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Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

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Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#31

Post by jameshush »

noir_lord wrote: post #21
rossdavidh wrote: post #8

I _started_ working as a coder in my 30's, and I'm 52 now. I am still getting inquiries from startups. One thing that trips up some coders as they get older, is that on some level they expect to be able to stop learning new stuff, and settle into the role of grizzled veteran. While that is true in most fields, in software, it just isn't. If you are retiring in 5 years, you'd better be learning some new stuff now to b…

Pretty much this I think. I started programming as a career in the last millennium, did desktop stuff for years (Delphi and then .Net) saw the writing on that wall and moved to the web. It doesn't have to be a "no life, always learning" thing like some make it out to be, I've gotten good (and patient) at waiting things out, I'll take note of a technology, think that it seems interesting and then keep an eye on it for…

It's amazing what even ONE hour a week of watching a tutorial that interests you anyway can do. I went through all the RxJs tutorials for genuine curiousity. Even though we don't use RxJs at work, I got really really good at knowing when to use `map`, `reduce`, etc. in code without being too clever.

Those two Sunday afternoons did wonders!

Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#32

Post by weef »

I started coding at 22 years old out of college and am now 58. I've resisted the pressures of becoming a manager my entire career and have had no regrets. Recently I turned down yet another manager role for all the reasons you gave and couldn't have been happier. Management at my place understands my career plans and have been accommodating. I plan on retiring in 10 years but know a lot can change between now and then so if my current job becomes unbearable, I'll leave and take on freelance coding projects. I will never become a manager.

Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#33

Post by treespace89 »

47 here, coding professionally since I was 24. No management, and no plans for it.

While ageism exists in some places, I don't find it to be an industry wide problem.

At the end of the day programming is just coding the correct if/else and working with other programs, and the OS. (Which is really just a program too)

Personally I love it. Building and extending these machines. Learning new ways of doing things, coding for new platforms.

Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#34

Post by mixmastamyk »

It’s definitely possible, but you’ll find yourself swimming against expectations more and more each year. Org culture and your own tolerance will be the deciding factors.

Personally I had to take a govt contractor job recently as I’m unemployable at lumbersexual shops.

Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#35

Post by aerophilic »

travisjungroth wrote: post #28
aerophilic wrote: post #14

From experience working with folks in Aerospace Companies, yes it is possible. The key part, and this is where it gets tricky is your cost vs value you directly provide. This is why most of those that I saw this happen for never got “high” ranking positions. When you are an individual contributor, your value is directly a result of the work you do, you don’t get “multiplication” factors by making other folks more pro…

> When you are an individual contributor, your value is directly a result of the work you do, you don’t get “multiplication” factors by making other folks more productive. Software seems pretty good at multiplying the productivity of other people. It’s just less socially acceptable to take credit for that increase than it is in management.

Absolutely! Software is a huge multiplication factor. No argument there!

However the point, which maybe I didn’t make clearly, is this: they expect a specific multiplication factor from a specific bit of code. This is the value X they hope to achieve by employing you. If you can do X in less time/lower overall cost then someone else, then that is worth paying more for. However, that X benefit they are seeking is relatively fixed. As a consequence your value is fixed.

With management, there is much more variation.

A bad manager will make a team of 5 produce the value of a team of 3. A great manager can take that same team and get a value of 8. This scales with how many people you manage/lead. Assume management makes a 10% difference to output capability. If you are leading/managing 100 people, the delta value is 10 whole people paychecks.

To bring this home: think how productive you were under a “bad” manager vs a “good” manager. Whatever delta was there, you can multiple it by your normal team size. That is the “value” a good manager unlocks.

Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#37

Post by psds2 »

I believe the best path forward for something like this is to become a technologist in some specialty and then move in to advanced engineering/technology exploration at a big company. Find the kind of place with 7 CTOs and then get a role reporting to one of the CTOs managers. You work on 3-5 year research projects and you can just decide ahead of time which one will be your last.

Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#39

Post by jedberg »

I worked with a guy in his 60s when I was in my 20s just starting out. He did good work and was a fine coworker.

He also made the same amount as the guys who were senior engineers in their 30s. His salary growth basically plateaued in his 30s, after that it was just COL adjustments.

He was perfectly fine with that though. He enjoyed being a coder, got paid enough to support his lifestyle, and liked that he got to shut off at night, since he had no career growth aspirations.

Re: Ask HN: Is working as a developer on technical route until retirement feasible?

#40

Post by renewiltord »

BurningFrog wrote: post #17

Turning 60 this year. Still working startups. Still enjoy building software, and still better at it than most of the young people. This path is surely not for everyone. But it's certainly available. I never wanted management, and don't think I'd be good at it.

Still rock your khakis with a cuff and a crease?
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