A lot of people who work, don’t like their job. It’s a fact. If you were at a party and you asked people if they like the job they get paid to do, the response would be largely negative. That you are reading this, on this blog, indicates that you are probably a programmer. Then, on the assumption that you are in some capacity employed as a programmer, I can say to you that you are a lucky person.

Why?

It is simple, really: A large percentage of the programmers I have met,  have worked with or follow on Twitter absolutely love to write code, whether it is for a website, a desktop application of some kind or they are just monkeying around with something. They love it! I love doing it. A number of my friends love doing it. And the best thing?

We get paid to do it!

Don’t get me wrong here, I know plenty of people who turn up at 9am and go home at 5pm and wouldn’t even consider writing anything for themselves or doing any open source work. For them, it’s like a factory job, albeit a (generally) much better paid one. Jeff Atwood (love him or loathe him) has a great post about these sorts of programmers titled “There are Two Types of Programmers”. Even though these programmers might not code in their spare time, I’d still say that 99% still like their job.

I’ll place myself firmly in that 20% block of programmers though. I wouldn’t say I was a rock star programmer, I’m certainly not bad, but I do always want to constantly improve myself and my ability. As the old saying, “Practice makes perfect”. I definitely love my job. Maybe I could do without some of the meetings and the office politics which comes from working in a large company, but still, I love what I do.

I get paid to do what I love doing; I consider myself lucky.