Software development consistently ranks among the least stressful jobs you can get and it's really out of touch to compare this profession to genuinely stressful jobs.
Looking over surveys of most stressful jobs, it looks like the common theme are those that deal directly with people like customer service, sales, nursing/health care, or working in physically demanding environments like cook, construction, fire fighter.
Software development is an incredibly stress-free job in the overwhelming majority of circumstances.
I've worked a number of different jobs. Software development isn't the most stressful job, but it can be very stressful.
I'm not bitter, you're bitter! :)
The difference between relatively difficult programming and a lot of jobs is that a lot of jobs have a pretty steady level of stress, whereas the programming stress level can vary incredibly.
Most professions have a much higher risk of physical violence, for instance.
You could offer me double my current tech job salary and I still don't think I'd go back to my old retail service job.
People were shitty when I did it 20 years ago, and they've only gotten shittier today.
I've done 48 hr on-call work days, and a decade back my average sleep hours were like 3 - 4 hrs/day. Needless to say, even the best case sleeping hours are/were 5-6 hrs even till date. Writing code gets as stressful, as it gets.
But I guess you are talking more on the lines of most other professions putting same effort but not getting paid anywhere near we do.
That's a different problem and has a lot more to do with overall life directions, where you started and where you are going than something to do specifically with Software development.
laughs from a bootstrapped startup
I was the second developer at a startup, got a nice bundle of stock options that kept me highly motivated for 12 years but were ultimately worthless when the company sold
I'd take earning a million dollars for 3 months of work and then taking the rest of the year off over what I have to put up with. Constant 24/7 unpaid support, having to work long hours because the company decided to do layoffs, having to work long hours because someone in sales promised the world for his commission that I don't see a dime of. Having to fix work of bad hires because said hire was related to the boss. Dealing with very strict government regulations that change every few years. Having to implement an absolutely horrible idea in a dead language because some boss had a bright idea. Dealing with hacker-kiddies constantly trying to compromise the system. Having to constantly learn the latest fad abstraction, on my own dime and time, that will only be relevant for a few years. Have to fix massive data issues because some executive decided to read the first chapter in a SQL book run a query in production? Having to deal with unrealistic deadlines and half ass specs. Having to deal with whatever scrum implementation some nitwit who took one online course came up with. Getting a couple weeks or three off every year, including sick days, and having to practically beg for it, and still getting calls anyway. Talk about being out of touch. What exactly do you think programmers do all day, write "Hello World," in every language ever invented?
Do you think Gene Hackman ever had to sit in a one-on-one meeting with is boss where the boss asked him to rank himself on various things, from 1-5? Getdafuqouttahere.
there are times it's great. there are times it's awful. and there are times i'm prepared to starve rather than continue working for ____
no one in my extended family went into this industry and none of them deals with the endless stress that i do
i envy those who can't relate
Most devs already came from enough privilege to afford never having to do truly painful jobs, so they are a pampered whiney bunch. At lunch today I sneakily surveyed 13 20-something devs (all white, all male). Every single one went to college and didn't need a part-time job to pay for it. I've been at this for 30 years, and sure that was a pretty biased sample: there are plenty of Indian, Thai, Chinese women devs that I've worked with, but most everyone from overseas is already of a higher-caste.
I'd love to see your typical dev do even mildly physical labor 40 hours a week for a little over minimum wage. Lol.
