I remember when I was in high school as a teenager and all I wanted to ‘be’ was a Software Engineer. I was one of those lucky people who always seemed to know what it is they wanted to do, and for me it was always going to be creating software. I got stuck into a plethora of coding projects in my own time while finishing school which, along with doing “Computer Studies” for the last 3 years, gave me a pretty solid grounding to build on when I got to University.
When I finally started my study of Computer Science at Uni I found many of the subjects very easy - particularly the programming ones. In fact, they become boring very quickly due to the fact that it felt like I was just learning new syntax. Syntax is always the easy/boring bit, it’s the understanding of the programming constructs that’s the key… but I digress.
So to keep myself interested, I decided to pick a couple of topics that I’d always been interested in. Yes, they’re very cliched, but the topics I chose were:
- Software Security & Reverse Engineering
- Computer Graphics & Game Programming
Both of these fields had always been fascinating to me, so I decided to take some of the time that I had set aside for study and pump it into these two topics.
An uber-geek was born.
As I progressed through my study I was fortunate enough to land myself a full-time job in a software development company. I started off working in the testing area, and quickly moved into development. The application I worked on was an accounting and practice management system, and I was using C++ and VB on a daily basis. I thought I’d found utopia! I was finally in a paid programming job, what else could there possibly be in life?
Unfortunately it wasn’t utopia. After a fairly short period of time, I found myself becoming disinterested in what I was doing. Accountancy wasn’t interesting, the application wasn’t interesting, the workplace wasn’t interesting, there was no life in the developers around me - it was a completely stagnant place to be.
It wasn’t until that point that I realised that just being a programmer wasn’t enough. I had always thought that I’d be happy writing code of any kind, so long as I was writing code. But I was completely wrong. If you don’t work in a field that you find interesting it becomes extremely hard to remain focussed or even become mildly excited about going to work. If you don’t feel excited or interested in what you do, then you’re bound to end up unhappy. The bane of full-time work is that it takes up so much of your life that it’s very hard not to be affected by it. So if you want to be happy, it’s a good idea to find work that you like!
As I’ve already mentioned I love working with graphics, gaming, security and reverse engineering (no doubt you’ve gathered that from some of the recent posts!). Unfortunately these fields are all very difficult to get involved in professionally and they require a lot of ground work. When I decided to chase one of these two fields professionally, I chose the graphics and gaming option because of the satisfaction of seeing things come alive. I won’t go into all the reasons for me being passionate about this line of work as it’s worthy of it’s own post. Suffice is to say that it was appealing enough for me to alter the course of my career to chase it.
That’s part of the reason I did my stint in the UK. Getting into the games industry here in Australia proved to be a real bitch. It is still quite tight, and unless you have contacts in the industry or some experience from elsewhere, your chances of getting a foot in the door are pretty slim. In the end, the travel, the bad weather, the awful pay cut and the 2 years away from my home land were worth it. I worked in games with some fantastic people and it was an amazing experience.
Life is too short to be working in a field which you don’t enjoy. So if you’re not happy, do something about it!
And finally we come to the point(s) of the post. Do you like what you do? Have you found a job that you find interesting, and is it something that you can get excited about? Do you struggle to get up in the morning and motivate yourself to charge into the day ahead because you’re not that keen to get to work?
For those of you who are geeks, what areas of the computer world do you find interesting? Are you working as an I.T. professional but hate it?
March 13, 2007
So when are you coming back to the UK then?
March 14, 2007
Well until Playdude accept me as a bunny interviewer I guess I will just have to whore myself as a developer to the highest bidder!
I used to have a great idea when I was younger of working the winter in an office and then working outside training dolphins perhaps in the summer.
But living in the UK we don’t have much of a summer or that many dolphins so until I come out to join you down under OJ I will have to hold back on that plan!
a good observation I have seen about myself and other people is……………It is not what we want that is important, what really defines us is what we will settle for.
March 14, 2007
Yoann: You know the answer to that!
Pads: Ah yes, the dreams we have as a kid
I can’t remember mine, but I know they were pretty far out! Best you get your butt out to Australia, pronto! We’ve got stacks of dolphins over here 
That’s interesting. I’m not sure if it fits this scenario though. We’re talking about being happy in something that takes up the majority of the day. I think that most people who appear to “settle” for a job that they don’t like do so for other reasons such as:
At the end of the day I still think that ’settling’ for a job isn’t enough, and I certainly don’t think that we should focus on what we’re happy to settle for. If you want something, it’s already out there to be taken… just get out there and take it!
March 14, 2007
Dude I think it does apply!
I guess I was touching the tip of the iceberg about defining what happy is, it was a crude generalisation on expectations and reality.
To tangent slightly….I have also mused the distance between what we want and what we will settle for could be a good psychological measure for how content, not happy, we are……but I digress, it is a rather messy mental idea I have been playing with.
Are you telling me that given the choice of any job in the world then you would be a programmer?
Don’t get me wrong here, I love programming; it is a very tangible medium that allows us to be creative on so many levels compared to other jobs.
Plus with software engineering being still quite a young discipline compared to architectural, mechanical etc. it is a very interesting time.
Maybe I take this standpoint as I am swinging more to the fact that my job is more of a pay the bills thing rather than something gets me up early and keeps me up late.
That could be because I am a contractor now
To go back to your comments I am happy doing what I do, software engineering but I would like to try other things though.
I agree with you though that you should shoot for the stars and go after everything you want.
March 14, 2007
Nice post mate. I’d like to start by saying that the post is focussing more on you enjoying what you do and not necessarily being in the job of your dreams. That’s not to say that I don’t think you should look for and aspire to be in the job of your dreams, I’m just saying that you can be in a job that you enjoy even if it’s not exactly what you want to do. Happiness in work I think is worthy of a whole new blog post.
That being said, I’m happy to discuss it anyway
That’s one of the best questions I’ve been asked for ages. I can honestly say that right now I wouldn’t want to do another job. I love writing software, and I love creating stuff. I find the technical challenges interesting (though the level of the challenge feels to be decreasing constantly, and hence it’s easy to become bored), and I think there’s still a lot to be done in the field which could be a lot of fun to be involved in. That doesn’t mean I’m 100% happy in what I’m doing. I’ll be frank and say that when I’ve gained financial freedom by building the ideas that I have in my head I’ll be much happier. I don’t want to work for other people, and until I work for myself purely for the joy of doing what I do then and only then will I be truly happy at work.
While work has an effect on your happiness at home (depending on how well you deal with it
) it doesn’t completely overpower it. You can still be very happy at home despite being unhappy at work - it’s just that most people don’t manage to do this. Hence the reason for the question about enjoying the type of work you do.
Everyone except for the smallest percentage of the population works to pay the bills. The small percent do what they do not because they need the money (that’s generally already sorted out), but because they get a buzz out of doing their work which they don’t feel doing anything else. Good luck to them! They’re obviously happy in what they do (or they’re trying to get as much time away from the husband/wife as they can
).
So in short, yes I enjoy my job immensely. But I’m far from 100% happy with where I am in my career
There’s still a lot for me to do to get where I want to be work-wise.
March 14, 2007
The post and comments here seem to illustrate a trend. You can do the job of your dreams for a certain amount of time, but after a while reality bites the dream away from you bit by bit. I’m not sure a job/career exists where this isn’t true. Maybe the best method is to find something that makes you happy and creative enough to feel you’re doing something worthwhile (as well as paying the bills, etc).
I’ve been in games dev for 6½ years now, and it started as a dream job where everything was a new and exciting challenge. For me, the new stuff is getting less and less exciting as I have the experience to see the implications of it, and the amount of work needed to do things properly.
Also, the challenge aspect OJ mentioned declines too. When I started out I had no idea how to achieve things, and had a fantastic time figuring it out (probably not the best way to do things either!). Nowadays I can see the solution in my head fairly quickly to most problems.
Things/processes/techniques that make the work easier, quicker and more productive are more exciting to me now than a shiny new lighting effect. Perhaps ignorance (of the reality of your dream job) really is bliss.
March 16, 2007
That’s very true mate. I do get the feeling that over time the dream job becomes less like the dream as it is part of your reality. The challenges you face become easier and the buzz starts to fade. Perhaps this is why I’m always looking to move on after such a short time?
Perhaps not 
The interesting thing is, as you’ve said, that what you find a “buzz” changes as well. Back in the day rendering a scene with some funky new lighting or mapping technology was just tres cool, but now implementing stuff in half the time and doing it in a much smarter way is more appealing. The final effect doesn’t seem to cut it any more.
April 19, 2007
hi OJ, i’ll be brief here and maybe someday i’ll explain more ;D
Do you like what you do? yes very much
Have you found a job that you find interesting, and is it something that you can get excited about? yes and yes.
Do you struggle to get up in the morning and motivate yourself to charge into the day ahead because you’re not that keen to get to work? NOOO!
simple answer: BE YOUR OWN BOSS ;D
azmo
April 19, 2007
I’m glad to hear you enjoy what you do Azmo! You are one of the few. There are so many people who work in jobs they hate and they just don’t seem to want to do anything about it - they’d rather complain and be unhappy their whole lives.
Being your own boss is indeed a solution to the problem, but some people just aren’t cut out to do that and would prefer to work for another company.
So tell us, what is it you do? And do you have your own business?
Cheers
OJ
May 1, 2007
Hi OJ
Sorry for the late reply, but as always, everyone is busy with something. Anyway, what I do for a living is something very ordinary, my family has a business and my father who was and still a good electrician (but the old style) started this business from nothing. After I finished my colleague degree we expand the business to a computer store (we deal with hardware/software). I tried to get into the business world by working for others (Computer Associates for example in Dubai) but I must admit. I hate corporate life, the suite, the always remember to keep up appearances; I not cut for this kind of business. So I went back home, toke over the family business and here I am.
azmo