71–80 of 112 posts
Great topic. The cognitive load of full stack development at > 45 to me seems unbearable. I love building products, but after doing the basics for the 1000th time gets old. I would imagine the appreciable parallel being similar to a backend dev having to do UI work. At my age I no longer want to look at a monitor any more and want to think and have others build products, so went i to product. The pay question is inte…
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?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh. I don't know how old you are, but it's pretty typical in all careers. At some point you just hit the top of your skillset.
And to go above that? Grad school and Phd or just very specialized niche knowledge or moving into finance/quant jobs?
Now I am back to only-coding, and I love it. I begun learning a lot of new things and I will never stop putting some time on learning more about software development.
Managing is hard, consumes a lot of energy. Maybe some time in the future I will get back into managing, maybe the best solution would be a more engineering role as mentioned in several comments here.
First, note you're likely to get some survivorship bias in these responses - older people who left the industry are less likely to comment on HN. That said, as a developer in their mid-40s, here's my take: 1. In general, mid-level engineering management jobs (which I consider Manager to Senior Director level) pay significantly more because they are shittier jobs . Sure, there is the rare soul that loves these kind of…
In my head, "director" is right near the top of the organisation, just under "shareholder", and above C-suite. So I'm intrigued by the "ton of managing up". Who are you managing up so much to?
Great topic. The cognitive load of full stack development at > 45 to me seems unbearable. I love building products, but after doing the basics for the 1000th time gets old. I would imagine the appreciable parallel being similar to a backend dev having to do UI work. At my age I no longer want to look at a monitor any more and want to think and have others build products, so went i to product. The pay question is inte…
How on earth do you get a couple million in the bank by 45?
I think the challenge - and this isn’t unique to engineering — is how you define/value your career progression and growth opportunities. At my company, there are a small number of ICs that can have the impact/get the same pay as a CVP or EVP, but the options are much more limited. And you know what, I think that for many people, management or not, that’s OK. Many people I talk to are happy to stay at the same level and do the same work for an extended period of time.
I’m not like that. I’m highly ambitious and have an internal need to get to the next stage/goal, and the truth is, that probably means I’ll need to assert myself more to take on management — even tho I don’t enjoy the procedural aspect of that — I love to mentor and I’m considered a leader on my team, but I don’t currently have direct reports and honestly, I prefer that. I feel like I can get more done when my time isn’t taken up with the administrative stuff.
For now, I still have a growth path that I can definitely continue for a few more years. And if I’m honest, I don’t worry about being able to remain in that sort of role for the rest of my career. For me, the bigger worry is when that growth path dries up. When you’re high enough up the chain, most of management really is delegation and decision making and setting the tone/direction. The problem is that to get there you have to do middle management, which is where most people get stuck.
Historically what I do when I feel like my growth options are expired are switch teams/companies or even careers. I'm definitely open to that continuing.
If the question is, “can I remain employed as an IC for another 30 years,” then I think the answer is yes. If the question is, “will I have career momentum over the next 30 years if I eschew management,” then I think the answer is a lot more complicated. And again, a lot of people aren’t like me and don’t have the same aspirations or needs.
I get to work as a "coder" with a lot of autonomy and without having to do any management type tasks. I attend very few meetings. I'm 0x3A years old and I love still love coding.
[1] I work for the client directly, not for a job shop that hires me out.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still rock your khakis with a cuff and a crease?
I'm either too old or too young for that reference.
"Still puffing my leafs, still fuck with the beats, still not loving police". "Still rock my khakis with a cuff and a crease".
The sound of your comment came off the same way.
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.
"I'd rather drive the race car than manage the race team."