Also, this makes that a musician can be a "musician" in normal life. He or she doesn't need to change their identity. Developer culture does not blend with the normal world, and as a developer I believe you really have to switch between two worlds. That can be tiring.
If anything, I've often found that the perspective and knowledge that come with my professional experience are socially valuable, rather than the converse. I get a fair bit of my social interaction over beer and cider at a nearby bar, and it's pretty common that, when a conversation gets around to professions, I find myself fielding questions on all manner of subjects from the plausibility of widespread voting machine fraud to the rise of the machines - I spent a good few minutes the other day allaying fears that turned out to go back to that Ars article with the picture of Arnold as the T-800 that turned up here a little while back. I suppose the possibility exists that I did so in a particularly Aspergery way.
I just had an interview at an IT Law Firm, and made a fool of myself. That's why I completely agree that, we as "people who are good at computers" need to keep seperate identities.
Because if you go full Aspergers, you make yourself vulnerable. Once people realize you're "different", you get the "poor boy treatment" and that hurts.
PS: I am still trying to get over the interview, sorry if I don't make any sense.
Or worse, once you're pegged as a hopeless geek then people tend to walk all over you and you're not seen as the kind of person who advances, becomes management, etc. You're a freakshow human resource to perform labor that, unfortunately needs to be done, until everything can be a one-click cloud solution.
I make a very special effort to hide whatever geeky qualities I have. I think ultimately a lot of geek culture is manboy-ish and the kinds of people who let all of that loose at work are seen as childish or immature, right or wrong. Sadly, those of us into things like hard sci-fi or DIY maker stuff get lumped in with the guy who still buys Superman comics at age 40 or thinks over-sexualized fan-service anime is humanity's highest artistic calling.
But sometimes, it slips out inevitably.
Regaining your image or just being able to hold your head high requires great effort.
Cold world but I'm sure there's a way to go about it that inspires more awe than resent.
I try to work on side projects and continue to develop my skills. But those are dreams and I need to be prepared for reality.
If I had the guts, I would risk everything and drop out of law school.
Good. you got out there and made mistakes. Now you can learn from them and you wont ever be that bad henceforth, hereunto. I made a total ass out of my self the first few programming interviews I went to. First one, recruiter called me (woke me up at ~10am) and I thought I'd show "initiative", I said "sure Ill be there in 2 hours". Went totally unprepared, didn't even bring a copy of my resume. They even lectured me about improving my interview skills.
Second one, I made the mistake of asking my potential coworker "what college he went to", thinking anyone in an engineering profession went to college. The manager interjected that he was 'self taught', this wasn't a total faux-pas on my part, but it created an awkward moment where I didnt really know what to say. I further erased any possibility of getting the job by getting too relaxed/comfortable and blurted out that I'm really groggy in the morning (cringe). I learned quickly, eventually got good at interviews, and ultimately got a job at bloomberg, which is fairly difficult to get past their interiew process.
So dont take it out on your neck, pick yourself back up and make a list of things you can take away from your experience. you have no other direction to go than up.
Bloomberg, where it's just one giant open noisy room? Doesn't sound like much of a reward to me.
Personally, I wish I had never gone into programming. I wanted a profession where I could sit in peace and quiet and work on interesting intellectual problems on my own. Little did I know that programming would not be like that after the year 2010. If I had known this, I would have chosen a different profession, probably something involving medicine, since at least there's lots of women in those workplaces.
You can still work in a medical field, for example, as a bio-informatician.
I am doing fine. I went contractor, and currently in healthcare / imaging. I dont even sweat interviews anymore :)
First, I shouldn't mention my passion for computers. They're looking for a lawyer, not an engineer. They already employ engineers, who are active in legal research. Second, I should pick a career outside of IT-Law. Solely working on technology feels too close to the heart. Third, I shouldn't speak a lot and reveal details about my life when I'm too excited during an interview.
Now, I only have to endure the next couple of days, then the sting will go away. After a couple of months, I'll remember this as an experience and I'll laugh at how foolish I was.
I dont know much about law, but to ignore your passion doesn't seem wise. I think you'd just have to spin it. Come up with a narrative that says tech has always been a part of your life, "but not as much as law", or "but it was missing something", or some other bullshittery that makes sense in that field. People want an impassioned person. And I also disagree that you should ignore IT law, it's in very heavy demand right now, isn't it ? The lawyers who can write amazing briefs struggle to understand technical protocols. Dont pass up on a dynamic field that will drive you. Also, shout out to https://www.reddit.com/r/LawFirm and other subreddits that might be of assistance to you. Good luck.
The key is to not let your profession define you no matter who you are. Once you let your profession take up every part of your life that is when it is difficult to discuss problems with other people. This would be the same with any profession even artists of any type.
It's tremendously difficult to share the problems inherent in most showbiz professions.
That's partially because they tend to be very complex and counterintuitive. If we wanted to have a conversation about my problems selling a feature film (assuming I was currently doing so - thankfully I'm not), I'd first need to give you a 90-minute seminar on how selling films works in 2016, unless you're also in the business.
It's also partially because people are usually very jealous of you working in such a cool profession, and thus any problems you have become "complaining about diamond shoes pinching".
My wife however does not feel the same way about a 90 minute lecture on how compilers work.
You don't need to change your identity or succumb to "developer culture" in order to succeed, and in fact being a citizen of the "normal" world is a distinct advantage in many regards - product design, communicating with non-developers, team management..
Works both ways though. I'm a writer (albeit a technical writer) and I find developer culture a bit intimidating as I'm trying to educate myself and hopefully change careers. Devs can be quite sniffy and elitist if you're not one of the club.
But, as a freelance writer who works remotely, I do get the "you can't possibly understand what it's like to have a real job" attitude from a lot of people too. It's not like creative professionals are entirely accepted by "mainstream culture" either.
I see what you did there :)
@oneeyedpigeon cunningly made the connection between my friend being a physio (physiotherapist) whose main job is providing healing and relief from muscle pain usually by rubbing or applying pressure. (Computer programmers like me who spend a long time at the keyboard often visit a physio to get our shoulders manipulated and rubbed to relieve built up tension).
To reframe this from the 'musician' side of my life, a lot of other guitarists I play with absolutely hate changing the strings on their guitars. They treat it like a chore to be avoided and rushed through only when really needed.
But a few years ago, I read a short story about how Samurai warriors used to care and polish their sword blades on a regular basis. I was entranced by the ritual and ceremony around this mundane process, so I set up a similar process around my guitar string changes. Now I actually look forward to doing string changes, as it give me a lot of meditative time to bond and learn more about my instruments and my music.
i.e. the sysadmin bringing down the company from within. The Web Developer commandeering his own botnet. The backend developer who makes a fortune mining doge coins. And so forth.
Sorry, but I would have to disagree with you on this. I've been programming now for over 35 years, and really cannot see myself doing anything else. I find I can channel my creativity into programming in many ways, and writing a good piece of code gives me the same satisfaction as writing or recording apiece of music. Yes, I am a musician too, and while they are very different, I see a lot of similarities between them too.
ANY job can become a task of 'piling bricks via brute force and slavery' at some point in time. Every good friend who has had a seemingly dream job has broken down and despaired at some of the drudgery involved over a beer.
One of them does, in fact, write plays that do very well in the UK theatre scene and he also writes TV shows that do well locally - but he often speaks of the interminable problems dealing with promoters, agents, crew and transport.
Another good friend tours the world as a physio with an international cricket team. First class flights and hotels everywhere, rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Many of us (thought we) would kill for such an opportunity, but he says he is tired of living out of a suitcase and having to check the local papers under the door every morning to remember which city he is in.
It is all a matter of perspective.