When you tell people that you are a web developer they start to see you as a different person. You'll get questions like, "Why isn't my Wi-Fi working" or "Can you tell me the best website for cheese". It can get pretty hilarious when the non-techy people around you start to think you're a master of the internet and all the things it holds.
Once you reveal your web development powers, your life will change in the most interesting ways.
You now know how to fix computer problems.
It doesn't matter if you've never worked with anything more complex than a flash drive. Once people know you work with computers in some form, you'll become the go to person for all computer problems. Be ready to explain to people that you aren't sure why their mouse isn't working or what happened to that folder they needed.
Although you will start to learn some of the answers to these questions if you have enough friends, family, and co-workers ask you repeatedly. Soon you might actually know how to fix computer problems.
You control the internet.
Web developers make websites so that means they control them all, right? Someone might even ask you why Netflix is down or if you can speed it up. After you explain to them a few times that you can't get access to every website they'll back off for a while.
Then something else will pop up and you'll have another random question about a website you don't even know about. The good thing is that you'll be able to explain servers and cyber security to them and they will both learn something new and go tell more people about it.
You are tech support.
This is especially true if you work for a smaller company that lumps I.T. and software together. So don't be surprised when someone comes to you freaking out about the network being down. Also, don't be surprised when they get a little irritated if you have no idea what to do about it.
Get ready to answer user questions about the web app you're building while you are working on bugs that will fix the problems they are griping about. Get ready to sharpen those critical people skills because this is the time that they will grow the most.
I know some of these things sound ridiculous, but you'd be surprised by the questions people ask. Not everybody is tech savvy and most of the time they'll appreciate it when you explain stuff to them without being condescending.
Hopefully you got a few chuckles out of this. What are some of the weirdest, most non web development related questions you've gotten because people know you write some sort of code? People make the assumption that I'm a hacker just because they saw some JavaScript in a black IDE. It's easier to go along with them sometimes.
Hey! You should follow me on Twitter because reasons: https://twitter.com/FlippedCoding
Latest comments (52)
"or if you can speed it up"
It's actually pretty easy to speed up the browsing experience for most average users: Just install an adblocker in their browser.
Haha, I just published a few articles on improving your home Wi-Fi, if anyone wants some ammunition for the next time you're asked about Wi-Fi!
medium.com/@zumdewald/theres-magic...
I guess that actually applies to a lot of professions. Before I was full-time developer, I studied electrical engineering and people thought I’m a an electrician and can fix their power sockets. When I told them that I work for Bosch they asked me if I can fix their washing machine.
And honestly, I’ve done the same. When I talk to a lawyer, I’d probably ask them about any sort of legal question that they have no idea about because they work in a diffferent branch.
😉
While awaiting the whims of business side to grace me with a full time Dev job, one of the ways I e made money is by repairing people's computers and sell their spare e waste on ebay (the bay area is expensive what else can I do? I got a dog to feed). Most of my clients are developers and yeah boo hoo it's no fair PEOPLE EXPECT YOU TO BE BASICALLY COMPETENT FIXING THE MACHINES YOU LOAD WITH BROKEN, POORLY DOCUMENTED GARBAGE. Its not a challenging trade, I get plenty of spare rigs for the Homelab cluster and I can charge half Geek Squad's prices (and not saying I did but I COULD charge a fourth of the "genius" premium at the pretty Linux I mean apple store) still walk away highly enriched, especially because devs throw money at things and hope they will go away. Its a systemic affliction in California that laze and carelessly obtained money make for quagmires of funding that have very real human tolls that neither developer nor whatever idiot in LA wants to look at, but run the risk of becoming themselves. Decadence in tech, as it exists in the Silicon Valley at least, is because boom times sweep through from time to time at present and like the fat cats in 1927, seems no one thinks the winning will end and they might need not only to install their own GPU with their flabby little arms, but even something so horrific as building maintaince or cooking an animal they themselves killed, without any halcyon to fill the void within.
I mean come on, you really should be able to troubleshoot (think debugging) basic hardware-software monstrosity courtesy of Microsoft. Its not like HostAPd is reading Hebrew script and if you have a degree you should know a little C regardless. Snapping pieces on and off of rigs is easier than the Legos set you'll be building Xmas Evening.
Every year someone in my family asks me "so you write software and work with computers?" I'm like, "yeah", then they're like, "..can you get the viruses off my computer? SMH...
My children grew up thinking I was playing games in my computer all day.
"Why can't I find your apps in the app store?"
"It's still being developed."
"So where did you download that?"
"What?"
"What?"
"Why is my smartphone so slow?"
LOL this is the issue I have with my family and my job. They know that I went to get a tech degree so they assume I'm an IT personnel even though I constantly tell them that I studied code...I mean...I can try to help you connect to the wifi or set up your devices but I don't troubleshoot.
I'd add "inferring detailed requirements from crappy mocks".
Oh God the tech support one...someone once said that because I work with stuff on the internet, I could somehow fix and setup their cable for them. All I wound up doing was calling the company and asking for help, the same thing anyone else would do.
As a matter of fact, yes. I can speed up web pages by blocking certain resources, which requires some knowledge of the web to know what to block and what not to block.
I'm a programmer. I write programs. I know things about algorithms, programming paradigms and patterns, etc. Yet I cannot visit my grandparents without having to troubleshoot something with either their TV, the video editing program or some other electronic device that has little to nothing to do with my actual job description.
In peoples heads:
Programmer == Someone who's good with computersUsing terminal totally freaks out my family. Most hilarious phrase was - 'Are you hacking NASA? But yes my friend, you are right, if you working with computer you instantly become
the wizardthat can do magic others can't.From my sister (who should know better). {National ISP} says it could take 2 weeks for my business to get internet connection, what can you do?
I called her to find she thought us nerds were jealously guarding wires with internet communications which we'd presumably been presented with by someone with a beard and a pot belly.
At first I said "I'll send Kieran up the M6 with the wire" but instead of laugh she simply asked how long it would take for him to walk 150 miles (I guess assuming the wire was weightless???)
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