Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I am assuming you are going with programming the rest of your life, what do you want to specialise in? There are many types of jobs out there that require programming. I honestly don't know what I want to do, I would LOVE to work for a big gaming company like Blizzard, Square Enix and ect, but I would also want to work for JPL, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, anything similar. I started programming with gaming in mind, but after I joined robotics, I have found a love for robotics. I also have the desire to start a gaming company, which is easier than making a robot company. Well, what do you guys want to do?

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I started out with working for a game company, but my experience this year in FIRST has started pushing me towards control systems/embedded development. There's something very interesting to me with hacking together different parts to make something work

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

How was working for the game company?

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I want to be a controls engineer and work with the sensors and programming of industrial robots.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

Go learn Japanese and move to Japan :D thats where all the action is

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

And what good would that do for my country?
We can export labor and manufacturing, but it's very foolish to export innovation. Do you want cutting edge technology, or do you want hand-me-downs from an ally?

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

lol I meant wanting to work for a game company. I'm still trying to work my way through the HL2 source so I can mod it :P

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

;) I see wait... They had the source released? LOL I am so unaware, that game made millions, why release teh source?

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

My primary interests are in social entrepreneurship. Things like the DARPA red balloon challenge are what get me excited.

I am a computer science major, but I am hoping to leverage my technological background in order to start companies and nonprofits.

I love this idea of helping people accomplish complex goals especially if the do not have the means or expertise to accomplish those goals themselves.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

International exchange can do a lot of good for both countries. By sharing your skills with others, while you learn from them, both they and you come away knowing more and understanding each other better.

Jason

EDIT: As for the original question... I wanted to be an Electrical Engineer when I was in Grade 12. I was NEVER going to be a teacher.

It's funny how things work out... now I'm not only having fun teaching, but probably having at least as much fun engineering as a lot of my 'geer buddies. Have a goal, but be prepared to take the opportunities life presents you.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

We're all hoping young people like you will bring "the action" home to the US.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

Actually, the auto industry is where all the action is.

If you are dead set on robotics, there is FANUC, which is a great American robotics company with its roots in robots for automotive manufacturing. Other robotics companies that service the auto industry and hire engineers include Kawasaki Robotics, AAB, Apex Controls, Sterling, Nachi Robotics, TranTek, Perceptron, PARI Robotics, Guedel, Advenovation, Comau Robotics, Durr Systems, and I could go on and on.

If you're not completely tied to the robot idea, control engineers are in very high demand throughout the auto industry (even during the recession I had three job offers within two weeks after the end of my airline gig). Virtually every part of a modern car is controlled with an embedded control system - and if it isn't, it will be in no time. Most people wouldn't believe it, but a modern automobile is more complex than a modern aircraft when it comes to control system complexities, and there is no end in sight for new embedded controller applications. It's a very good time to be working in embedded control systems.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I wouldn't believe it. Unless you are limiting your comparison to the small one you are standing next to in your avatar photo.

Safely controlling a large gas turbine engine on a modern commercial aircraft is far more complex than anything on a modern automobile.

The complexity of the anti-skid brake control system on a modern commercial jet, like, let's say, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, far exceeds the anti-lock brake controls on a car.


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Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I'm actually referring to the airplanes that I have flown as an airline pilot. But you can believe whatever you want.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I believe you, I think cars have more priority since the everyday consumers drive it, they are not trained pilots, so it needs more protection from dumb decisions...

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

This needs to go offline. Please check your PM.

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Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

Really, I'd just like to be a math professor, or some other profession involving mathematics. but, I don't want to stop programming. I see battle bots in my future.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I knew I wanted to do something with programming since I was a junior in high school. I was totally intending to go be a game programmer/designer (I was even accepted to and intending on attending DigiPen for a B.S. in Real-Time Interactive Simulation). After joining FIRST in my senior year (sadly I hadn't discovered our team before then) I decided to pursue a B.S. in Software Engineering at MSOE.

As for personal preference, I like to do back-ends and algorithms and such. GUIs aren't my thing because whatever I make never looks as good as my original vision :)

Plus, I realized that if I became a game designer I don't think I would enjoy video games as much anymore. :D

EDIT: My dream job? Being the guy to create frameworks to parse statistical data on characters in an MMO like World of Warcraft and heading up the balance department :) (Kinda has to do with games...)

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

Not everyone who programs is moving towards a degree in it; my teams former main programmer is actually in civil engineering (and he was good enough to get into one of the best software engineering programs in Canada).

Realistically, every engineering discipline programs now. As a mechanical engineering student, I have three or four programming and electrical control based courses in my first two years.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

If I'm doing active programming I'd like to do back end algorithms. it gives me the most pleasure to work these out plus it incorporates mathematics and physics (application dependent) which is the most interesting part IMO.

However what I'd really like to do is to do project management, while this is not technically programming it is an interesting and challenging job.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I started out from high school wanting to be an electrical engineer. Now I just made the jump to computer science. I love writing code way to much.

To be honest, I don't really have a set goal for where I want to end up. I figure as long as I'm innovating, working with a good team, and helping people with their lives, I'm sure I'll enjoy the job.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

Well I am either going to be a programmer, or a pilot, or Aeronautical engineering sounds cool.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

As a side note, it is easier to innovate with automobiles than it is with airplanes. More types of cars are released than types of airplanes, and the regulations around things that fly are oppressive/stifling. To overgeneralize, plane manufacturers are thinking "Safety, Safety, Safety", and automobile manufacturers are thinking "Safety, out-cool the competition, Safety".

I want to be a professor.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

This is true but it's been slowly changing. Auto software development is slowly coming under increasing scrutiny and micromanagement. Toyota's latest problems will provide an extra push in this direction.

Also, it is easier to innovate with automobiles in Europe than it is in the US, due to Europe's more reasonable tort laws.

Those of you who want a taste of what Eric is talking about (oppressive/stifling regulations for aircraft), try Googling

DO-178B site:faa.gov


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Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I actually want to go into chemical engineering, but I would love to incorporate programming into it as well, because it's grown on me over the years :D

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

I plan to basically keep making robots. My big hope is that I can work on developing artificial intelligence, while still building hardware as well. I think medical applications would be a nice way to contribute (think the Luke arm), but I can't help but think that bio-form robots would be cool.

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

Either a computer or software engineer :D

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

Well, thats there is a hard question to answer. I recently got a job working on fossology.org, a website dealing with the legal problems associated with free and open source software. However, I also just finished my favorite professor in rewriting his research (an vision recognition system). Both of these projects have been incredibly interesting but they reside in very different parts of computer science.

If you put a gun to my head and told me to choose I would probably have to go with systems at this point. I love working with low level application and operating system programming. However, I start my senior level classes this summer and I plan on getting a masters after those, so I have plenty of time to dable before a decision needs to be made.

There is something that I would like to say for all those thinking of getting into the gaming industry:

Don't make your hobby your career.

And I say this because there are so many interesting places to take the field of programming that you don't need to make your entire life revolve around video games. In addition there are soooooooooooooo many students in computer science students who will tell you that they want to work on video games that its becoming a sad stereo type.

EDIT: missed a word

Re: Programmers: What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
 

You could go to Japan and make a Wii-keyboard and make lazy schlubs like all of at Chiefdelphi work a bit harder while we type the day away.