Taped precariously to a door frame at a small tech company’s office, the title on a yellowed piece of paper caught my eye. “Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship,” its title read. I had just left software development to train in leatherwork and upholstery. I wondered… could software also be a craft?
Last year, a company that was interested in hiring me as a software developer asked me to build a food delivery application for a fictional restaurant, as a way to test my coding abilities. I was a bit shocked. The time commitment for building an entire application from scratch can be substantial, and the homework assignment didn’t pay.
I’ve had two careers. I’ve been a developer, which has frankly paid most of the bills. And I’ve been a writer, which I’ve done mainly because I like it. It’s hard to admit this, but yes, I’d rather be a writer. But it’s also hard to watch my full-time writer friends struggle and then to abandon the decent salaries and stability of tech jobs.
