\nIt’s been a while since I said anything about work. It’s not for lack of activity, or of interest – work is as busy as ever, and I am really enjoying it. I guess there just haven’t been any individual events that stand out or prompt a post.\n<\/p>\n
\nIt really is the best job I’ve ever had. Not that the previous ones were bad… With one exception, I’ve felt the same about all my previous jobs at this company: each one was better than the previous one, either more interesting, or more suited to my skills. (The exception was the job that made me leave the firm after 4 months.)\n<\/p>\n
\nSo what is so good about it? The best thing is that I work with other developers. While I spent at least 50% of my time writing code in my last job, I was the only member of the team whose main focus was code. And I was by far the most experienced “developer” in that team – even though I had no comp sci background, I had been coding for several years, whereas the others had done little or none. Also, I was the only one really interested in software development. This meant that I had no one to discuss my projects with. No one to ask, How should I design this? Does this look like a good solution? How could I improve my code? Now, on the other hand, I sit right next to people who are interested in software development, know a lot about it, and are willing to discuss it. Design decisions, small and large, are discussed before, during and after coding. As a result, I am learning more, doing a better job, and enjoying the process a lot more.\n<\/p>\n
\nWorking in a team imposes its restrictions on me, and most of the time, that is a good thing. Too much freedom can easily become lack of direction – a certain amount of discipline and control actually make life easier. When I was the only developer – either in my previous job, or in my hobby projects – I could more or less do anything. Now I need technical specifications and documentation and class diagrams, and maybe time estimates and prototypes. I need to make design decisions upfront and can no longer change my mind whenever I feel like it, because other people’s work depends on what I do, and what I have said I will do, and what I have said I will need from them. I’ve sometimes found this hard and unnatural: my preference is generally leave my choices open, to start working and let the details emerge as needed. But on the whole I think this has led to better-quality work.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe other great advantage of working in a technical department is the sheer breadth of experience to be gained. I used to work with Excel VBA at work, and VB6 ⁄ VB.NET at home. Then SAS was added to my toolbox at work, and that was a major decision for the group and a major change for me. Now I’m regularly reading and\/or writing bits and pieces of Java, C#, VB.Net, and SQL, interleaved with command scripts, VBA, XML schemas, and proprietary languages, plus support tools like source control systems, class diagrams, change management systems etc. While I can’t call myself an expert in any of these, even just having exposure to such a broad array of technologies is both fun and educational.\n<\/p>\n
\nI’ve been in this job for four months now, but it feels a lot longer than that, because of how much I’ve learned. I am looking back at projects I did a year or two ago and can’t help thinking that I could do them so much better now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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