Don't Call Yourself a Programmer, and Other Career Advice (2011)

Okay, I guess as someone with hard-won expertise I'm duty-bound to take slight exception to this line: Put a backpack on and you can walk into any building at any university in the United States any time you want. First, the nitpicking: Technically you can't get into Harvard's excellent libraries without actually (a) being a Harvard student, or (b) working for Harvard. (And if you're a programmer, I'm not sure which of those options is going to prove more expensive.)…

> Do Java programmers make more money than .NET programmers? Anyone describing themselves as either a Java programmer or .NET programmer has already lost, because a) they’re a programmer (you’re not, see above) and b) they’re making themselves non-hireable for most programming jobs. In the real world, picking up a new language takes a few weeks of effort and after 6 to 12 months nobody will ever notice you haven’t been doing that one for your entire career. In the…

I don't think this will be a terribly popular opinion, but I want to offer a counterpoint. Do call yourself a programmer, because we don't deserve to call ourselves engineers. You want to know some things that define actual engineers, as the term is regulated in some countries? Real engineers have certification: you know, that thing that indicates that you can actually do your job worth a damn. What do programmers say whenever the topic of industry certification is brought…

Most of what Patrick (the writer) says is decent advice, and yes, it is important to publish your hobby junk, get feedback, go to meetups, and generally involve oneself into the community as it is not only helpful to one's career, but also fun. That being said, I don't particularly agree on the "don't be modest" comment. Rather, it really should be "don't be ashamed of what you build" (with the caveat of no matter how shameful it is), that…