91–100 of 149 posts
I think 35 is quite young, I wouldn't worry about "aging out" for another decade or three. Make sure to keep up with technologies as part of your day job. It's amazing how fast things, even SQL change. You don't need to own it all, just build situational awareness with an occasional deep dive. Read other people's code. Look for projects that interest you and always be learning from them. Build things. Build your writ…
There are companies out there who value the experience of senior software engineers (and I mean real seniority, not the job title that you update to senior after 3 years in the field). Such companies will have a career ladder up to Principal or Distinguished engineer. You will have to share your knowledge, of course, but without having to give up coding and do people management, if you don't want that. I'm 39, happy…
Principal (even many Staff roles) at my company is reduced coding and many have direct reports, so YMMV. To stay coding, stay “senior” level.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but I doubt highly I could pass the tests to even get an interview. I don’t get this “won’t even try” attitude for a job interview - what is the worst thing that could happen?
Waste of time, effort, energy, and fear of rejection. Plenty of downsides.
Welcome to the paradoxical dichotomy in IT: In order to be a top notch (line/product/project) manager, you need to have relevant experience in engineering itself. Also, the higher value for any company is engineers that are great at multiplying themselves by keeping a whole team aligned with the organization's goals. But in order to be a great engineer, you need have lots of curiosity and an affinity to tinkering, no…
Hi endymi0n, thank you. The first one is a very interesting approach, unfortunately I can't work on side projects right now because a baby is coming in next months so the 'spiral learning' approach could be suitable for me
The problem is that, at same time I feel that coding can't be a lifetime career: 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 proj…
> I’m deeply concerned because engineering seems to earn more across the board than project management. Where I live (Sydney, Australia), front-end contractors earn (in AUD) $800/day, back-end $900/day and project managers $1000/day. There’s a range, of course, but that’s the gist of it.
Or rather, find a new job (could be internal, but often easier to make the move by finding a new employer).
I've been pulled away from coding activities before (into management). If you've done it for a few years and you don't like it, you should bail. You've leveled up your skills in terms of seeing the bigger picture, now find the right place to apply them. With your experience right now you'll be a valuable IC (see https://charity.wtf/2019/01/04/engineering-management-the-pe... for more; I think sibling comments have referenced this post too.)
I wrote a blog post about all the jobs ancillary to coding that a good software dev can move into: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2020/10/05/how-to-make-a-...
If you want to talk about devrel, technical training or startup CTO, happy to chat (contact info in profile).
Focus on what makes you happy and start working on it. Good to work on stuffs that you may not have tried out before.
Like others have pointed out, a career in tech doesn't necessarily follow a linear path. I landed my highest profile job so far as a fresh graduate, but I quickly found out it was a miserable place to be in. I have made a healthy work environment my top priority ever since. In my opinion you should chase what makes you happy, which may or may not be what makes some random HN users happy.