That's an interesting comment, and made me laugh out loud when I read it. (My co-workers are used to hearing me laugh.) :)

Seriously, I agree that there are 'blue collar' elements to the job -- some of the archiving process (burning CDs and DVDs, entering them in the archive database) that I do at the beginning of every month is pretty routine.

But there are other parts of my job that are *not* blue collar, where I'm working on how to solve a particular technical problem, and there are a number of solutions, each with their own set of pros and cons. Or there's the design or update of a database schema -- that's also not blue collar work.

And just because I don't come home with dirt or grease under my fingernails doesn't mean I'm not doing anything difficult. Anyone who has dug through layers and layers of subroutine calls, picked through log files and peered at vast database dumps knows that.

White collar. For the most part, the development part is a desk job, even if the implementation takes you to a factory floor or a manufacturing facility.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds

In reply to Re: Programmers Blue Collar? by talexb
in thread Programmers Blue Collar? by awohld

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