Master of our Trades.

Rob say Code Monkey very diligent
but his output stink
his code not functional or elegant
what do Code Monkey think
Code Monkey think maybe manager oughta write goddamn login page himself

Today as I exited the light rail and entered my office building, I looked up and noticed some guys on a piece of rope, dangling from the top of these 8 story buildings. I stopped and looked around and noticed every building on the 16th Street Mall was getting their windows washed. I stopped by this building(see photo on the left) only to see a scaffolding 30-40 stories up. Just thinking about it made me a little nauseous, and grateful that there are people willing(maybe not wanting) to do this job.

I couldn’t do it, and I’m not sure there would be any amount of money that would persuade me to do it. There is alot of jobs out there that I’d feel the same about, being daddy, a doctor, a teacher, ect …

Of course, after I gathered my stomach and got my wits about me, I entered the building. Proceeded to my office, sat down to my desk and made my to-do list just like I do everyday. I got to thinking that I’m sure there are people that look at my profession and are somewhat thankful that I’m doing it instead of them, much how I felt about the window washers.

And what do I do exactly?

“A jack of all traits, a master of none” ~no idea

At one point in my life, I was a full time college student working as a customer service rep for DishNetwork. What a shitty job.

I got it in me one day just to quit. I couldn’t afford to quit, but mentally and emotionally I couldn’t afford what it was doing to me. A few months later I was able to snag a job at OfficeMax. I needed an income and I needed it fast. It was the only thing I could find at the time that would work with my full time school schedule. I only stayed at this job because the woman I had a crush on worked there. She was the only reason that kept me working there when I got another full time job at IBM/CISCO. Yes, I know what your thinking, full time job at IBM/CISCO, full time college student, and part time at OfficeMax.

Needless to say it took it’s toll on me, and I quit OfficeMax to pursue my career elsewhere.

Fast forward a few years of crappy jobs, Now here I am.

A code monkey.

On occasion I have the same feelings as the guys in OfficeSpace, the lack of Accomplishment. In OfficeSpace, they did their job was to change the year from two digits to 4. Exciting Stuff. For me it’s looking at bugs all day from various customers and customer service, then I’ll look at the issues and fix the code.

However, when these things get to me, and I long for that sense of accomplishment, I choose other tasks that could consume me for days and weeks, if not months. The past week I’ve been implementing our MLS search for google maps which is so much fun. The only thing keeping me from coming home is knowing that I’ll have the rest of the day tomorrow to do it. Today though I completed it, and of course it needs a few tweaks here and there, some fail-safe checking but for the most part my mini-project is complete and I was left with a sense of accomplishment.

I’m not sure there are too many better feelings in the world than that sense of accomplishment. The pride that one feels while looking at a finished product whatever the product may be. You could be a teacher and your project for that day was to just finish the day, or as a window washer just to stay on the scaffolding the entire time. It doesn’t matter really. These mini-projects have a sense of a chess match, or a poetry contest. Either way it’s a win win when it’s completed. Writing code is like poetry and when it’s finished and you see a big blue first place ribbon on it, you can’t help but smile. Or knowing that these mini-projects are somewhat like a chess match between you and yourself(and occasionally the computer) and you’ve just declared “Check Mate”.

On the rare occasion, one might find themselves The Master of Their Trade”.

That’s a good feeling.

Good Feelings.

I get a good feeling in my gut when I tell people I’m a Code Monkey.

Good feelings indeed ….

Something we all could use in our lives, no matter what the source.

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Tags: CodeMonkey