A day in the life of a programmer??

It depends on your job description; whether you are a junior programmer or a programmer/analyst. Also it depends on whether you are a development programmer or a maiontenance programmer. Of course my terminology might be old terminology but I assume the job descriptions are still much like they were in the past.

If you are a programmer/analyst then you must spend time talking with users and writing specifications, but you will be paid more. Most maintenance programmers are probably expected to do some analysis too, especially if the request is to fix a bug.

Development programmers are programmers that write new applications and maintenance programmers fix bugs and make enhancements to existing applications. Sometimes maintenance programmers write new programs but usually they have to modify existing (someone else's) programs. Most programmers want to be devlopment programmers. For development programming (new applications) the design is usually done by experienced analysts. Some companies think that systems can be designed by people educated to do that work without having experience in programming but if you get on a project like that you will probably think it is a stupid idea. Sometimes comnpanies think they can save money by using inexperienced programmers to do the desion work and they usually end up wasting a lot of money doing that.

As a maintenance worker, you will likely get somethig called a ticket or a request or something like that which is something describing a bug or an enhancement. You will be expected to review it and estimate how much time will be required. You will probably, as I said above, be required to talk with others about it. Then you will wait for approval and when it is approved you will proceed. You will probably have multiple requests such as that to work on at a time.

Hi All,
Thanks for the replies - very interesting.  I can't wait until I'm good enough to actually program for a living.  It's taking so long learning on my own.  It's a kind of catch 22 really, need aon the job experience, yet it's hard to get a job until you have that experience!
Mahesh - Your project sounds interesting.  Let us know when it's up and running so we can be the first to test/use it!
Thanks for the encouraging advice guys
Paul
 

My life consists of sitting on my ass doing nothing, telling myself that tomorrow I'm going to go to the gym, or study c, or do something productive, when tomorrow comes, there will always be tomorrow.

life is good.

LOL bob.
You have to like your work.

Right now, I am designing a project that is cooler than Facebook and bigger than Google. shhh... it's a secret.

Mahesh,  your life makes me want to kill myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzfcZtcR73g

link related.

Good advice Mike.
I have been working as a programmer for 13 years now. I would say, time spent on coding is between 6 to 12 hrs a day. It totally depends on what kind of project it is. There were some projects where I did not feel like putting 4 hrs in a day but there were some projects where I end up working from home as well.
Here is this project C# Corner, where even though I do not write code but I spend well over 12 hrs a day and that includes weekends. I do not take any days off :)
Key is, if you like the project, time flies.

Expect to do a lot of programming, but also expect to sit in some long meetings.
Here is my typical day.
1) Work fulltime on a large project.  The project is broken into sprints (we use Agile).  Each Sprint is 2-3 weeks long and consists of programming tasks.  The tasks have estimates and we are supposed to come close to the estimated time (although that isn't always the case).  I tackle each task one at a time. 
2)  In the evenings I work on additional contracts and fun programming projects (some which become articles for C# Corner).
As far as what kind of programs I write, it varies per project.  Some are desktop projects, some are silverlight client/server projects.  some are java projects and some are ASP.NET projects.  The projects change depending upon the product I'm working on.
In any case, you have a lot to look forward too.  If you like to solve problems and enjoy a challenge literally everyday, then programming is one of the most fulfilling careers you can tackle.  It certainly has its frusterating moments :-),  but it is rarely dull.