Information on a programmer work experience?

[sin0xFF]

I would like some information on a programmers life in the workfield. I would like to know what exactly does a programmer have to engage on. Even though I want to become a programmer in work in the field, I really do not know what exactly goes on to get a position like that. Do you work on projects that other people have worked on and add your own idea? Does your boss tell you to randomly create a program that has to be done before certain dates? Do you fix problems that could not be solved? Maybe its different in all workfields, but I still would like to hear experiences.

[Incis B]

I went to a 4 year college and studied math and computer science wrote my undergrad thesis on European Computer Graphic Languages, made an animated film written in APL language. Then joined ACM and moved to the big city to get work. Got a good job through a local head hunter. My manager would come into my office and he would tell me that he wanted this or that and would provide my with overall details, and I would shut my door and design a system.
That has been the case for my entire 30 year career.
Sometimes a new language, or new package, sometime a new OS, but the tasks have been the same; I get requirements, and I create the design and code.
Advice to you: Learn assmbly language, then C/C++, learn math ( I took Computational Theory 598) and learn Oracle and SQL- and expect to work long hours, weekends and holidays.

[macleight]

Maybe more views in the Lounge forum...

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/

I've had a thousand jobs. Simply put, in the words of Jesse Eisenberg, playing Mark Zukerberg, "If you had created Facebook, then you'd have created Facebook."

Programming is exactly no more and no less than what you want it to be, coupled purely with the amount of effort you are willing to put forth. If you think you enjoy programming, go give digging ditches a shot, then apply to some jobs at some game companies, they are always hiring.

I didn't even enter anything into a field and got over 100 returns:

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/directory.html#region=Americas

[sin0xFF]

Wow, this is really interesting hearing these experiences. I have been learning C++ on my own for a year. I got comfortable with the language, but I have not gotten into any graphical user interface development. I still use the console. I learned some basics of html, and javascript, but those are not really programming languages. I am also learning Android development using XML and Java. Although I would not recommend myself to be a professional programmer or web designer, but yet still a noob lol. I have to admit, messing around with html, or javascript is not as hard as I thought it would of been. Especially using XML for the android development, its almost like english. I never really finished any languages learning its full knowledge. I get into my ADHD mode and start learning another language basic or just randomly download peoples source codes and mess around with it. I am not trying to explain my whole lifestyle, but I pretty much started getting into computer languages at 21, and I am now 22. But I know my knowledge is still not enough to get into any workfields...Long way to go (-_-)