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Medea
Medea

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Programming: Hobby or Job?

I was scrolling through my dev.to feed, and I saw many posts relating to programming jobs.

I started coding when I was 11, and I’ve been using it as a hobby since.

Do you program for a job or as a hobby?

Top comments (88)

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Richard Guay

I program as a job (well, one of my jobs), but more so as a hobby. My job isn’t directly about programming, but I use alot of workflows that optimize my work. I’m really into automation. So, I find it all fun and exciting.

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Medea

That's cool! One of your jobs?

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Richard Guay

Yes. I’m a missionary first, freelancer second. Most of my freelance work is with Tutsplus.com.

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Medea

Damn that’s so cool!

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Or Yaacov • Edited

For me it's both. I started programming as an hubby, and did many project when I was young (mostly firmware which communicated with WPF application).
Today I'm a software Engineer with 9 years of experience who still works on is on projects for fun :)

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Medea

Nice!

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Adam Crockett 🌀

Used to be both but there are better hobbies

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Medea

damn...

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Adam Crockett 🌀

It's not a bad idea to enjoy what you do but when it creeps into your free time then you know it might be a problem, when can you rest, because rest clears down your memory like a human GC

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Adam Crockett 🌀

What am I doing tonight? Programming ✋😅

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Medea

yea i get you

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Medea

lmao

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Marco Klein

Haha, like that human GC expression, it's indeed true :) one should know when a hobby should be paused (short term). Otherwise it's too much positive stress, which can end bad, too, although one enjoyed it.

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afullsnack

Started off as a hobby 😅..... high interest in hacking as a kid, now a full time job and some times still a hobby cause I enjoy problem solving and tasking challenges on a regular.

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Personal portfolio:

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Medea

Nice!

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ilia4bit • Edited

Hey, I think programming as hobby use more creativity than as job because in job maybe write more traditional code. I prefer programming as a hobby maybe because it makes me feel like I'm an artist who brings life to his/her imaginations. I try to do more programming for myself not for gaining something just because it is fun. but on the other side I need money so a job is essential.

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Medea

That’s cool!

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Charles Hriczko

Started as a hobby when I was 12. Started programming professionally at 23. Found out way too quickly that burnout is real. I ended up forcing myself out of the game but I never stopped loving it. After a good six years of doing warehouse work, last year I started programming again professionally and, knowing what I know now over a decade later, I know it's where I belong. Now it's my jobby.

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Medea

That’s great!

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Constantin

Started as a job and now it's my job and my hobby. However in my hobby I code iot stuff. My heart was and is always with embedded. However I work in business it and code sales systems that connect to old systems.

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Medea

Cool!

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Shimron

Got into coding when I was 17 after watching The Social Network. Fell in love with it. Took computer science in my high school as my main stream. And here I am, still in love with it. So, it's more like a hobby and job combination to me. I really don't know where it falls.

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Medea

Nice!

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Randall

Programming is my job. I started when I was 15 and it was a hobby for me then.

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Medea

That makes sense

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Jeremy Friesen

Both. For my job I write and maintain Ruby on Rails codebases. For my hobby, I hack on Emacs or Hugo.

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Medea

Nice!

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Maybe_ThisWillDO

I started learning to obtain a skill, until I have a passion project that I want to achieve within the future. Took a very long break to bring my life back up to speed. Now, not too recently I've reminded myself of my goal and passion. Because of that I'm going head first putting all my focus in learning programming while also taking care of my other responsibilities. Hmm maybe this rant wasn't relavent but to answer your question I'm programming to get a job but I also do it as a hobby.

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Medea

That’s great!

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taijidude

Started as Job. Slowly but surly has took over as a hobby as well.

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Medea

That's cool!

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taijidude

It's taking over a little to much. 😅

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Medea

Damn

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Ben Halpern

As my career has progressed, the actual coding part is more of a hobby. There have been times when it has been both, and occasionally just a job.

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Medea

That's cool!

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hacker4world

I started programming as a hobby but now im looking to land a job with it

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Medea

Nice!

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mohammadparsa-javidi

I look at programming as a hobby but I also want to earn money and have a job

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Medea

Same!