I have been really interested in writing software since I got a ZX Spectrum when I was 9 and ended up doing BSc Computing at university although it all got a bit overwhelming in various ways and eventually left without the degree. This made it pretty much impossibly to go straight into a software dev job as I would have liked and, instead, started working in a tech support call center. Once I found my feel there I decided that if I wanted to develop software...I should just do it. So in any spare time I found at work, I would write wep apps and tools that would help us all do the job better. I thought that, regardless of the lack of qualifications, if I could show managers that I was able to build this stuff, they might find it worthwile giving me more of this type of work. Sure enough, I ended up ring-fenced writing call flow management systems and knowledge bases etc.
In future jobs I employed similar tactics and ended up with an unofficial role writing various software for the support of a government IT contract. Since the role was unofficial, and also because I had a brilliant manager who understood quite well how I work best, I had a lot of freedom to work whatever way suited me best on the understanding that I was churning out tools that would save them lots of money - everyone was a winner.
My only frustration was that my job title and salery in now way reflected the work I was doing so eventually applied for a role on the companies tool development team. I actually have been finding this job much more difficult because (as you might expect) I am no longer my own manager and have to work according to a great many set rules, many of which I have difficulty with and often seem unpredictable and almost arbitary.
Having had that experience, I think my ideal job would be developing applications in some sort of self-employed fashion where I can pick and choose what I want to work on and how. Giving up a full time permanent job with a big company would be a very difficult thing to do though so I have no clue if this will ever become a reality.
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AQ46, EQ9, FQ20, SQ50
RAADS-R: 181 (Language: 9, Social: 97, Sensory/Motor: 37, Interests: 36)
Aspie Quiz: AS129, NT80
Alexithymia: 137
Last edited by Si_82 on 01 Nov 2012, 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.