pos. and neg. aspects of a computer programmer?

Answer 1

I am a computer programmer and here are my opinions.

Negative:
1) Because you are staring at the computer everyday, your eyes will be affected because of the radiations. 99% of the computer programmers that I know have some kind of eye problems. Some of them may start with 20/20 vision; eventually they will develop either short-seightedness or far-sieghtedness.

2) You deal with computers more often than you deal with human. Sometimes you may even find that you are yelling/talking to your computer.

3) Computer technologies change extremely rapidly. For the rest of your professional life, you will need to read lots and lots of books to keep up with the technology. One of my aunts is a senior VP of software development in IBM; when I went to university 13 years ago, this was the advice that she gave me. Now, I know exactly what she is talking about. If you love reading and learning new stuff, this could be a positive thing; if you don't or if you don't have the self-motivation to do so, it would be a chore.

Positive:
1) Generally, computer programmers receive quite high pay.
2) There are new technologies coming out faster than you can keep up with. If you love learning, this is a wonderful thing.
3) You can create computer programs to many simple stuff on your own instead of buying programs/software.
4) You can give advice to others who need help.
5) You can answer questions under the Computer Program category on Yahoo Answers
6) Nowadays, practically every field needs computers (especially web programming) whether the field itself is related to computers or not. You don't need to worry about finding a job.

Answer 2

Positive: doing challenging work and getting good pay for it.

Negative: Can get boring if you do the same stuff day in and day out. 'printf' is only stimulating for a limited time :) It can get frustrating when you have crappy requirements to work from and the customer doesn't know what he wants, but he knows it when he sees it, and this isn't it... Documentation is a pain, but a good software person takes this aspect of their job seriously.

Answer 3

If you're good and self-employed, there's only one negative: according to a survey in the Netherlands, men working in he IT business are the second least attractive ones. Only people who come to get your money if you're overdue on paying bills are supposedly even less attractive.

Of course, this judgment is mostly based on ignorance on [Dutch] women's part, but the judgment is there all the same.

Answer 4

Negative - No one is ever happy, never appreciated.
Positive - Decent pay and benefits if you get in with the right company.