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Sounds like an awesome opportunity to develop something in F# (my new favourite language) 
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No, not all programming jobs are like that. Some are worse:
- Revising an undocumented 250,000 line FORTRAN 66 program (it analyzed neutron scattering patterns) that arrived on your desk without documentation;
- Finding the deadlock that causes an MVME-147 SBC and an obsolete vector processor to spin in place, each waiting for the other to release its hold on shared memory;
- Finding the error in a large microcode program for a proprietary device (whose author isn't just unavailable; he's dead) that causes the VAX it's installed in to machine-check and halt hard.
(Yes, I've had to do all those things.)
There's always something worse, and Murphy's Law as applied to the programming trade -- it's a trade, not a profession, but that's a tirade for another time and place -- guarantees that if you moan that "nothing could be worse than this," you'll learn better on your own hide.
Software can be fun, but it can also be pretty dreary. Maintenance and obsolescence being inexorable facts of the deal, the dreary parts can outweigh the fun ones for long stretches of time. That's one of the reasons why most software people do their best to escape the "hands-on" part of their occupation by age forty. Those who succeed find, to their sorrow, that there are even worse things than the worst of software jobs: for example, wearing a suit and tie and spending forty hours a week attending meetings and reading and writing reports.
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
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No not every job is like that. People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their managers. And at the moment my managers are Congress and Security, no matter what my supervisor says. So you could have a job in which you don’t know if you will be paid and when you are, whether you will get a full paycheck or one that is only 80% (though deductions are calculated at 100%). And every day you lose a new privilege for security reasons, like using the command prompt two days ago. Technical web sites were blocked a year ago and even some of the other military web sites in the same branch of the military are blocked.
Your problem is typical, none or intentionally wrong documentation, management that won’t read past the verb in the first sentence, illogical and conflicting policies, political backstabbing, budgets that cut training first in a highly dynamic and changing industry. All signs that those that can, do. While those that can’t are promoted into management.
Find the folks that keep their head down and keep the business working notwithstanding what management does. It’s a skill that will keep you out of management.
If you want the money, learn to be a politician. But given your reaction, you probably don’t want to go into management. Management acts this way in all fields, more in others. The problem in the IS field is that computers can’t deal with the mistakes of management and that magnifies the problem. Welcome to the interface between the real world and the world of logic.
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I understand completely. Last week I told them I'm retiring (I'm only 55). I wanted to work another 5 years or so but I just can't stand engineering any more.
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I'm inclined to say to give it a try. Other than the initial pain and potential political baggage, this is a win for your career all around.
1. There will always be a niche market for translating data between legacy systems and modern systems. The nastier the project the more you "real world" experience you gain.. Because lets face it, the real world is can be stranger than fiction.
2. because of this niche skill set, the market value of your work could be incredible.. Finding devs for Translating EDI data is dime a dozen.. But legacy undocumented data transaction on proprietary systems is something no 4 year degree can get.
3. To further points 1 and 2. you can also put yourself in a position where you can be an asset and in some cases shield yourself from the bureaucratic crap.. It's their mess and they are ultimately paying you to keep it in the closet. Be the rock star and you could hold the cards come review time. Worst case you move on to greener pastures and they still call you to fix stuff as a contractor and you set the price.
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Oh yeah, I used to work there. Before attempting to convert to SGML (far as I know they never succeeded in converting the older documents, just creating new ones) they had 50+ conversion filters because the text editors could not do anything consistently and would not go back over their formatting to correct it. Leaving it to the IT department to write a new conversion filter before they could load the data.
Maybe I'm thinking of some place else...
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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I was intrigued what this format was. Seems there is nothing arcane about CAMT053 - just an XML format for bank statements - version I googled was dated this year, the something ought to be some XSL. As for the undocumented format there must be at least an example otherwise how is this possible?
Newsflash - this is a typical programming job.
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I wish my job was this easy.
As long as you explicitly tell your bosses in writing that you can't guarantee the compatibility of an undocumented format you're covered. Just make the code easy to modify the format by encapsulating the XML doc in its own class so that's the primary thing that might need modification.
In the jobs I've been working my bosses want impossible things... "If I think it, it can be programmed".
I've been doing software for almost 40 years and it's just getting worse every day. Just look at Obamacare for a really good example of the mentality today.
modified 17-Apr-22 21:01pm.
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Not all programming jobs are like this
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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Unfortunately, in the United States today, most developer positions are similar to what you describe.
Every now and then you find a really great company to work in but a single bad manager hiring can reduce an entire department to ashes...
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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I'm out.
Not out of programming, of course. Programming is fun. Out of programming professionally, which is, apparently, the most boring thing on earth.
The reason I went into programming in the first place, about ten years ago, is for the interesting problems. So if all everyone's doing is converting stupid XML formats and the like, it's just not the right profession for me.
I don't get how you guys can stand that crap.
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"I'm out."
Most programming jobs aren't like this. I speak from experience.
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Ok, then what are they like?
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IMHO you'll find more variation in programming jobs than in other professions because computers intersect just about every technology, and just about every human endeavor.
I've worked on: A computer-vision system for NASA that plots a trajectory and firing to dock with a satellite based on snapshots of the satellite, a robot dog, DNA analysis to find divergence of species during evolution, using genetic algorithms to "evolve" designs for computer systems, schedules for nurses, and stock-market strategies, image processing and analysis for a variety of inspection systems, expert systems for design and for diagnosis of diseases, and data mining. And these are just some of the more interesting applications.
I think a good math background will prepare you for the more-interesting software jobs.
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Ok, those are interesting. But I don't see jobs like that offered anywhere.
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The ads for the interesting jobs never gave a clue how interesting they were. I got a lot of them through word of mouth; get a reputation as an excellent programmer and leads will appear.
Computer Science, like Mathematics, is really many different related fields. Master the most general and powerful areas in both so that when an opportunity arises, you'll be able to come up with innovative and powerful solutions.
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harold aptroot wrote: Not out of programming, of course. Programming is fun. Out of programming professionally, which is, apparently, the most boring thing on earth.
If this is really how you feel and you aren't just having a bad moment, then you may be making the right decision, because you won't be successful at professional programming with that attitude.
Pretty much all of us with experience have cut our teeth on uninteresting projects. You're lucky that your problem is just having a boring task to do.
My first project was to automate an internal build system written by one of the other programmers, who was in hot water because he kept working on it but never finished and it kept having issues (like, taking eight hours to traverse a build tree in the most ridiculous way possible, when it should have taken five minutes). What made things interesting is that he covered his butt by telling management that he'd given me the source code, but then he refused to give me necessary assemblies that only existed on his box and weren't in source control (so no one but him could really work on it, he was pissed that management was having a new guy come in to clean up his mess). So it was an impossible situation politically, completely aside from any technical problems. I couldn't even build any changes, and he was telling management I wasn't getting anywhere because I wasn't good enough to understand his code (said code was unimpressive). I thought it was going to cost me my job, but I ended up being moved to a different department, where I was immediately assigned the task of generating complex tax forms from an undocumented database I knew nothing about. Which was great, because at least no one was standing in my way and I was able to get it done, and move on to other projects like moving large amounts of money through a rickety Rube Goldberg contraption, exciting! But when I finally left that job I had a lot of valuable, marketable experience.
If you really can't handle boring projects, then you sure aren't going to like the tedious-but-terrifying projects that all programmers end up doing now and again. Even senior programmers don't get to choose to only work on projects they are interested in, I've seen some try and only succeed in hurting their reputations with management.
Just keep in mind that leaving the profession is likely a permanent decision. Once you've been out a few years with no real-world experience, it's going to be hard to go back. Not impossible if you can document things like open-source projects you've worked on, but it will be hard to get back in as a pro.
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Why would I want back in anyway?
I'm not sure what you guys are trying to tell me, but the message I take away from it is that programmer is a worse job than being unemployed.
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Well, once you get to a certain level of experience programming pays fairly well, and it tends to be a secure job if you make yourself valuable. To me that's a hell of a lot better than being unemployed.
There are no perfect jobs out there. People with dream jobs usually have connections and spent a while getting there and got lucky to boot, and it's still not perfect. Most professional jobs are like this, not just programming. That's why they have to pay us.
I hate to say it, but unless there is more to this than you're saying then it really sounds like you have an unrealistic sense of entitlement. If you feel that writing an XML conversion script is beneath you as a programming intern, then you aren't likely to find a job in any field that lives up to your expectations.
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StatementTerminator wrote: unrealistic sense of entitlement
That seems to be the general opinion.
I prefer to see it as standing up for myself.
Unemployed is actually a pretty decent job, by the way. It is the most secure job - you can't really lose it except on purpose. And you can make yourself infinitely more valuable than you can by creating XML converters. The pay isn't great, of course, but who cares.
It really didn't have to be a dream job. It only had to be something that doesn't make me want to kill myself.
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harold aptroot wrote: I prefer to see it as standing up for myself.
Unemployed is
actually a pretty decent job, by the way. It is the most secure job - you can't
really lose it except on purpose. And you can make yourself infinitely more
valuable than you can by creating XML converters. The pay isn't great, of
course, but who cares.
Certainly as it appears in that statement I wouldn't want to work with someone with that attitude.
harold aptroot wrote: It really didn't have to be a dream job. It only had to be something that
doesn't make me want to kill myself.
As I already said in the previous reply the job you described appeared to be an entry level job. It is a non-critical, non-complex project with the potential to allow someone to learn how to work in a professional environment.
It isn't a playground.
If you are in fact an experienced programmer then I have no idea why you are seeking that job.
If conversely you have no experience then why should someone give you something different? You might believe that the job itself is not important but that doesn't mean other people don't. Nor does it mean that they should coddle those that are unwilling to strive to meet the goals of the job.
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Ok, here's how it happened.
I had no job for some time. I looked, but just about none of them intersected significantly with my skill set.
I sent my CV to some company thing that matches people with jobs.
That company wanted me to just have a chat with some professionals, to get more than just my word on whether I'm actually a programmer or not (I thought that was just mildly insulting, given that I had discussed my portfolio with them, but I figured that's just the way these guys roll - too makes fakes, perhaps). Just a chat, that's all.
Well, the professionals that I was only supposed to be having a chat with were like "holy sh*t, give us that guy", and they all (including the company that's supposed to help me) talked me into at least seeing what it would be like (no one wanted to see anything about what the job really was, but they made it seem at least half-decent). So I was like OK, I'll go along with this for now, can't hurt to look..
Well it was less than half-decent.
As a bonus, I looked up that job opening on their site and it turns out that even a fresh college graduate is technically overqualified for it (as in, they're explicitly listing lower requirements).
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Well, OK, if you are in a situation where you don't need a paycheck and want to pursue your own interests instead, go ahead if you really want to do that. It sounds like you are fed up with working in general, not just programming.
Just remember, a girlfriend can change your responsibilities and financial needs with two words 
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harold aptroot wrote: the message I take away from it is that programmer is a worse job than being unemployed
Of course it is, because every job is worse than being unemployed. There isn't anything you have to do to be unemployed. Of course trying and failing to get employed is worse yet, because the pay is terrible and really discouraging.
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harold aptroot wrote: The reason I went into programming in the first place, about ten years ago, is
for the interesting problems. So if all everyone's doing is converting stupid
XML formats and the like, it's just not the right profession for me.
Which profession do you think you will be seeking which will be fun 40 years from now? And will be fun every hour of every day?
The very basis of a profession is that someone else is going to be paying money for what they want, not what you want.
Maybe what you are looking for is a hobby.
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