[Marinlemaignan]

The concept of client's respect is rather interesting! And no other answers seemed to have mentioned it before yours. And I can only second that point. When i was Designing i would consistently have to argue and haggle over pointless details that would make working just so tedious. Clients bossing you around because their favorite color is pink, and that they love gradients and wordart-like flowery designs, but wanting a corporate and trustworthy looking outcome.. When coding, really that changes, people start thinking you are a genius/mathematician/geek whatever else.. And to be honest, it's so not true, but that does feel great.

[eludwig]

Yes, with regard to the respect angle, I can certainly corroborate the experience of the GP. Artists are treated like absolute crap. Not only are you constantly browbeaten by art directors (the people you work for) but you are also ground down by the people they work for--who know even less. It can be a very, very miserable work environment. Freelancers are a little more immune to this, but not completely.

The increase in respect and money that i was earning as even an entry-level developer was mind blowing to me. And since i enjoyed the actually act of coding so much, the choice was such an easy one to make.