Working for a manufacturing company? Share Your Experience.

Yesterday I had a phone interview slash discussion with the CEO of Globe Soft (I later knew that he's the CEO from their website, he didn't introduce himself). To cut the story short, the advertised position was for a senior J2EE Developer, a few minutes into the discussion I recognized that the company wanted a code monkey rather than a “senior” staff (“senior” is indeed a generic word). As I was basically too expensive for the position (around 150% of their pay range) he followed a negotiation strategy along the lines of:

• Industry average [for a code monkey] is around half of what you're getting.
• You'd gain a very good experience working on that project.
• You have only X years and these are valued at Y value (proportional)
• You currently work at a manufacturing company.

<shameless plug>Despite the fact that he was trying to buy low with some unconvincing arguments, and that I didn't sell myself too hard by neither stressing the couple of Master's degrees + 8 years sound experience working for both large and small organizations, nor mentioning the consultancy spot jobs, knowledge, passion, etc…</shameless plug> I should stop at one of his points:

“Working for a manufacturing company”.

I've heard the argument before, and I have to agree that working in an industrial/manufacturing company could sound like an “ordinary” life for a developer. IMO this should not carry the impression that such an environment results in an experience-less time (for the lack of a better wording). As a matter of fact, one of the key drivers to my love for my profession is that I experience, first hand, how the IT (and more specifically development) could shape up a business and how they could transfer it from a state to a better one. I also, on a daily basis, HAVE TO deal with the good, bad, failed, unrecognized implementations.

With this in mind, It's impossible to deny the gains:

• Being immersed in user experiences
• Understanding and valuing the meaning of agility
• Gaining domain knowledge
• Dealing with a plethora of personalities with various level of expertise, cultures.
• Always finding Improvements for current solutions (as the interface with customer/client never ends).

Unfortunately, I only came across a few (in fact one) who shared a similar experience during his career. So, If you have worked/been working in an Industrial/Manufacturing environment, I'd really appreciate hearing from you.

As always, a wonderful learning experience and a true gain.

Thanks Mr. Galal.

(I will post this under java category for maximum readership. Apologies).

UPDATE: I've received many good and positive responses to my post on the favourite “The Business of Software” disucssion group.