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The First Job

Anyway, I submitted my first draft, which had numerous corrections red-penned onto it. But by that time I was already off to sunny Halifax, to work as a Java programmer for an amazing company that stays afloat despite selling dubiously-programmed software that often doesn't work. It was a good starting job - in fact, it's the sort of first job that a software engineer should stick for a few years. There are three types of people in this sort of business, who I've given names:

• The 'aloofs' (managers, directors, architects, salesmen) who get paid a lot and don't have to worry about any of the messy stuff.
• The 'locals' (think "welcome to Royston Vasey, you'll never leave") - people who have been there for so long, they've resigned themselves to the post and would cling on to it even if something better came up. They have already convinced themselves in every way they can find that this job is good enough for them, regardless of the evidence to the contrary. In a well-known experiment decades ago (they wouldn't allow it now), a scientist caged an animal for so long that its spirits broke. Even when the cage door was opened and the animal was allowed to go free, it chose to stay in the cage, because it's all that the poor animal could remember. I think there's an analogy here.
• The 'swifts', who are more clued-up, aspiring, recent graduates. This type won't be at the company for long, because they've realised it's a dead end.

I claim to be of the last group. I left after 9 months, and was even at this relatively early point sick of the endless bug-fixing and stupid code hoops to jump through to overcome the proliferation of new bugs that arose from the existing code not working as it should. However, there is an up-side to this sort of job, if you're a swift:

• You can use your holidays to go look for other jobs, and if you're not successful at the interview it doesn't matter, because you've got a money base to fall back on.
• You want to get out, which is your motivation to look around for other jobs.
• You will appreciate and respect the next job that you get.

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