Workplace Investigation

For school, I had to either do workplace experience or workplace investigation. Obviously, finding a work experience placement for computer programming isn't exactly easy. So I've decided to go through with the investigation. I've been given a list of questions to answer, and where better to ask questions about computer programming from, then those who are already in the job (of course, I'm suppose to be asking these questions, I wouldn't make you do my homework for me :P). Thanks in advanced to anyone who even fills in one question for me. I've placed some of my own comments in italics

Job duties and tasks
Conditions of employment (rates of pay, holidays, leave etc)
Career pathways (where does the job lead?)
Personal Requirements
Education and training required (Computer Science degree?)
Useful subject choices (Bridging and Pure maths? (what I've been told anyway))
Skills Required (Be able to sit on your ass 9-5? :P lol)
Effect of job on your lifestyle (eg night/shift work, travel time, health issues etc) Effect 1: What life?
~~Why this job is one in which you are interested~~ This is obviously a question that only I can answer, but maybe you can tell me why your interested in it, to give me ideas
Employment prospects in the near future

Duties and tasks: estimate hours for projects and write statements of work, complete those statements of work when approved, debug applications, perform database migrations, etc, etc, etc

Conditions of employment: pretty standard for a professional in this area. 5-10 holidays, reasonable pay

Education: Masters in Math. Others have degrees in CIS, music, art, etc. A bachelors in something and a talent for programming are the only requirements.

Useful: various areas of math (stats, combinatorics, calc/diff eqs), business, physics, etc, etc

Skills: ability to analyze problems, strong communication skills, technical writing

Lifestyle: I don't have mandatory overtime, pretty nice, really. If I do come in on a weekend, I get comp time.

I could probably move to another company with higher pay, but would probably have more stress/hours. I'm pretty happy where I'm at.