I think it takes a special person to be a corporate programmer. I tried that for a bit in my internships in college. For me, though, I can't really do well personally in your stereotypical corporate office. As much as I don't mind automating tasks with the quickest way to get it done, there are times when I like having the creative license to think outside the box and apply new ways and technologies to things. And for me, super serious corporate stuff just didn't keep my interest and let me put all of my programming abilities to use.

For me personally, I'd agree that corporate programming sucks. But being an in-house programmer for a company that promotes technology and likes technology rocks -- that's the job I work and enjoy now 🙂