It was really interesting for me to look at all of the different directions me and my fellow students took after completing our CS degrees. I always joke that I 'sold out' with my programming skills for going to work at a news/media company to build their websites, whereas a couple of the guys a I know are doing a much more honourable thing by working in Biology and Space Tech.

I think it's unquestionable that they are the ones who are deserving of more respect, but I still think that it's not just our jobs that define how well we've used our programming skills. We're always hacking away on our own little projects, and hopefully carving our own paths, creating useful software along the way (something you excel in, Zed). I think that having the drive to do this commands more respect than any specific career choice.

Have you worked those other fields? It's something I've thought about, trying to bring more automation to the wetlab world, but I'm not sure my advances would be greeted kindly.

I can confirm that post-docs have it harder than the staff that use programming as a tool to 'route-around them'