I’m an IT Architect for a large Canadian Bank.
I work at Zeppe’s (a local pizzeria chain) and am going to college for my associate’s degree right now, and then transferring to some other college for my bachelor’s in CS. Unfortunately do not get paid to code like a lot of you do 
[OT]
[quote=“deepthought,post:40,topic:53425”]
Beats Schleswig-Holstein (germany). We don’t even have teachers.[/OT]
Beside I still go to school and I am doing some part time jobs.
Interesting to hear everyone’s stories and impressive careers.
I’m studying finance and economics, trying to find out why house prices are so high for my thesis. I also do teaching and I’m sure that some of my students think I’m incompetent, but hopefully they’re a minority.
I agree that many university teachers appear incompetent. But I’d like to share why. Teachers are not compensated based on their teaching, they are promoted according to their research output, and fired if they don’t perform: publish or perish.
The root of the problem is that students choose universities based on the institutions’ notoriety and ranking, which is based on their research output, which leads to hiring good researchers who typically find their teaching responsibilities a chore.
For example, the newest or worst-performing researchers are often tasked with running the large first year 101 courses. This is not because they’re inspirational and well-prepared, it’s punishment for being at the bottom of the pecking order. The best researchers with the most cachet have their choice of classes which is almost always the small, easy to organise subjects that take the shortest time to mark. The very best researchers usually buy out their teaching time using research grant money, so you will never even meet them as a student.
The teachers are not idiots, they’re rationally responding to the incentive system they operate in which puts no value on teaching.
I’ve been teaching English in Seoul, Korea in a variety of forms for 21 years (which I suppose makes me incompetent at English). These days I run my own hot dog shop in central Seoul, teach a handful of one-on-one private English lessons at a nice hourly rate, and divide the rest of my time between hacking away on throw-away games & web apps and watching VOD movies with my wife.
As somebody who would like to get into teaching for teaching and hates the “academic research” side of things (which seems to favor quantity over quality instead of real passion), this is the terrifying part.
I’m hoping that movements like Code.org, or its smaller regional siblings like Black Girls Code, Girl Develop It, etc, change how computer science education works. A shift away from universities and into outreach programs is really exciting. Or that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
[quote=“CommanderKeith,post:44,topic:53425”]
Thanks for this. I cringed quite a bit at the people blasting teachers. There are plenty of amazing teachers out there.
Another side of this is that college/university isn’t supposed to be high school. You’re supposed to want to learn. You get what you put in, so if you’re just waiting for a teacher to come along and hold your hand the whole way, you’re going to have a bad time. That doesn’t mean that person is a bad teacher. It means you’re a bad student.
Sure, some teachers are only there to squeeze coauthored papers out of students. Some should have retired 10 years ago and are just there thanks to tenure. But saying “all teachers are incompetent” is pretty offensive, and probably a sign of the type of student you are rather than the types of teachers you’ve had.
(I also know that some of you were just kidding, so calm down!)
Lecturers at university are generally not what I would classify as teachers. University education is a very different affair to school or college.
Cas 
Yes that’s a particularly rotten thing that goes on. Typically the poor students that these researchers prey on are the international students from impoverished countries who are extraordinarily smart and hard working but would never complain lest it jeopardise their chances of obtaining or keeping their visa and job.
Sounds like a pleasant life! I’ve heard that the highest paid teachers in the world are from South Korea, and that like most Asian countries, teachers are held in high regard like doctors and lawyers. The Chinese even have ‘teachers’ day’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teachers’_Day)
Audi test driver 8) I can assure you that it sounds a lot more fun then what it actually is… Like all jobs you have good days and bad days, with the good days being the ones that you don’t have to drive Lamborghini (yes, Audi ‘owns’ them so we testdrive them). Remarkably poor excuse for a car - so please, when you all get filthy rich, don’t go buy a Lambo!
Been programming since I was like 9, never really put that final touch on anything in 31 years, but I’m getting closer every time!
Can’t say much other than we are building a platform to perform Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality from the “Cloud” (hate that word!). If I had it my way, i’d be doing it completely differently.
All things aside, we have done some nice things with SLAM. From what I’ve seen, the new MS Hololens does seem to use similar technology for its AR.
Quite the exiting time to be in this part of the industry. Unfortunately can’t say anymore due to NDA’s =[
I’m java developer for EPAM.
Worked with financial systems, now working for huge web-based applications which provide access to the information for the money. Bloody enterprise ;D This is my primary full time job. I’m trying to create game in my free time.
I’m almost done with my bachelors in Architecture/Engineering and I then hope on doing my masters in parametric design
If you have never heard of parametric design then look it up! It’s amazing 
It’s basically programming buildings
I am a consultant specialising in Business Intelligence and analytics, using the Oracle stack. On a technical level this basically boils down to data warehouse design and development, data integration and logical modelling in the reporting solution.
In my spare time I’m working on a 3D game engine using LWJGL. At the moment I’m working on the back-end stuff like an FBX importer for handling models and animation, an image decoder and a maths library, then I’ll start working on a physically-based camera and real-time global illumination for photo-realistic rendering. So not too ambitious then
I’m a “server and storage engineer”. I seem to have been doing this for about 20 years. Yes I’m that old.
Describe your average day… of managing storage. I’m truly curious.
I don’t manage it…I buy it, configure it and install it then hand it over to people who do manage it.
Same with servers. Because I don’t manage it I don’t have to be on-call. Bonus!
First year at Athens University of Ecoconomics and Business studying informatics.
Wouldn’t dream of anything other than an AMC javelin or 1970 Roadrunner
I work as a mail system administrator (IBM Domino) for an agricultural company.
Java programming is my new hobbie (which I have a lot to learn) ;D