Hey, What is your career? Does programming really suit intp?

[shafiqah]

I wanna be a programmer, but i have still learning. I have degree in mathematics but i don't think mathematics suit me well.... i love ict since school so i will fight to be one of the programmer out there. Any tips or suggestion is welcomed.

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[Caffeine]

This is not a good place to ask for career advice.

 

[shafiqah]

Ok so sorry...

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[Cognisant]

I'm in CRM development atm, debugging Javascript more often than not.

The job itself is fine, as long as you know what you're doing and not working for a boss that makes impossible demands, coding itself and debugging can be quite intellectually stimulating and there's a real sense of achievement, plus your skills develop with experience.

On the other hand being a full time desk jockey can be very bad for your health if you don't control your diet and make time to exercise, I only moved from tech support recently and I'm at 105kg, the heaviest I've ever been

 

[Sinny91]

This is not a good place to ask for career advice.

Yea. My career is getting through life with an ounce of sanity left.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Does programming suit intp?

This question is irrelevant, you can set up an IDE and start programming in a matter of minutes. You can pick one of thousands of useful learning resources or tutorials and get going.

By the end of the day, you would have finished multiple programs and you would be closer to answering whether programming is something for YOU. It's Sunday tomorrow, so most likely an ideal situation for you to find the answer.

Asking whether something suits intp is the same as asking if it suits pisces or aquarius, the answers you get have minimal application to your personal circumstances.

Career thread

Best programming language to start with thread.

 

[RaBind]

I'm at 105kg, the heaviest I've ever been

What's your height? I feel like that makes a huge difference.

I'm at university learning software engineering. It's interesting enough that I don't experience any existential worries, as in asking myself questions like "what am I doing with my life?" or similar variants, which I believe I would be asking myself if I were unhappy about my decision to study the subject or felt it was unproductive for me to do so.

Still I wouldn't really say I'm passionate or have any strong feelings towards the subject itself. I am aware that the subject and it's applications are vast, and the potential of some areas within it get me excited, even though I'm not really at the level where I'm capable of exploring said areas. I guess what I'm saying is I think programming is the right track to finding interesting work, even though the process of picking it up isn't that interesting.

 

[Ex-User (8886)]

Programming can be good for you as anything else.

 

[Lol]

Don't know why everyone says programming is ideal for INTPs, I've dabbled in it a few times over the years and have hated it

 

[ActiveMind]

Any of you guys try working a 'field' job? I believe it suits the INTP desire to work by oneself, from home, or a place where you don't feel confined by a boss or even an office. It may be a better career option to change things up.

 

[WALKYRIA]

IMO, programming seems ISTJ or INTJ at best .... but INTP just don't like to be bothered reallly, so therefore the best job for an INTP is lazily enjoying and experiencing life and creating loads of different shit.
Does this mean a creative job? Meeh

 

[bleo]

Perhaps we could all be armchair detectives and be paid for it one day. Programming is fun when you get to learn then possibly lead to making a fancy piece of algorithm. It can be rewarding. That said, not sure about the career itself.

I regard programming as one of the most essential skills to pick up. We are at a technological boom, so any fundamental knowledge on the tools we use day to day would surely be of use. Kids in school are already learning concepts of Binary Coding and Raspberry Pi anyway :'(

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[computerhxr]

Programming can be more stimulating than many other jobs.

I've worked in factories but it's really difficult to do the same thing over and over again. I would say that factory work is not good for INTP.

Programming has many levels. I would say engineering is the level that is best suited for myself as an INTP. I really hate the grind on programming work that isn't stimulating.

Engineering is something that applies to more than just programming. All forms of engineering are interesting to myself as an INTP.

I don't use a lot of math in programming. Sometimes it's complicated but usually that stuff is packaged as a library so that you don't have to write an algorithm for encryption or anything like that.

I guess it all depends on if you enjoy programming when you try it out. I started programming and it was really exciting but that was back in the day... Now programming isn't exciting because it's all high-level abstractions and code-monkeying.

 

[Architect]

I've tried everything I could get my hands on professionally; Physicist/professor, musician, artist, teacher/tutor, expert (slash career), reporter (tech), organizational change manager, people manager (tech), requirements analyst, small business owner, inventor, author (wasn't a professional here, didn't make it that far). Certainly an INTP can do any of the above, as can any other type. Much is dependent on upbringing, who you are above and beyond your type which is a more fundamental aspect of your psyche.

But you have to disambiguate what is statistically good versus individually. As some have said, programming doesn't work for them. OK? There are many factors, how hard did they try, what is their background, under what circumstances and so forth. But that out of the way I'd say that all else being equal* INTP's are better suited for programming/software engineering than anything else.

This doesn't mean they'll be ecstatically happy doing it. I'm happier listening to music than programming frankly, but programming gives me more long term satisfaction than when I was a musician. It fires on all cylinders, while music mostly fires on the inferior (which feels really good, for a while). Programming is the only field I've found where there is no bottom. I've been doing it 30 years and haven't found the end point, which I did with Physics believe it or not (the field isn't that vast actually, QM and GR will cover you mostly). Since software is the embodiment of Information science it's as limitless as information (basically only limited by entropy).

It has it's bad sides too - dealing with colleagues/customers, having t execute and so on, but those are just personal growth opportunities in my book.

* I mean by this that to judge how well a field works for a type you have to run a thought experiment where you take, say, 100 INTP clones and try them out in various fields. In other words factoring out individual (personality/upbringing) differences.

 

[ENTP lurker]

Be aware: I think it is a tedious job. It is not like computer science where you design languages, methods on programming or try to come up new methods of abstraction on certain area to a blackboard barely touching on keyboard.

 

[Architect]

It is not like computer science where you design languages,

I've done this, and better a customer paid a few million for it.

methods on programming

same

or try to come up new methods of abstraction on certain area to a blackboard barely touching on keyboard.

Does using a whiteboard count? Otherwise the same.

You know not of what you speak. The way it works is that all the real innovation goes on in the non-academic world. The universities take speciality problems, usually filling in the details nobody really cares about of some problem or another.

For example back in the 50's and 60's nobody had compiler theory, but that didn't stop IBM, Bell Labs and such from inventing languages. Knuth and the others in academia worked concurrently or after the fact to define the field of compilers. Any decent company has a university relations program, I have two visiting professors on my floor at the moment, and a third that we hired. Whether you work for public or private just depends on how much vacation versus money you want.

Certainly a company that just works on CRUD websites won't have this, but who wants to work on that?

 

[ENTP lurker]

Yes, of course. You can be just a programmer or computer scientist or hardware designer or something in between. I think being a programmer is just being a code monkey in most cases. It is better to be aware of what you are looking for when it comes educational programs. If you are more like Turing v.2.0 than baboon then make right decisions.

Taking into account INTP networking skills employment wise it is better to be safe than sorry to not to get stuck. World is a cruel place. Handiwork is not suited for them either so setting a safety net in a first place can be a critical step. Then you are free. Automation will cut lots of jobs in near future and this is a area where sensors beat us hands down. Getting a job experience and while being N can be pain in the ass in the future which might stunt your education. I'm prepared to be unemployed in the future because my sensing and social skills are too low.

 

[Inquisitor]

This doesn't mean they'll be ecstatically happy doing it. I'm happier listening to music than programming frankly, but programming gives me more long term satisfaction than when I was a musician. It fires on all cylinders, while music mostly fires on the inferior (which feels really good, for a while).

I'm not going to lie, this semester has been rough, and I've been dragging my feet on my programming assignments. Basically I've had to force myself a lot. But just recently, I've started to get the first inkling of what you allude to in that underlined part. (When I was creating a program in C using an array of structs pointing to individual linked lists to count, sort, and display all the words in a text document). I still get very distracted, but...I don't hate it. I've actually found it seems to have a calming effect, and it does require me to invest all of my mental energies into it. But you're right that it doesn't appeal to the inferior at all. And that's what I've been constantly lusting after since college.

I don't know why I don't really appreciate music that much though. It seems to be a common trait for many INTPs, but I'm satisfied with listening to stupid pop songs on the radio when I'm in the car. Maybe it's because my mother made me learn piano from age 6 to 12...I kind of have a negative emotional association with classical music. The drive to help people for me personally I think stems from being an only child. Some kind of compensating mechanism for the (relative) lack of social contact when I was younger.

 

[Intolerable]

Software development is unfortunately moving in a direction that a typical INTP will not enjoy.

There are as stated by someone else, loads of different languages but the general consensus from each one is that we're moving away from complicated frameworks and towards something an entry level enthusiast can do well in.

This means the selection pool gets larger for the employer. Once that happens you can be assured they will start demanding ridiculous things from you.

The disease called SCRUM based on a failed assertion of what Agile is for example gets thrown around a lot of companies now. The corporate types love the idea of controlling a group of software developers like a squad of marines barking orders and demanding you do as you're told. That is what they glean from SCRUM because they aren't critical thinkers and so cannot discern snake oil from tonic.

In my twenties I very much enjoyed working the third shift in a warehouse unloading trucks. It was ass busting labor and I got to wear whatever I wanted and listened to whatever music I wanted to listen to. People left me alone and all of that is exactly what I like today. Later on I tried out working the day shift at a supermarket. Holy hell was that a mistake. The uniform is only part of the problem. Being forced to accept the opinion of random dumb ass #99,999,999 is the worst part of it. Knowing the guy who is giving you orders is nowhere near the critical thinker you are is another.

Basically grab onto anything that allows you control of your station and you will be happy. You will be able to pursue it the way you want. Obviously you will want something mentally stimulating. You also want to take a good look up the ladder. Sometimes getting told what to do isn't bad if it is coming from someone who puts as much effort into thinking about it as you do.

 

[rbpinheiro]

I am a programmer and I love it. It started as a hobby, and I still enjoy a lot more to just learn something new or work on a personal project than on what I have to work on professionally.

Actually I think that the desire that INTPs have to learn more and drive deeper into a field helps on programming. There already is more things out there on this field than one person could possibly learn, and new things are coming out almost everyday.
Many people struggle to keep up to date with new tendencies. The other day I talked to the cashier at a restaurant, he said he used to be a programmer, but new technologies buried the one he was used to work with.

As for monkey job, as stated on another post, you will probably have to deal with that, especially on the beginning of your career. But as you grow professionally you will be able to choose a job that will give you the opportunity to work on something mentally challenging and that gives you flexible work conditions.

It can be a stressful profession, but also a rewarding one.