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Are you willing to do what it takes to assure that aggressive schedules are met?

Definitely YES. (I'd be pretty out of luck as a software developer if I weren't!) At all three of my jobs in industry, the schedules were very aggressive, and people often worked lots more than the standard 40 hour week, myself included. As previously stated, I get a lot of satisfaction out of a job well done, and I am willing to go to lengths to make sure that it happens. I am a fairly classical software person in that I am willing to work nights and weekends, if necessary. I have also never believed very much in the concept of "separation of work from free time", and I have no problem with people from work calling me up to ask questions during off hours (though I can certainly respect it if someone else doesn't like it).

There is a flip side to this, however. Although I can deal with working a 14 hour day (I've done it on many occasions), it does take its toll, and I can't do it consistently without decreases in performance. Although I can enjoy working lots of hours for a month or two at a time, I can't do it forever. 280 hour months I can do, and like it; 2800 hour years will make me very unhappy. Also, I very much like to know what I'm getting into ahead of time: I would like to know what is expected (on average) in advance. If I'm going to be working unpaid overtime, no problem... but I want to be able to include this in my analysis of salary and benefits.

Also, if I'm going to put in all the overtime to make the product come out right, I really want it to come out right. Probably the biggest difference between my experiences at DDC and those at other places was the fact that at DDC, we worked like mad and made all our deadlines; elsewhere, we all worked like mad, and still missed them. (My take is that this was largely because the people handing them down were not in a position where they thought they could afford to accept the reality of the situation, regardless of what they were told. Some places just seem organizationally incapable of setting realistic goals -- of course, I suppose I shouldn't complain, as I'm an inveterate optimist, myself.) Working hard and putting out a good product is very gratifying. Having a hundred people work tons of overtime for six months straight only to have the project still be completed badly and late is just frustrating, and very dissatisfying. At my first real job, I saw it. I know that estimates (especially on software!) are difficult, and bad stuff sometimes happens. I can deal with that. If, however, you work for one of those companies that consistently and grossly underestimates the time projects will take, then I just don't want to work for you. It'll burn me out, and I know it: because I'll do everything I can to put out a good product, even if it kills me. And that's not a characteristic that I ever want to change.