[LRUG] Code samples: To do or not to do

[Sean O'Halpin]

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:14 AM, Vahagn Hayrapetyan <vahagnh at gmail.com> wrote:

[snip]

> In UK on the other hand, it seems (correct me if I am wrong! This is a
> culturally sensitive issue here) that the programmer is viewed more like a
> clerk, but a special one; sort of a mechanical clerk (weirder and lower down
> the food chain than the ordinary, boring clerk (Clericus Stolidus
> Mediocris)). His / her job is to sit down at the desk day long and push
> funny symbols into The Machine. Hence, every bozo that may not even have
> University background has the moral right to request samples of those
> "symbols" from the programmer.

That is a very common attitude here. When the first computers were
built, all the actual programmers were women because it was considered
a menial task below the men who came up with the algorithms. It was
thought of as something on a par with being a telephone operator (all
those wires and plugboards y'know).

However, this attitude is not reserved solely for programmers. Real
engineers (and let's face it, computing is not (yet) engineering) are
also often treated as little better than mechanics by management.

Culturally, if you make something useful, you are considered as
exploitable by (and therefore lower on the social scale than) someone
who has been educated in the art of bullying others for profit.

Regards,
Sean

P.S. FWIW, if you use the word 'peeps' on a CV, you won't even be
considered for a job ;)