I just finished watching the movie, “The Internship” in Netflix and as much I want to go to sleep now because it is past my bedtime, I just need to write this down.
Anyway, the movie is about two friends who are sales people and are very good with what they do but lost their jobs because their company shut down. Not knowing what to do next, they ran into the browser “Google” and just googled about it. They saw the internship program and decided to apply for it, faking their resumes. And yes, at the end of the movie, they got accepted in Google.
While watching the movie and listening to their lines talking about programming stuff, they sounded so normal to me. It’s not something new or strange. It’s just the lingo that I’ve been so used to since I enrolled into a computer course in college. When they were asked about C++ and Bill (one of the characters) said that it’s just a C+ and the other + is about attitude, it made me laugh. If I wasn’t a programmer, I will not get it. It made me miss the life of being a programmer.
You see, I’ve made a choice of getting away from being a technical person doing programming because I wanted to pursue something I believe I can be better of than being a programmer. But then I realize, I can never get away with it. Because the moment I see something wrong on just a simple site I access, my programmer instinct immediately kicks in. The movie reminded me that being a programmer is more than just sitting at your desk, facing your computer and coding thousands and thousands of lines. Not that I will go back to all those coding and stuff. It just made me appreciate more the life I chose to leave.
If you are a programmer reading this and you think that you are not making a difference, I hope you realize that your craft is not just about going to work 8 hours a day or sometimes more, debugging your code, making the system run and meeting deadlines of your deliverable. What you are doing, just like a doctor or a teacher also affects lives. Regardless how small or big the company you are working for, remember that you being a programmer gives A “service”. Everything you do is about serving. Not to a system or a program, but to PEOPLE. Just imagine if the health system of a hospital is not running properly, how will they keep the records of the patients? Just imagine if the banking system was not properly coded, how would the banks track all transactions?
You may feel like what you are doing is not that much compared to other programmers, but truth is, small and big task have the same importance in the world of IT. A simple bug like a missing letter to a variable may be a simple fix but that fix made the whole store system ran smoothly, thus allowed stores to process the purchases of their customers. It is a simple code change that made a huge difference.
And if you are one of those aspiring to work for an IT company someday, like Google, perhaps, but, you are doubting yourself about it. Always remember that programming can be learned by anyone. Not that it is easy, but because it does not limit you to just one thing that you can learn and do. Just by looking at the applications you have downloaded in your phone, you would know what I mean.
I may not be a programmer anymore based on my current job description but I’m glad that I still get to work with a lot of them. And, importantly, being a programmer will never be erased from my resume.
P.S. I’m so thrilled for my Google campus visit, not sure if I can get in though, but regardless!!!
I must say tonight is my “Appreciation Night” to all programmers
in the world who make the online space a better click away.
Princess Pepay 