We can partly blame television for
the impression that certain occupations are never routine or boring. The
patient is always diagnosed and cured
within 45 minutes, which is precisely
the amount of time it takes to catch
and convict a criminal. Occasionally,
there are flashes of reality even on
TV. “Law and Order” shows how detectives crack a case by following one
small, frustrating clue after another.
But even here, the 45-minute straightjacket rules. Lt. Van Buren instructs
her detectives: “Well, the victim was
drunk, so check every bar within 10
blocks.” Immediately, the scene cuts
to the bartender who provides the
next clue, but we don’t see the hours
of fruitless investigation by the detectives and the junior police officers that
led to this moment.
The issue is not whether a subject
is boring or not, but your ability to live
with particular types of routine that
can lead to boredom. Tiffany should be
asking herself whether she prefers the
routine of working as a psychologist—
listening day-in, day-out to people complaining that their parents screwed up
their lives—over the routine of constructing dozens of menu entries for
the interface of an application.
non-Myth #2: You Spend
Most of Your Working Life in
Front of a Computer Screen
For someone to refuse to study computer science for this reason is simply ridiculous. Many people sit in
front of computers all day. Computer
screens are ubiquitous in all professions in finance, administration, government offices, customer service,
and so forth. I am certain my travel
agent spends more time looking at
her computer screen than I do. From
watching movies like Wall Street and
Working Girl, I gather that securities
traders spend their lives looking at six
screens simultaneously.
Our medical system has recently
undergone extensive computerization: a patient’s history, test results,
and diagnostic images are stored on
a network of computers. During a
visit to a doctor, the patient sits quietly while the doctor reads the history, studies test results, orders X-rays,
writes prescriptions, and summarizes
the visit, all on a computer. Of course
The decline of
interest in studying
computer science is
usually attributed to
a set of perceptions
that students have
about the subject.
doctors continue to perform physical
examinations, but many modern diagnostic and surgical procedures involve
“scopes” of various kinds, so that the
physician is frequently looking at a
computer screen.
Tiffany is free to decide that options
trading is more exciting than programming, but that choice is not going to
save her from the constant use of computers. Certainly, sitting in front of a
computer developing software for an
insurance company is preferable to
sitting in front of a computer entering
data from insurance claims.
non-Myth #3: You have
to Work Long hours
People who work in high-tech industries complain about long hours, but
this is true of many occupations, including prestigious professions, in particular, in the early stages before you
achieve a high level of competence and
the freedom to work independently.
The competition among young attorneys to clock hours is notorious. Young
scientists work long hours in an effort
to expand their list of publications during the short period before they are reviewed for tenure.
In 1984, Libby Zion, an 18-year-old
student, died in a New York hospital
from a fatal drug interaction. She was
being cared for by young, overworked,
interns and residents, who were not
aware of a medication she had been
taking. New York subsequently enacted a law forbidding residents from
working more than 80 hours a week.
In comparison, spending 50 hours a
week working as a software engineer
doesn’t seem so bad.
A career as an airline pilot sounds
more adventurous than a career as a
programmer, but Tiffany should not
choose to become a pilot in the expec-
tation of fewer hours at work. Spend-
ing long hours in a cubicle in a hi-tech
firm, where your hours are flexible and
you are free to go out for lunch or to the
gym, is not as difficult as being cooped
up in the small cockpit of an airplane
for many hours at a time, on a schedule
over which you have no control.
non-Myth #4:
Programming Is Asocial
Yes, but it depends what you mean by
asocial. It is true that a programmer
spends long hours by herself in front
of a computer screen, although there
are also meetings with team members
and customers. There certainly are
“social” professions where you are in
constant contact with other people.
The problem is that in most cases the
human contact is superficial and
asymmetrical, because you don’t “chat”
with your “clients.” You may not even
want to develop a warm relationship
with your clients, for example, if you
are a police detective interrogating
hardened criminals.
A physician is almost always in
contact with other people, but much
of that is superficial contact with patients. A consultation may take just 15
or 20 minutes, once every few weeks
or months. Certainly, the contact is
asymmetrical: I tell my doctor every
detail of my life that is related to my
health, while she tells me nothing
about hers.
Nursing is considered to be one of
the most caring of professions, but
the reality of modern medical care
is far from the romantic image. I recall being hospitalized for tests and
feeling stressed out, but Chrissie
Williams and Donna Jackson (nurses
from the BBC medical soap opera
“Holby City”) did not come over to
hold my hand and reassure me. The
nurses at the hospital were themselves stressed out with the responsibility for 40 patients, and they barely
had time to perform the myriad technical aspects of the job such as administering medication and measuring vital signs.
It is reasonable for Tiffany to
choose to become a social worker because she likes helping people direct-