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by debacle 5107 days ago
> the job is only about 15-20% programming, the rest is client interaction, on-site support, etc.

Sounds pretty standard.

> To top it all off, the actual coding is using proprietary software and language.

Might be dangerous, but might be fine, depending on the size of the company [1].

> Will ANY of this time spent as the Consultant count as what could be "Programming Experience" for a higher level developer position?

Oh hell yes, however maybe not for what you're looking for. If you want to be a hacker-type, you definitely don't want to take a consulting gig at a company with a proprietary language, but if you want to learn a ton about the SDLC and maintenance and user interaction, it would be a great gig.

Speaking from experience, I started out at a company very similar to what you're describing working on their internal platform. I found I learned a ton about process management, maintenance, code quality, etc, but my coding skills were still green after two years (that happens when the average coder was writing <100 lines of code a week), so I jumped ship to a small company where I was dropped into a cold reality - I knew nothing about programming. I learned in about a year what might have taken me three at the original company, though I regret neither experiences.

[1] http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/A_Case_of_the_MUMPS.aspx

1 comments

Thank you for the replies so far (both of you). debacle: What did you mean by "depending on the size of the company"? I read the article you linked to. Is bigger worse in this case? Or is smaller? Please clarify for me :)
If you're working with a small company, usually the ad hoc systems are crufty, legacy systems that some 'genius' developed in the 90s but aren't very useful.

If you're working in a larger company, that platform is probably purpose-built and domain specific - health information management, for example, has a lot of proprietary languages but they serve a purpose and tend to be widely adopted.