I am a subscriber to CodingHorror.com. A recent post from Jeff Atwood referenced a post from The Joel on Software.
Joel was responding to a comment from a person on his blog saying that they were going to leave the industry and move on. They were just that unhappy. Joel then went onto question it. How the timing couldn’t be worse, pay was pretty darn good, and the overall coolness of being able to create new stuff for a living.
Jeff Atwood responded by agreeing and then going on a bit of a side rant that I agree with.
If you’ve been in the industry for any length of time you come to see a bunch of people that shouldn’t be in the industry. They just don’t have ‘it’. They don’t have the analytical skills to program, but more importantly they don’t have the attitude it takes. If you don’t love what you do in this industry, you need to move on. Because if you don’t love what you do, you are not going to spend 8 hours fighting a bug that makes no sense. If you don’t love what you do, you are not going to be up till 3 AM finishing a product that is needed ASAP.
I love what Jeff says in closing:
So if a programmer ever hints, even in passing, that they might possibly want to exit the field -- they probably should. I'm not saying you should be a jerk about it, obviously. But if someone has any doubt at all about programming as a career choice, they should be encouraged to explore alternatives -- and make room for another programmer who unashamedly loves to code.
In my own closing:
I love it. I’m staying.