A Call for More Professionalism in Tech

OMG You can't say that.

There now that is done, this needs to happen. Being professional means accepting the things you can't changing, and changing the things that you can. Being professional is about being a real profession, getting paid like it and delivering value no matter what you are doing. Ping pong tables, red bull and casual dress codes aren't perks for professionals because they know that they can afford that by delivering value, they'd much rather buy it with money they earned working their 9-5 job. Being professional means that you respect your colleagues, but still push them to do their best. Ultimately, it is the opposite of what our field has become, and most business people think its a joke (read everyone else we work with). The best technical people I've worked with were real people, with real hobbies and passions. They didn't sit behind a desk and have "cool" projects but rather they did excellent work, went home to brew craft beer (or whatever), and had real stories/experience and had lived real lives. I don't honestly give a shit if you wrote an operation system or a programming language if you are intolerable to work with or just a plain uninteresting person. Being technically able to great for technical jobs, but I'd rather hire a professional that gave me 8 hours of his/her best, than some guy who was boring as hell but gave me 12 hours every day (including weekends).