Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in finance

Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by emodendroket on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @11:04AM (#15442375)

This is just about the only professional career I've heard of where people talk this way. Who goes into accounting because of their passion for bookkeeping and tax compliance?

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by ska on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @11:10AM (#15442429)

   This is just about the only professional career I've heard of where people talk this way...

In my experience: Nearly all doctors will at least claim it as part of the reason. Many (most?) lawyers. Most teachers. Most academics. All social workers. The list goes on and on.

In fact my first choice for counterexample would be your example - accountants. But in my experience they are often passionate about proving a helpful and necessary service, eve if they aren't passionate about the work itself.

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by sandworm101 on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @11:55AM (#15442818)

Just because we don't feel any great love for spreadsheets doesn't meant nobody else does. I've only known two professional accountants but both enjoy what they do, not just the externality of providing the useful service. They like working with the numbers and rules. People called me weird at law school because I actually liked tax law. I'm fascinated by the interaction (aka train wreck) of public policy hitting financial ground truth. I would real tax cases and laugh out loud at some of the insanity. Just because something isn't popular or widely understood doesn't mean there aren't people who enjoy it.

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by emodendroket on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @12:48PM (#15443270)

Find it tolerable, maybe even like it? Sure. Show me someone who would do taxes on their own time for fun. I've sometimes heard it said that the main reason people decide to go into auditing or tax is they couldn't stand the other one.

For that matter, let's talk about a closer career to ours. How many people who are system administrators complain about relatives asking them for free consultations? Would that be an issue if they just loved configuring and troubleshooting computers so much? Even if you like computers a lot, what you get paid to do with them isn't necessarily fun.

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by ska on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @01:04PM (#15443430)

Sure, I think I allowed for that possibility. But as noted, I was basing this on my own experience - I know multiple people in all of these professions. Unlike the others, none of the accountants have loved the nuts and bolts work in the same way many of the others did. Could just be sample bias.

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by cyphar on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @11:11AM (#15442439)

Creative professions usually are like this. Also (more anecdotally) I find that quite a few researchers like doing some research during their free time (usually far less serious research of the form "applying techniques used in research on toy problems"). It's not uncommon, but then again, not all programmers spend their free time on more programming.

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by flavio81 on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @11:07AM (#15442400)

"Generally, the Real Programmer plays the same way he works - with computers. He is constantly amazed that his employer actually pays him to do what he would be doing for fun anyway (although he is careful not to express this opinion out loud)"

-- From "Real Programmers Don't use Pascal", a classic in programmer's humor.

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by flachsechs on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @11:09AM (#15442423)

uhm, a lot of people do. some people love numbers.

also, medicine, law, automotive engineers, pilots, merchant marine, musicians, actors... people are passionate about different things.

maybe you haven't heard people talk about their passions in those industries because you aren't in those industries?

what a bizarre thing to have to explain to someone.

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Re:Why I learned to code instead of pursuing a career in fin... by emodendroket on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @12:45PM (#15443250)

My father and my brother are in accountancy. Obviously I haven't talked to every accountant on Earth, but if that's your standard nobody can ever think about anything.

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