luck!
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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Thanks, Phil. Good luck to you as well!
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
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Me: measurement equipment (Selling quite literally Vorsprung durch Technik), for about 15 years now, and still quite often, yes.
For me this means user interface (not much anymore), robust communication with "really good" harware over crappy protocols and cables, and - since interfacing a scripting language and having an automation interface - more and more copying data from format A to format B and back again.
The most challenging and interesting thing, though, is working with "programming engineers", for whom writing templates is "fancy stuff" and it takes a lot of consideration to accept that Numerical Recipes isn't exactly production quality code.
Some scientific background is pretty helpful here.
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OEM machine tools for mid-heavy steel fabrication. I'm on the controls, logic and HMI side but we have developers that create CAD/CAM applications too.
I've worked here for nearly 29 years. Started in mechanical engineering, morphed into our IT department for a stretch before joining control engineering 16 years ago.
Enjoy is such a vague word.  At times its very challenging and enjoyable, other times... not so much.
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington
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Worked for a mainframe manufacture for about 40 years 35 full time, then contracting for them after I retired).
Dave.
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Medical imaging research. For the last 17.5 years I have developed software to aid in studying methods to improve early detection of breast and lung cancer with some focus on dose reduction of screening patients when possible. Also I write applications to train radiologists and to compare the effectiveness of different imaging modalities, workstations and software used in the industry.
Matt U. wrote: do you still enjoy it?
At times I do enjoy what I do however at other times it's hard work long hours (80+ hour weeks) and a lot of stress.
John
modified 7-Oct-14 14:33pm.
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Several.
Many companies believe that only people who have been trained in their field can work on software for them, but they're wrong.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I once worked for a company that believed only people with degrees could be programmers. So we had people with degrees in English, History, Art etc, who couldn't program their way out of a wet paper bag.
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I've heard of places like that. I never understood the idea behind it. I once asked a tech recruiter why I didn't qualify due to the fact that I didn't have a degree, and he explained that it's not so much about the specific education, but more about the fact that it somehow "proves" that someone is dedicated. That they're responsible. That they're able to accomplish goals accordingly, in a timely manner.
I still don't have a degree. I don't have a GED yet, because I made a bad move and dropped out of school after my junior year. Not proud of it, but it's true. However, I plan to obtain my GED in the near future, and possibly a degree, depending on how my employer feels it may affect me many years down the road when I move into a much higher position.
I've always taught myself through experimentation and reading articles/tutorials, for about 16 years now since I was 11 years old. When I got into this job, they told me in the beginning that, when possible, they prefer someone who is self taught, because it definitely shows that you have a passion for it, and not just a piece of paper saying someone taught you generic concepts from a textbook. And I agree.
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
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More than half my class at uni were completely unemployable in the field, both before and after they picked up their diplomas.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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In chronological order;
Concrete-industry (five years)
Academics (Nope, didn't fit in there, 2 years tops)
Pharmacy (Introduce a bug and kill someone)
Oil-industry (Just for a year)
Document Control / CAD (Two years and counting)
I'm a developer. To the software it matters not which "industry" you are in. It is all simply data, all stored in a database, all fetched in a similar manner.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: To the software it matters not which "industry" you are in. It is all simply data, all stored in a database, all fetched in a similar manner.
Except it's really not. Software can be tailored for an industry - processes, regulations and even laws may need to be understood and followed. Often times there are specific terms for specific industries. In my case, we're controlling really expensive and really powerful industrial machines that operate in a VERY flexible manner. Instructions and machine reactions need to be very well thought out with specific knowledge of the industry and the machine(s) involved.
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington
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Mike Mullikin wrote: Except it's really not.
Every damn niche thinks it is special.
Mike Mullikin wrote: Software can be tailored for an industry
Software is built based on specs, so yes, it would be tailored. Regardless of the niche, it would be.
Mike Mullikin wrote: processes, regulations and even laws may need to be understood and followed
Yes, but those simply translate to conditions that the developer checks. As long as there is a domain-expert (and no, my domain and industry is software development) I can model and build it.
Mike Mullikin wrote: Often times there are specific terms for specific industries.
There's also specific terms if you are writing a debugger, or a password-manager. Those are translated to logic, and then to code.
Mike Mullikin wrote: In my case, we're controlling really expensive and really powerful industrial
machines that operate in a VERY flexible manner.
More flexible than say, a generic, programmable all-purpose machine?
Mike Mullikin wrote: Instructions and machine reactions need to be very well thought out with
specific knowledge of the industry and the machine(s) involved.
Yawn.
Same goes for most industries; the price of errors can be high. Still your industry is a flow of information, and it is that flow that gets automated. As an analyst I do not need to be a domain-expert. Should not be in fact; one starts leaning on assumptions that the analyst recognizes.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I expect no less from a job hopper. Good luck! ![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington
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Keep it, you might need it someday 
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I think it comes down to what you call yourselves, you are an engineer and Eddy is a software developer. You have very different concepts on what you do, you must be a domain expert as well as a developer, Eddy, and I, need domain experts to function as developers.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: You have very different concepts on what you do, you must be a domain expert as well as a developer, Eddy, and I, need domain experts to function as developers.
Probably true. We're a smallish (450 employees worldwide) family owned business. We don't hire pure developers for short periods of time. We hire people who plan to stay a good long time and become experts in our industry.
Different world I guess...
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington
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Mike Mullikin wrote: We don't hire pure developers tarts for short periods of time
FTFY
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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You and I both! What we are has been established, all we need to work out is the pay!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Matt U. wrote: letter shop/printing service.
Been in this world for 15+ years.
Started at the lower level - interfacing with Docutechs, sending mailmerged data down, etc... Slowly made my way into the front office. Now I'm doing almost exclusively intranet-based order management/crm stuff.
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The letter shop I worked for was my first major role in the professional world, so to speak. While I enjoyed the people I worked with, and I enjoyed the company's culture, it was very limiting. They're only about 13 years old, they're locally owned/operated, and they have about 75 employees total, in one local facility. They were very closed minded from a development standpoint. Limited to core technologies, like C#/.Net, some HTML and JavaScript.
It was a wonderful place to really get my foot in the door in the development world. I don't have a bad thing to say about my experience there, other than I feel like I basically grew out of where I was. There wasn't really any room for advancement, because there were only about 15 people in IT altogether, so there was nowhere for me to go.
The only software I ever got my hands into was their internal system that would parse clients' files (various formats including flat text, CSV, XML, etc.) and pass the data along to an existing service that would handle the rest. So I didn't get to do much there. I didn't want to be bored and halted in career growth.
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
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My company was pretty much the same, though I started further back in the pipeline than what you described. Then they got bought, and bought again. Went from one office with ~60 employees to dozens of offices, and over 2000 employees. You know, never changed jobs, but changed companies and business cards several times, that sort of thing. The current company's IT department is larger than the place I started with.
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