Programmers are extremely under-appreciated

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[Maybe should be moved to haven]

Everyone knows:
What a doctor does: a person who treats the sick
What a mechanic does: fixes cars
What a nurse does: helps the sick
What a lawyer does: there’s whole movies on what they do
What a writer does: writes books or articles
What a graphic designer does: making graphical ads, drawing stuff on screens… etc
What a teacher does: we all went thro them.
A cook cooks food..
… etc

You don’t have to be specialized in any of these fields to at least understands the purpose of each job.

But for some reason, 90%+ of non-techie people, unless those who work closely with them; don’t understand what developers/programmers do. I would say some even hate them for some reason, I dunno why. Despite the fact that most people now spend a lot of time in the digital world, yet they don’t give any thought who built all this.

They probably think apps and websites (and even interfaces on POS, ATM or anything with a digital screen) come into existence magically. lol No one appreciate us, sometimes I feel that even garbage cleaners are more appreciated because their job is understood!


I would say even people in corporate top management don’t understand what programmers/devs do (and this affects our pay I bet); even tho the definition can be super simple:
Devs build everything you see on a digital screen.Without us, your smartphone or your facebook would be a blank screen.

It is really that simple, I don’t get why it is not a common knowledge like what doctors do for example. There’s an extreme lack of awareness on what we do even among the most educated people.

At my last job, ProgDev people were treated like royalty. They set their own hours and deadlines, treated everyone else like scum, and even had their own building! Top management may not have understood exactly what PogDevs did (e.g., drink coffee, eat donuts, surf the net for porn, and sometimes code a few lines), but it was the sales/marketing department that had no clue what the ProgDev department was there for, and assumed their sole purpose was to serve them (e.g., file personal taxes and credit applications, mining demographic data, and cracking lost passwords).

We engineers understood, and even did a little programming ourselves, but it was the ProgDev people who were treated like royalty.

I loved this answer:

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-that-so ... ark-Canlas

In companies which their core business is software development (they make software for clients, ie. software dev agencies), devs are often way more appreciated compared to companies where software is secondary ie. retail. Also the managers of the former type tend to be programmers or at least ex programmer themselves.


But I am talking even deeper than that, if you are in a social event, most jobs are understood: doctors, lawyers, judges, teachers… etc by the attendees; but if you tell them you are a programmer they would be like Oh nice… hmmm. It is worse if they quickly assume you can help them to hack some ex’s facebook account.

The public perception of programmers may be superficial, but so what?  You might be able to leverage their ignorance to your advantage.

(Hint: Most error codes I encountered were of the "ID-10-T" variety.)

Not just superficial, I would rather say totally clueless about the purpose of it: Making programs.
Unlike other jobs, which their purposes are known to most people.

Do you see any variation in perception among certain groups of people?

I was given a lot of judgement for going to college by most people I knew which sucked. There’s nothing like sitting through sermons about how bad higher education is and feeling like everyone is staring at you since you are the sole person in the audience who has (or is) attending college. The snide comments weren’t nice either. Whenever something is perceived as going wrong for me, it’s because I went to college.

Getting a two year degree for a trade (like nursing) would’ve been okay, but anything beyond that was strongly discouraged and judged. Flipping burgers at McDonalds was viewed as more respectable than a career as a doctor or lawyer. They hate the word “career.”



ANYWAY, are you thinking about switching careers and becoming a garbage cleaner? I’m not sure if the trade-off would be worth it.

Actually I disagree with that one.

"We're looking for a graphic designer who will create 3d modelling assets for game environments"

That's a 3D game environment artist.

'Hey, you do graphic design right? Can you fix my computer?'

Well I can try but I'm not tech support.

'If you're a designer, then does that mean you know how to write in Javascript?'

That's a programmer / developer.

'Does that mean you do animation?'

That's an animator.

Although I am trying to learn motion graphics. However, that would be a motion designer. Although plenty of graphic designers learn both since there's a demand for people who can design still graphics and create motion graphics. However, if you are expecting full on animation rather than short motion transitions, then no.

'Does that mean you can do photoshoots?'

Luckily I'm also a good photographer, so I suppose so yes.

'Does that mean you rig and design 3d characters?'

I'm not a game character artist.

'Can you film a promotional documentary with cool video angles and cuts?'

I'm not a cinematographer.



(As a graphic designer who tends to hang out with game artists, programmers and other graphic designers; I agree that programmers should get more respect).

Good lord; I relate.

I am sure people wouldn’t ask a dentist of he can do heart surgery.

Not really, I love coding.
But I hate deadlines and the stress.
My ultimate dream would be to generate passive income .
Now if AI takes my role within 10 years… then I would love to go into some food-related trade.

I thought about going to culinary school when I was around 20, but I knew I couldn’t handle the stress of working in a restaurant.

Of course, being a baker doesn’t sound that bad.

Hmmm.

A muffin/cupcake pâtisserie would be great; a lot of room for innovation.
My partner makes good leche flan and Puto.

Food often sells as long it’s delicious, clean and of good quality. And it’s totally AI-proof, at least we won’t have replicators anytime soon.

I especially like making bread.

Mmm…brioche….

I had similar desires at that age, only without the self-awareness to realize working in a 'real' restaurant would kill me.

It was a rare moment of lucidity. Of course, I eventually went on to be a teacher, so....

Now I can't figure out what to do. Maybe I should make a thread about it instead of derail this one further.

Some occupations & professions are simply "in the background," so people don't think much of anything about them at all.

A bit similar with the film industry. There are a whole bunch of jobs in the background of making a movie that most people don't really know about or understand, appreciate or care about.. they just like to see the movie that was made much like end users like to use smartphone apps etc but don't know almost anything about what went into creating it.

They're simply not customer/client facing jobs. No one goes to see a full stack developer and chat about making some improvements in the next release of an iPhone app they use. They just get the notification for the update after it's gone live online.

Whereas pretty much all of the jobs you listed are ones that people have interactions with in their lives when they utilize those specially trained people for a service or goods they provide. Even graphic designers are accessible and affordable to individuals and small business owners to contract to create something - it's pretty common; even if just for a business card & letterhead logo, or a simple website logo etc.

But jobs like programmers or various roles on a film set or post pre or post production roles aren't really in the realm of peoples' daily lives, work, or play. They're just some job some people do in the background of whatever their industry is and that's it. Pretty much that simple, IMO.