A Career in Computers
Once upon a time, not so long ago, it used to be so simple.
There were only four types of job in the computer industry, (we’re talking about the 1960s here).
On the bottom rung there was the Computer Operator, who was basically a navvy, incarcerated all day long in an air-conditioned computer room, man-handling large quantities of magnetic tapes, stacks of punch cards and other peripheral paraphernalia.
Next in the pecking order was the Programmer (who had a desk!), whose time was spent coding in either COBOL or FORTRAN. The programmer’s job was to interpret ambiguous specifications, designed and dealt out by the third type of animal - the Systems Analyst.
Finally, at the top of the ladder was the Data Processing Manager, whose chief job was to spend long lunch breaks in the pub.
And fundamentally that was it. The career path was straightforward, you knew your place in the hierarchy, and everybody was happy.
But things began to change very rapidly, in line with the rapid advancement in hardware and software. “Specialisations” started to creep in, and it all got very confusing…..
(Published in Computer Weekly 1983)
Tags: career, computer, jobs, programmer
Working the streets as a contractor
The cartoon today is taken from the Education section of Microholics:
I once worked for a software house. The Chiefs were pimps and us Indians were prostitutes. They used to send me to work “on the streets” for months at a time in exotic locations like Milton Keynes, hire me out to the client for some undisclosed exorbitant rate and pay me a pittance for a salary.
Unfortunately, when you’ve got the word “contractor” stamped on your forehead, the permanent workforce invariably assumes you’re rolling in cash, which tends to affect their behaviour and attitude towards you. So you have all the disadvantages of working as a contractor, with none of the advantages! I believe I lasted about twelve months in this job.
A few years later I became a “proper” contractor, but working for a different kind of pimp - the Agent. The difference was that I got a slightly bigger slice of the pie for each “trick”!
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