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I have some tangential questions for you and maybe others.
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As a programmer, how can I avoid the pressure towards management?
What is that pressure and why do people succumb to the pressure?
How much is that pressure external and how much is internal?
What form does the pressure take? What advice can help withstand the pressure?
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I work in a medium sized silicon valley tech company.
Multiple times in my coding career I have felt stalled and/or like I was regressing.
Early on, I worked on a programming language, gosu (https://gosu-lang.github.io/) which ended up not really going anywhere. Once the work on it was done, I returned to more mundane web programming for a while (over half a decade.)
A long while after that, and unexpectedly, I turned a jQuery function I was noodling on into intercooler.js (https://intercoolerjs.org/). After a year of that I returned to mundane web programming for quite a while (over half a decade.)
Unexpectedly, a year ago, the country shut down. I was at home and decided to see if I could remove the jQuery dependency in intercooler.js, and so created htmx (https://htmx.org/).
When creating htmx and removing some attribute/functionality that was in intercooler.js, I realized that a small programming language would be the ideal replacement, so I created hyperscript (https://hyperscript.org/) I had not expected to work on a programming language again, but now I am.
So my career has been some very exciting technical projects punctuating long stretches of pretty basic, boring web development, where the most exciting thing is me wondering if I can figure out what the deuce is wrong with my CSS.
My takeaway, at least in my career, is that patience is a virtue, and the interesting stuff tends to come up at irregular intervals and in unexpected moments and ways.
Is this actually true?? I’m concerned because I read that you’re making decisions based on this assumption and I’m not necessarily true this assumption is inline with reality.
I’m 36, and have been moving away from coding for the last couple years too, I’m deeply concerned because engineering seems to earn more across the board than project management.
My strat is doubling back down on coding, by starting to read engineering and algorithm blogs and books in my free time, and finding little toy projects and scripts to do.
You'll need to code, probably to improve your knowledge and skills, but also to manage projects.
I think the usual distinction programming vs management is harmful and is only relevant because big companies need the specialization of middle-managers.
This is not the only way.
Start a company or maybe an open-source project. You'll need to code, probably to improve your knowledge and skills, but also to manage projects. I think the usual distinction programming vs management is harmful and is only relevant because big companies need the specialization of middle-managers. This is not the only way.
1. Get a role inside a large org. Like Fortune 50 large. They are starved for talent and generally love people that can code but also have a broader view of things. You will see many 50+ year old people in these orgs still contributing technically. And you can have many job titles during your career there.
2. Look at setting up an income generating portfolio. There are many stocks and ETFs that pay a monthly dividend. If you can save up a modest amount (for an engineers salary) over the next 10 years you could see your portfolio paying you 2k or more per month. This can give you a backstop and some confidence to put yourself out there as you age in your career.