I'm 39 and I'm so scared, also being in Sicily so very far from the IT scene, that I'm investing my savings to buy some land here to do agriculture when I'll no longer be able to pay my bills with programming.
I remember having a conversation with my father, an engineer, a few years ago when I was in my early 30s. He was adamant that I start thinking about either going to technical management (which he had done) or switching fields.
My arrogant (or cueless, as you wish) self then smuggly told him "software is different. People don't care if you are a rolling hairball as long as you can write code".
He was right, of course.
I'm not sure with star programmers with hot properties such as yourself this will be an issue but then there is the pull quote from Gosling in the OP!
Today if a young engineer asks for my advice, I consistently tell them to either take the necessary steps to end up on the stakeholder side of tech, or to save like mad while the going is good to allow for the necessary career switch at mid 30s.
Totally agree! And it's better to make people aware of this in our industry so that they start planning ahead and even ask for an adequate compensation when doing this job... I think it will be a problem with me as well if I would like to continue as a programmer in my later years, but I'll probably switch to project management or something like that when I'll feel that it's the right moment, however this will likely mean at least to relocate to Milan (north Italy) or alike. Or... agricolture if my project will work.
> ask for an adequate compensation when doing this job
That appears to be one of the motivations for certain prominent voices in the industry dismissing the value of experience. To be fair, even in early 90s there were telltale ads for "senior engineer, 3 years of experience" :)) I used to laugh when I saw those back then but now the joke's on me.
> I'll probably switch to project management or something like that when I'll feel that it's the right moment
None of my business but why not build a business around Redis and tend to your garden in the warmer climes. Milan is charming in a way but it[']s the coldest (in the psychological/emotional sense) Italian city I have ever visited.
I remember having a conversation with my father, an engineer, a few years ago when I was in my early 30s. He was adamant that I start thinking about either going to technical management (which he had done) or switching fields.
My arrogant (or cueless, as you wish) self then smuggly told him "software is different. People don't care if you are a rolling hairball as long as you can write code".
He was right, of course.
I'm not sure with star programmers with hot properties such as yourself this will be an issue but then there is the pull quote from Gosling in the OP!
Today if a young engineer asks for my advice, I consistently tell them to either take the necessary steps to end up on the stakeholder side of tech, or to save like mad while the going is good to allow for the necessary career switch at mid 30s.
Totally agree! And it's better to make people aware of this in our industry so that they start planning ahead and even ask for an adequate compensation when doing this job... I think it will be a problem with me as well if I would like to continue as a programmer in my later years, but I'll probably switch to project management or something like that when I'll feel that it's the right moment, however this will likely mean at least to relocate to Milan (north Italy) or alike. Or... agricolture if my project will work.
> ask for an adequate compensation when doing this job
That appears to be one of the motivations for certain prominent voices in the industry dismissing the value of experience. To be fair, even in early 90s there were telltale ads for "senior engineer, 3 years of experience" :)) I used to laugh when I saw those back then but now the joke's on me.
> I'll probably switch to project management or something like that when I'll feel that it's the right moment
None of my business but why not build a business around Redis and tend to your garden in the warmer climes. Milan is charming in a way but it[']s the coldest (in the psychological/emotional sense) Italian city I have ever visited.