Am I worth it?

Since I started work as a developer I've always wondered if I'm worth my salary. I always feel inadequate compared to my fellow workers, even at the same level of skill and experience.

But this is all about to change.

When I started out, obviously I had no experience to speak of so I was plonked into a desk job. Being handed a technical spec and told to get it on the test server by that afternoon. Later on I was tasked with writing a backup script for each of our servers to run weekly incrementals and monthly full backups. (Incremental backup basically makes a record of all changes since the last full backup. Much faster but bit more of a bitch to restore)

A little while before quitting I was assigned the project of researching a versioning package for company-wide use. For the non-geeks, this is basically a central repository where all the code of the entire company is stored so that multiple people working on the same project are always up to date with the other's changes. It also keeps track of who changed what, so you know who to blame when it all goes mushroom. Anyway, this was a big step for me and I made a big deal of it, spending hours installing different version on my machine and checking features and pricing and everything. My boss was very impressed with my work.

But a few weeks later I was back to the mundane roll of almost-clergyman. If the work I do is so impressive, why am I not acclaimed for it? Was he just saying so to keep me motivated?

I was also never in a position to delegate work and manage a project, even though I studied these principles in particular and in many cases was the one actually taking charge because my team leader didn't foresee everything.

Now the good news: Sometime over the next week we will be moving my first solo project into production. I did everything by the book, from putting the idea on paper to initial design to functional spec to technical spec to development to unit testing to integration testing to production testing and now deployment.

The software is a management package for internet cafés. It's made up of a server application running behind the counter and a client application on each of the internet terminals. It controls which terminals are used and for how long and what it costs. The client also prevents users from doing things they're not supposed to, like changing settings on the terminal. There is also a contract feature, where a customer can pay for a set amount of time in advance and is then given a username and password.

I'm also working on a basic game, just to prove to myself that I can do it, almost... But this is so early in the works I have nothing to show for it...

I'll post as soon as the mini site for the product is up. Might be a few weeks cause there's only me working on it...