Source
r/IAmA•
Pleonasm

I work from home as a programmer. AMA.

And no, I'm not just volunteering for Linux. The only thing I cannot say though is where I work, as we are too few employees and I would be easily identified. Let's just say it's a small software engineering company.

Edit: I should mention that I work 40 hours a week and have the same schedule as my colleagues at the office.

Edit2: Looks like one or more comment got auto-banned, so sorry if I don't answer your question.

Posted Aug 17, 2009, 2:10 PM UTC · edited

1057
bigbadbass•

Is it exciting?

7
PleonasmOP•

Not really, I never get to see anyone face to face. That's pretty demoralizing.

10
bigbadbass•

Are you working for them in the hope that one day, you will be the most satisfied you have ever been? I don't think i explained that well, basically, is it long hours, shit pay, but your all working on something you all have faith in?

2
PleonasmOP•

I work for them because it pays well for a student job and I need to pay college, plus I can use the time I save every day. I don't have any "hope" about this job so to speak. I don't really have a lot of faith in our products, although they are good they don't strike me as "important".

4
bigbadbass•

Do you think you would enjoy your job more if you did have faith in the products? Have you ever thought of going it alone? Either freelancing or starting your own company?

2
pragmatick•

You work 40 hours a week as a student? How do you manage that? When do you learn / have free time?

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

0
allotriophagy•

What do you wear to work?

6
PleonasmOP•

I used to dress up properly, but nowadays I'm usually in my PJ's during the whole work day...

(Yeah, I'm a manly man.)

9
0x2a•

Sorry, but formal dress code for telecommuting programmers is:

  • being naked
  • furry costume
  • dirty underwear
  • kinky latex stuff (not in the typesetting sense)

Please try to fit in. Thanks, Management.

5
metamorph•

How could I get a job like yours?

5
PleonasmOP•

Find a normal programming job where you can work from home when your car won't start and ask if you can do it for college too.

2
drakshadow•

Do you miss taking dumps at work ?

5
barkbarkbark•

I'm a huge advocate of taking dumps at work. YOU'RE GETTING PAID TO DUMP.

11
[deleted]•

I love debugging things with co-workers because I can say these horrible things.

"Hey I took a dump and I'm sending it to you now along with the source. Yeah, the log is huge. If that doesn't work for you, I'll try reproducing and taking another dump."

5
barkbarkbark•

What's funnier is that I work in an analytical lab at a wastewater (sewage) treatment plant.

Step 1. Take a dump at work.

Step 2. Probably be analyzing your own dump the next day.

8
[deleted]•

How direct is the connection from the toilets in the lab to the treatment plant? Any more direct than, say, a normal house or office?

2
alphabeat•

IAmA please!

2
bigbadbass•

I like to save my sunday roast poo for monday morning.

2
PleonasmOP•

Not really, I didn't do it previously because I don't like to think that people are waiting for me.

4
benjorino•

dude, EVERY DUMP HE TAKES IS AT WORK. Just imagine that...

3
barkbarkbark•

WRAP YOUR BRAIN AROUND THAT, DUDE!!!

4
AnHeroicHippo•

So, let's get this straight; you:

  • are a student
  • are a programmer
  • are a redditor
  • listen to "Disturbed, Tool, A Perfect Circle"
  • live in Montreal

This raises the question... are you me?

Edit: Yeah, I knew that. Damnit.

5
PleonasmOP•

Unfortunately, no.

Also, I would have said "raises the question".

5
tidderneila•

you guys better stay away from each other. i hear people like you create instantaneous time and space paradoxes.

3
oniony•
  • What country do you work in?
  • In which languages do you program?
  • Do you miss interacting with colleagues?
  • Do you get more done without the distractions.
  • Would you do it again?
  • How often do you have to go into the office?
  • Is your salary less than if you worked in the office full-time?
  • If the salary is less, do the savings from not having to travel and buy work attire make up for this?
  • Do the others programmers blame you for stuff because you are not around to defend yourself?
  • Has working from home affected your self worth?
  • What is your favourite type of bread?
  • Do you find your work day becomes spread out over a long period of hours than when you were working in an office?
  • Do you skive much? (And if so, is it mainly on Reddit?)
  • Do you think working from home will affect your ability to get another job?
4
PleonasmOP•

What country do you work in?

Canada. More specifically, I work in Montreal.

In which languages do you program?

VB6 and VB.Net 2003-2005

Do you miss interacting with colleagues?

Yes.

Do you get more done without the distractions.

Not really, I have many distractions at home.

Would you do it again?

Ideally not, but if it pays I would.

How often do you have to go into the office?

Never since about one year ago. My boss comes around about once every six months.

Is your salary less than if you worked in the office full-time?

I don't think so.

Do the others programmers blame you for stuff because you are not around to defend yourself?

Not that I know of, but I know they have a "dynamic" that doesn't include me. Oh well.

Has working from home affected your self worth?

No but it has affected my boredom a lot.

What is your favourite type of bread?

Chocolate.

Do you find your work day becomes spread out over a long period of hours than when you were working in an office?

Not really, I have to check in and out at the same time as when I worked at the office.

Do you skive much? (And if so, is it mainly on Reddit?)

Yes and yes.

Do you think working from home will affect your ability to get another job?

I don't think so, I don't need to mention it.

6
quenta•

Not that I know of, but I know they have a "dynamic" that doesn't include me.

Could you elaborate?

but it has affected my boredom a lot.

How do you make up for it?

You mentioned you get skive a bit so how much more productive, if at all, do you think it would be to work in a cubicle?

3
PleonasmOP•

Could you elaborate?

Well, they seem to know each other and talk to each other much more than they know and talk to me. If I was sure I'd be in it ;)

How do you make up for it?

I try not to kill myself until 6pm. Also, I realized that singing the songs I'm listening to (Disturbed, Tool, A Perfect Circle, etc.) will give me a bit of a boost.

You mentioned you get skive a bit so how much more productive, if at all, do you think it would be to work in a cubicle?

It's really shameful to say but I'd probably do double what I do now. Sorry for being such a lazy asshole but I guess there's no point in lying. I'm getting better though.

6
bigbadbass•

There is no way to get to know someone quite like spending 9 hours a day with them.

3
hiffy•

Why are you bored?

Do you just have a hard time getting around to working?

1
dcousineau•

VB6 and VB.Net 2003-2005

You poor bastard :(

3
PleonasmOP•

I like it.

1
pivotal•

Your job is basically my dream... but I'm a bit of a homebody and I don't really know if I would like it.

Why do you work from home? Is it by choice?

Did you think you would enjoy it more than you do?

3
PleonasmOP•

Why do you work from home? Is it by choice?

More or less. It's mostly because I'm too busy with college to lose 2 hours of my day in the subway. It's that simple.

Did you think you would enjoy it more than you do?

At first I enjoyed it a lot, but then I realized despite all the food I was eating (my fridge being 10 feet away), I still needed to get the job done if I was to keep my job. So I'd say yes, I thought I'd enjoy it more.

2
[deleted]•

Hey...I work from home too. I've been doing it for 2 years and for the most part it is awesome but it definitely has its drawbacks.

Have you gained any weight since working from home?

3
PleonasmOP•

Yes, a few pounds, no more than 5 and it's been a year so I guess I'm stable now.

1
aagee•

How do you get your gigs? I would love to get something going where I can work on interesting projects on my schedule.

3
PleonasmOP•

I'm not sure what you mean... I don't work on interesting projects on my work time, my work being pretty much boring. I work on interesting projects on my spare time. I just get ideas and do them.

1
Astark•

I'd like to learn programming, not necessarily as a career but just for my own gratification. Is it possible to teach myself, and where would I begin?

2
PleonasmOP•

It's very easy actually, if you're ready to spend roughly a year to learn what others do in three, but that's just for the equivalent of the DEC that I have, I don't know for something like a college degree.

Easy tips:

  • Learn about programming concepts before you learn the languages. Never mistake language-specific terms and concepts for programming terms and concepts.

  • Don't waste too much time on graphics and graphical manipulations if you don't plan on being a webmaster.

  • Read read and then read again.

  • Practice makes perfect, put into application all that you learn.

  • I strongly advise you to learn a lot about ASP.Net and PHP alike, because even if they do "the same thing" (not really), they are both very common, useful and different.

3
Astark•

Thanks... Any particular books or authors you would recommend?

1
PleonasmOP•

Not books but subjects (I always get the "For Dummies" book, they're really good). Besides what I said above:

  • XML [mandatory]

  • WPF (just for your general culture)

  • As much about databases as you can fit in your head.

  • Specifically, MySQL and SQLServer for PL/SQL (and how to use PL/SQL efficiently)

  • You wouldn't necessarily need revision control systems but it's good to know about them nonetheless.

  • Test-driven development.

There's a lot of other interesting stuff, but you'll need to "specialize" in what you prefer.

(Oh yes and Object Oriented Programming of course, that's a given.)

3
sheep1e•

Specifically, MySQL and SQLServer for PL/SQL (and how to use PL/SQL efficiently)

That's confusing... PL/SQL is Oracle's version of SQL, which you're not going to learn by learning MySQL or (Microsoft) SQL Server.

2
ElBeh•

What's your favorite programming joke?

2
PleonasmOP•

A man walks into a bar and realizes his whole life has been a tutorial.

3
[deleted]•

I'm in a very similar situation to you.

The being alone all day is somewhat demoralising, but the work is damn interesting. I live in a nice part of London so wondering around the streets during the day for a long lunch or meeting some friends keeps the monotony away. Also the work is fiendishly interesting, about as far away from web development as possible. I range from c to java to matlab, simulating circuits with a nice GUI through to fairly high end 3D visualisation of measurements/simulations. I also have 2 great flatmates, so after a long day they come into my room and bring my down from my red bull, code, and drum n' bass high and we go to the pubs or whatever - makes the days go by ok.

You seem to not be that happy with it from what you have said elsewhere in the thread, is this really the case? Do you not feel lucky compared to people who work "normal" jobs? Are you bored with the work you do? Do you live with anyone?

2
PleonasmOP•

I live with a flatmate too, but she's seldom here.

Also, the problem is that while a job that leaves me indifferent in a great atmosphere is an okay job, a job I don't care about in an inexistant atmosphere is really boring.

But as I said, it pays and the hours are entirely flexible, so I don't want to take risks right now. Maybe next year if I find college life easy.

1
drbold•

I know you aren't the AMA, but here goes anyway:

What kind of background/education did you have to land your position? What domain is the work in (I assume some kind of electronics/electrical engineering software?). Who is the end consumer for the code you produce, or is it mostly to generate/digest datasets?

If you don't want to answer any of these, I totally understand :).

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

0
[deleted]•

[deleted]

0
PleonasmOP•

Maybe, but the City of Quebec office is much more likely to be a good place to try.

(Maybe means: Not officially, but I don't think my boss would turn down good new blood.)

1