What are some good programming careers outside the business world?

Question

I'm tired of working in business, where everything is about money and the bottom line, although I do understand it's the bottom line that pays my salary. :-) Are there any good, and attainable, programming jobs outside the business world? How do you find them? It seems like all the jobs I see advertised are related to business (I live in Atlanta, GA).

Answer 1

Well if you want to get into programming MMO's then CCP is hiring and they have a large development space in Atlanta: CCP Games

Answer 2

I interpret "outside the business world" to mean two basic alternatives:

• Open source
• Dedicated software shop

Examples of open source would be jQuery, Linux, or any of the hundreds of little open-source projects you see advertised here on SO.

Dedicated software shops include Google, Microsoft, and Apple. These are places where software development is the revenue source as opposed to a cost center. Developers are the point, not the annoying guys who keep asking for decent computers and free soft drinks.

Contributing to an open source effort is an option and could eventually lead to a paying gig. If you want to write software for a company that does software as its core business, look for one in Atlanta. I'm sure there are several.

Answer 3

I work for a school district (Kinder to 12th grade High School) in the US and it is a great gig. Most districts use off the shelf software, but ours has hired us to write the student and business apps in house. The board (and our Chief Tech Officer) see the benefits of having a programming staff "on call." There is the occasional pressure to get stuff done yesterday, but no where near the business end of things.

We're writing apps in ASP.NET MVC right now, so we're not being left behind technology wise. The state (and federal government) is always changing their requirements, so I think I'll have a job for some time.