In The Matrix (1999), what job does Thomas Anderson have before becoming Neo?

In The Matrix (1999), Thomas Anderson works as a computer programmer before becoming known as Neo.

Anderson leads a double life: by day he is an employee at the software company MetaCortex, while secretly using the hacker alias Neo. His ordinary occupation helps establish the contrast between his controlled office existence and his hidden search for answers about the Matrix.

The film later presents Neo with the choice between the blue pill and the red pill. After choosing the red pill, he learns that the world he knows is a simulated reality created by machines. Morpheus and Trinity then help him understand his role in the conflict between humans and the machine civilization.

A common mix-up is to call Anderson a software engineer or systems administrator. The film’s dialogue and character descriptions identify his day job as a computer programmer. “Neo” is his hacker alias and later his name within the resistance, not his occupation.