Another one originally a long Quora answer, to:
What do software developers value most about their positions?
First let’s clarify what you mean by “positions”. You could mean their stances on issues, or even the configuration of their bodies, but I will ass-u-me that you mean their jobs, their current employment, being in this line of work, etc.
There are many advantages to being a software developer:
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The most obvious to others is that we get paid very well, relative to most other professions, especially ones that aren’t dangerous, dirty, illegal, or requiring many many years of training plus certification.
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On a related note, we can learn most of these skills online (i.e., from anywhere), mostly for free. Most of the tools nowadays, at least the basics that we’ll need to do it on our own, are free or at least very cheap. We can even practice it on equipment that most people have nowadays anyway (a consumer-grade computer), or at least is not very expensive (any more). We can use a lot of tools that aren’t even on our own computers, but are provided elsewhere, often again for free (at least at a basic tier), like Heroku, Github, and so on. The successful people in this line of work tend to enjoy sharing what they’ve done, so there is an explosion of not only free tools but also blog posts, videos, answers on sites like StackOverflow, and so on, to help us learn and even get unstuck when we have problems.
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On a note related to that, most software development positions can be done from anywhere (aside from under idiot bosses who insist on people being in the office with no real justification), giving us great freedom of location and saving us the hassle, stress, expense, danger, etc. of commuting. Heck, we don’t even have to put on “real clothes”. :-) I have been working almost completely from home since 2011, and had the option to work remotely if I couldn’t come in, for a job I had from 1987 to 1990! (They lent me a PC and a modem, and the software was actually on their minicomputer.)
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Furthermore we can do it individually or in a team, both on a particular project or for our entire job. That means it’s very easy to freelance, which gives enormous flexibility not only economically but also in what tech stacks we use, what training we get, when we can take vacation, etc. (I’ll admit that not everybody has the stomach for it though, and it also requires learning at least the basics of business.)
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Most people nowadays use software, even explicitly. (I.e., actually opening a program on a computer, rather than using something that has software embedded in it like practically everything electric these days.) So, depending exactly what software we develop, there’s a decent chance that the fruits of our labor are making life easier, maybe even possible, for some people, or at least entertaining them. (Okay, if we’re making software for weapon systems, maybe it will end someone’s life, but we presumably believe we’re doing it for a higher purpose, like defending our country.)
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If we’re the kind of person who likes learning new things, this is a line of work that not only allows it, but practically requires it so that we don’t go obsolete.
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That in turn filters for a certain mindset, with curiosity about new things, the drive to find out about them, and the intelligence to learn them quickly. Such people usually much prefer hanging out with such people, so if we fit that description, then software development will probably give us colleagues we prefer over those from most other jobs.
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If we’re really lucky, we may even be able to parlay it into giving talks at conferences, which can be a way to go see the world, mostly on someone else’s tab. ;-) If we’re employed, our employer will usually pay whatever expenses the conference doesn’t, but we get little to no choice where to go. If we’re self-employed, we get the choice where to go (from among those that accept our pitches of course) and pick which ones to even apply to (which could include how much of our expenses they’ll pick up). However, we’re left paying for any expenses the conference won’t cover, but at least they’re tax-deductible. Or if we don’t want to do conference-speaking, we don’t have to.