Copied from : Web Site programming / The jobs we don't chode but have

[Rasmus]

Over in the original thread hamelekim said something that sounded vary familiar to me:

Learn HTMl, CSS, XML, Javascript, PHP, and SQL for starters. Personally I hate web development, and yet I seem to end up in web development jobs all the time...

Now, far be it for me to hate computers, but I don't want to be a developer or programmer. And I am not. But it seems that whatever job I have, I'm the one who ends up doing all the little programming tasks that come up, anyway.

I have a suspicion that getting to dislike things also requires one to have a pretty good idea about what they are. (Well, for us sceptics, at least.) Or am I simply dishonest with myself and should actually pursue a careerer in programming? ;)

Well, I have to go now and learn me some AppleScript ...

[tkingdoll]

One of several things could be happening:

1) You have done enough of those things to become adverse to them, as you say.
2) You have gained a reputation for being good at those things despite them not being your job, so you get landed with them.
3) You are too polite to say "no, I really don't enjoy that task, find someone else".
4) You are afraid of rocking the boat at your place of employment (for example you might fear losing your job if you suddenly have less work).
5) You actually get a kick out of demonstrating an ability (maybe you're the only one who can do it in your team, which is why you get picked) and this causes you to take on the tasks despite them being outside of your core role.

Or a combination, or none, or something else.

I doubt anyone could be dishonest enough with themselves to secretly want to be a programmer whilst simultaneously believing that they don't enjoy the work. We're not THAT complex.

Plus, I think what you describe is pretty common. Lots of people are lousy with computers, and there's always one person in an office who is a natural. That person invariably ends up getting asked loads of techy questions. I've been that person in several scenarios, usually with stuff like Excel or Word, or custom software that everyone learns at the same time but somehow don't manage to grasp. In a job about 6 years ago, my reputation had spread so far, I had the MD of the company call me for Excel advice. I worked in the Marketing Dept. It was taking up too much of my time. People get lazy, too. They could figure it out for themselves but it's quicker to ask you, or worse, get you to do it for them. There's nothing worse than someone who refuses to do something because "it's not their job", but you need to strike a balance.

In the end I devised a plan. Someone would call over from their desk "how do you do vlookup in Excel?" and I'd reply "OK, you see the top menu? OK, last menu item on the right, begins with 'H'. Click that...then type in 'vlookup'. Bingo!"

As for hamelekin ending up in web dev jobs despite hating it...well, that's a shame. Your career should be entirely in your control. If you are smart, there's no reason to do an entire job you don't like. All jobs have some aspects that you won't enjoy, but if you don't want to be a web developer, don't do web development.

[ImaginalDisc]

"The jobs we don't chode but have?"

Some jobs are chode.