There's no question that being a software developer is a good job, particularly for those that work in tech capital Silicon Valley.
Employees at tech startups are pampered with every sort of perk, from great salaries, bonuses, and stock options to free meals, massages, on-site health clubs, and international travel.
But all that pampering comes with a price, some software engineers have said in various conversations on Quora.
Here's a look at how much they are expected to work and the other gotchas of the job.
A Google site-reliability engineer starts work at 9 a.m., leaves at 7 p.m., and works in the evenings until about 10 p.m. He's on constant alert because he must respond to urgent pages within 5 minutes. "Go home at 7pm with my backpack and fully charged laptop. If I get a page on the road I need to pull over and get on the system in 5 mins to start debugging. An email alert can wait until i get home."