Any programmers/software engineers?

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Hello,

I am looking for programmers and/or software engineers to communicate with. I am an undergraduate student of computer science (concentration technical programming), and I have some questions I would like to ask. My academic plan is to complete undergraduate college and obtain my B.S. degree in Computer Science, then continue on to graduate school and obtain a M.S. degree in Computer Science. Depending on how everything goes, I may enter into a PhD program after completing my M.S. and focus on a research-oriented career, but as of the present time I am focusing on being a programmer and software engineer/architect. I have a lot of communication issues regarding in-person social interactions (anxiety, aphasia, insufficient body-language interpreting, etc.), and I communicate much better in writing or internet, so being a programmer and software architect will allow me the convenience of working from my home. The questions I have are as follows.

> This is irrelevant, but out of my own curiosity, what is the highest university degree you have obtained? And what field or concentration did you study?

> Do you work at home? Or is your work based in an office/industrial environment with co-workers and supervisor?

> Do you collaborate with other programmers and/or software engineers as in a team, or is your work primarily an individual effort? Or perhaps both?

> What is your average annual salary? (if you don't mind telling me; if you do mind, then please skip this question)

> What kind of programming/coding do you do? What languages? What kind of software?

Retired since 2001. Started on on IBM 1401 and an IBM 704 back in 1959.

ruveyn

1 Still in college (studying computer engineering and computer science)
2 I worked for a while at the company and have been recently just working from home (however my internship just ended, will contact company again when I finish my degree)
3 I always collaborate with people, maybe more experienced people get to do things on their own. However, often since so many other programmers were busy I was left on my own to figure out how to do things, except for quick questions.
4 I won't say my exact salary but I will say that I have a friend who made 18 dollars an hour at his software engineering internship, and my salary was slightly less than that. (these salaries are generally considered quite good in the co-op program at my college.
5 I was one of the few people at my company to use Linux on my desktop although everyone had to know some Linux for working on the servers (I used Ubuntu)
I program in Perl, Java, C++, C, and Bash. Mostly java though at my internship.

Just a tip, if you work at a company try to get a place where there a lot of technical engineers. I got along with all the engineers great, but the less technical computer science majors (the programers whom I worked with) tended to make fun of me a little. Wasn't too bad, but just didn't get along with them as well as the engineers.

I'd advise that you should probably plan on working at least a few years in an office environment and interacting with others, unless (perhaps) if you want to work for yourself, freelance, or maybe work for a very tiny company. Most employers will want you in the office, at least at first. And, really, considering how much programming etc. would seem to lend itself to telecommuting or working from home in this day and age of the internet and too many cars on the road, in my experience employers are very, very resistant to it. You'll be lucky to be able to work from home one day a week.

Also, this is not to discourage you from pursuing a masters degree or even a PhD, but for the most part the people I've known who have MS in Computer Science end up doing pretty much the same job I'm doing. Though they'll make more money for it simply by virtue of the fact that they have the MS degree. Becoming an architect generally means programming lots and lots first and building up experience, not as much on if your degree is BS or you have an MS too. Truthfully though unless you really want to be PURE tech, I think the best thing to advance your IT career is a BS in Comp. Sci and then an MBA. But some universities also have a combined MS in CS and MBA program where you can get both in 3 years or so.

> This is irrelevant, but out of my own curiosity, what is the highest university degree you have obtained? And what field or concentration did you study?

B.S. in Computer Science

> Do you work at home? Or is your work based in an office/industrial environment with co-workers and supervisor?

Office based work

> Do you collaborate with other programmers and/or software engineers as in a team, or is your work primarily an individual effort? Or perhaps both?

Over the years, both. I've worked on projects with perhaps a dozen other programmers, other times in teams of 1, 2 or 3 people including myself.

> What kind of programming/coding do you do? What languages? What kind of software?

Over the years, mostly Java, VB/VB Script (not so much any more for these two), VB.NET, and C#. Some Perl, Unix Shell scripting, even Windows batch scripting. Lots and lots of SQL (Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, DB2). Mostly work on web sites with database backends, but also windows apps. and so forth.

> This is irrelevant, but out of my own curiosity, what is the highest university degree you have obtained? And what field or concentration did you study?

I collected an MBA a few years ago, just before I ran into the aspergers diagnosis

> Do you work at home? Or is your work based in an office/industrial environment with co-workers and supervisor?

Both, really. For twenty years or so I was mostly home-based and independent. These days all my income comes from office work.

> Do you collaborate with other programmers and/or software engineers as in a team, or is your work primarily an individual effort? Or perhaps both?

Yes, both - although not many people really like working with me. Funny, that,

> What is your average annual salary? (if you don't mind telling me; if you do mind, then please skip this question)

There was one year when my gross crept into six figures, but it's fallen away since then.

> What kind of programming/coding do you do? What languages? What kind of software?

You name it, I've done it. No, I've never worked with CNC machinery. Assemblers, scripting languages, COBOL, BASIC, Java, Pascal, C, ... These days, my favourite is XQuery

I program for fun. I know Java and Javascript. Plus some Objective-C.

Graduated in Computer Sciences, worked for 8 years as a computer programmer.
Then one of my obsessions kicked in really bad, deep interest in astronomy. Studied physics and now I'm on my masters in Astrophysics.

I did a lot of home-office type of work back then, up here in Brazil, if I may example dollars and Brazilian money in proportion, I made somewhere around 4,000 Dollars monthly.

In Brazil, C# and Java are the major languages. I still develop a lot of softwares, but not for selling anymore. They are just codes for calculating some specific array of datas I usually work with.

> This is irrelevant, but out of my own curiosity, what is the highest university degree you have obtained? And what field or concentration did you study?
B.S. Comp Sci

> Do you work at home? Or is your work based in an office/industrial environment with co-workers and supervisor?
No, I work in an office with co-workers and supervisor.

> Do you collaborate with other programmers and/or software engineers as in a team, or is your work primarily an individual effort? Or perhaps both?
Team. The majority of professional development work is done in teams. Only very small projects are done by a single person, even then someone else should QC the work because it is so easy to miss your own errors. There are still many hours each day that are spent alone on the computer, but it is important to communicate status and ideas. An architect (which is a good role for an aspie) still needs to be able to answer questions that come up on documents. Documents rarely stand 100% on their own without verbal supporting information.

> What kind of programming/coding do you do? What languages? What kind of software?
I have worked on database application development (10 years), then project management, business analysis, and systems engineering

> This is irrelevant, but out of my own curiosity, what is the highest university degree you have obtained? And what field or concentration did you study?
none, i'm currently in process of getting a degree in computer science, centered on game mechanics and game engine programming

> Do you work at home? Or is your work based in an office/industrial environment with co-workers and supervisor?
attending school is not mandatory unless mentioned otherwise in the schedule, but when working together with others it can be handy

> Do you collaborate with other programmers and/or software engineers as in a team, or is your work primarily an individual effort? Or perhaps both?
although i'm at school, yes we work together in teams often, but some things (graphics, sounds) are done by one person to ensure consistency. Solitary programming can become a mess fast, especially if you're the only one seeing the code

> What kind of programming/coding do you do? What languages? What kind of software?
We mostly work in C#, but i've got a few plans of taking up C++ as well... I've done Java and assembly programming in the past.... and C64 BASIC for s**ts and giggles really

I don't have a job right. I'm familiar with Visual Basic.Net, C#, C++, HTML, Microsoft SQL, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, asp.net, PHP, and XML. I've also worked a little with both Silverlight and Flash. I've worked some with Direct X and XNA as well.

BS Applied Math/Computer Science

Never worked from home. I think it is generally a bad idea for both the programmer and the company.

I've never worked on a project where I was totally solo. The days of one person producing commercially viable software are mostly over. Beyond the fact that most projects are too big and complex, the real fact that you miss out on in school is that writing and debugging code is not the biggest or even the most important part of the job. Good software engineering is a very collaborative effort, and much less suited to an Aspie than it was 20 years ago. This doesn't mean that you can't find a niche for yourself where you can limit the interactions you have, but my opinion is that the industry has changed.

I retired quite a while ago, was making low 100's then. My peers who still work are in the mid to high 100s, though there is a lot of variability.

Compilers and database programming tools. C/C++, Java, plus PL/1 and Lisp in the early days.

I've also programmed in C64 Basic, and learned 6502 Assembler to break copy protection on a game I wanted to play on the C64. This is one strange group we have here, never thought I'd find other people who resemble me.

> This is irrelevant, but out of my own curiosity, what is the highest university degree you have obtained? And what field or concentration did you study?
The highest software related degree I have is a BS in computer engineering (software emphasis). Currently I'm in a Master's program at the same college (taking classes part time while still working), and a Ph.D is not out of the question

> Do you work at home? Or is your work based in an office/industrial environment with co-workers and supervisor?
I work in an office. I could work from home if I need to, but it's too lonely at home

> Do you collaborate with other programmers and/or software engineers as in a team, or is your work primarily an individual effort? Or perhaps both?
For the most part, I work on my own projects, but some projects require collaboration with others

> What kind of programming/coding do you do? What languages? What kind of software?
Mostly Microsoft based environments - VB.NET, C#, T-SQL, etc. using Windows, SQL Server, and Visual Studio.

I have a plan in place of what I want to do.

> This is irrelevant, but out of my own curiosity, what is the highest university degree you have obtained? And what field or concentration did you study?

college drop-out.

> Do you work at home? Or is your work based in an office/industrial environment with co-workers and supervisor?

Work at home, have done so since the early 1980's. Coordination with clients is via email and telephone.

> Do you collaborate with other programmers and/or software engineers as in a team, or is your work primarily an individual effort? Or perhaps both?

Probably about 95% on my own, from system architecture, communications protocols, all the way down to coding and building prototype hardware.

> What is your average annual salary? (if you don't mind telling me; if you do mind, then please skip this question)

I'm lazy and average about 3 hours per day resulting in only 35K per year or so. Live in an inexpensive area so that's plenty. I consider myself "semi-retired"

> What kind of programming/coding do you do? What languages? What kind of software?

Primarily C for embedded systems. Mostly 32 bit systems these days since they are now so cheap. I hope I never have to program a PIC in assembly again! On the PC side I use Delphi. A lot of getting multiple computers to communicate together using serial ports or networking.

I have a bachelor's degree in computer science.

I work in an office and have more than one manager (e.g., a supervisor and various project managers). The workplace actually has a very hierarchical structure (i.e., an org chart) of managers who manage other managers on up to the CEO.

I generally program on my own at my desk at work (pair programming, or "eXtreme Programming," is a rarity in the industry), but the vast majority of projects involve teams of software engineers. Coordination happens through status meetings and the like. Lead engineers will sometimes provide "direction" to the other developers.

Where I work, we use Java and develop JEE applications—business applications with a Web-based front-end.

Also, at least where I work, the software architects are the developers who have been at the company for a very long time and have a high degree of institutional knowledge; they are left to make the architectural decisions. Architects generally don't code (again, at least where I work), but they spend a lot of time creating diagrams (UML and infrastructure diagrams, for example) and dealing with the business. They spend most of their day in meetings.

I have a degree in Information Systems Analysis and Design, which is more about analyzing and designing large-scale systems than simply programming. I could do both, programming and designing systems. I have the degree, but never really use it. Getting into the field can be very hard. Many want previous volunteer work experience and certificates apart from the degree. I can't stand much over an eight-hour day at the workplace, and had trouble juggling work and school at the same time. I never really new anyone in the field, either, which I have been told can make a huge difference. I'm also not big on getting called in on the spot, which is what many of these jobs require.

I work seasonally and took up digital photography and videography. I am also teaching myself computer-aided design, which I am finding a bit more enlightening. I'm thinking about freelancing with that stuff on the side. I have seasonal work for about six months that's set, so for me, freelancing may be the way to go through the winter.

Nowadays, I'm finding myself wanting to actively do something that's beneficial, too, like tutoring one-on-one with children who are having trouble in school, etc.. So, who knows what I'll be doing in the future?