[BjoernKW]

Well, so is being a lawyer or a doctor. Those jobs aren't what TV series and movies would have us believe either.

Most lawyers don't try high-profile murder cases. Most doctors don't save countless lives during their day-to-day work.

Even the most glamourous job of all - being a rock star - isn't really all that glamourous if you take a closer look at it. Those rock stars who ultimately love what they do and hence take their work seriously have to work very hard and be very disciplined to make it.

Same thing applies to programmers. Sure, most programming jobs are in a corporate environment and working in such an environment can suck quite a bit. However, the more your work sucks the more potential there is for actually changing something for the better, even more so if you're a programmer. Programmers can create wonderful designs and feats of engineering with little more than a bright mind and a computer.