# How is the programmer job in different countries?



## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

Hi guys, I live in Portugal and in my field, it's common to work in open office environments, either at the client's place or at the company's place. Open office can be nice as people can reach each other easily, thought as an introvert, this often stresses me and the noise from other people talking with each other or by phone/video can be draining. I wish that I could work at home or have more privacy here, thought I don't think that it would be possible here where I live. 

But I'm curious, how is it in other countries? Do programmers/developers mainly work at open offices? Are there chances to work at home, and if so, is it common or hard to find?


Also, I'm curious about another thing. Here the work time is theoretically from 9am to 6pm, thought depending on the project, many can enter from 9am to 10am and getting out at 6pm might often not be possible. There are some projects in which people can't even get out early and has to stay 'till 7pm or 8pm, or even longer or the whole night if the project is in a critical phase!
How is it in other countries? Do you guys have a strict time schedule or is it flexible? If it's flexible, can it be abusive in some projects/companies??


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## jbking (Jun 4, 2010)

AriesLilith said:


> But I'm curious, how is it in other countries?


Well, my experiences are somewhat limited to Toronto, Ontario, Seattle, Washington and Calgary Alberta as these are places where I've worked just to state where I have been or am currently.



AriesLilith said:


> Do programmers/developers mainly work at open offices?


No, though some places may do more open offices. In my current lab, it is an open office for about 8 of us to work. In previous positions I've had some places where a handful of developers would share a room or cubicle farms where there could be hundreds of people on a floor where only the VP gets the office aside from meeting rooms.



AriesLilith said:


> Are there chances to work at home, and if so, is it common or hard to find?


They do happen sometimes though this isn't always a good thing. Consider all the chatter in the office that you'd miss if you weren't there and things that may get delayed because someone could wonder, "When would he get to it?" if there is an e-mail sent.



AriesLilith said:


> Do you guys have a strict time schedule or is it flexible?


Flexible typically. The key is to get enough work done so that this is a somewhat earned bonus. While I usually get in between 8 and 8:30 in the morning, I do have to be aware of how many hours I work so I don't work too many over the course of a day.



AriesLilith said:


> If it's flexible, can it be abusive in some projects/companies??


Sure it can but this is where it comes back to the whole "get enough work done" as that is what can drive a lot of things here.


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

So do programmers in other countries use non-English variants of programming languages, or not? Like in C++, to allocate memory, you'd use the malloc (*m*emory *alloc*ation) function... are there variants in other languages that would call this something else, or do foreign programmers need to basically learn English too?


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## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

timeless said:


> So do programmers in other countries use non-English variants of programming languages, or not? Like in C++, to allocate memory, you'd use the malloc (*m*emory *alloc*ation) function... are there variants in other languages that would call this something else, or do foreign programmers need to basically learn English too?


Hmm interesting question, I've always thought that programmers do need to know basic English (or just the meaning of the terms used in programming), so I've never thought about variants in other languages. Maybe in oriental countries there's more probability for that?


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## Johnston (Dec 16, 2012)

timeless said:


> So do programmers in other countries use non-English variants of programming languages, or not? Like in C++, to allocate memory, you'd use the malloc (*m*emory *alloc*ation) function... are there variants in other languages that would call this something else, or do foreign programmers need to basically learn English too?


Good question, timeless. I haven't found anything extraordinarily interesting on the subject, so I guess this Wikipedia article will suffice.

Common sense suggests that having keywords or library functions translated would be fairly inefficient and unportable. For example, if I were to read and interpret a piece of Perl or Python code with Norwegian keywords, I'd have to translate it into Polish, or even preferably English. So why bother with national keywords?

Also, programming languages are serious engineering tools, therefore they need to be standardized. They're something like technical drawing -- its basic rules have to be instantly recognized world-wide. You mustn't introduce "English" or "Spanish" lines, the norm has got to be international, transparent.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

I'm a Systems Administrator but we have a large development staff here. They used to have cubicles and offices but they tore all that down and put a bunch of tables where multiple people could work within close proximity of each other. I think Google does something like this so every company is trying to emulate Google, whether it works for them or not.


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