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Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

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Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#101

Post by _y5hn »

Tade0 wrote: post #83
dimmke wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 29 and the amount of anxiety I read about in programming as a profession is staggering. All the people trying to get into it worried that they're not cut out for it, only for 10 years later to be worried that they're aging out of it. I wish I could understand where it comes from. There are so, so, so many programming jobs out there. There are no hard and fast rules about anything. I love the comparison to Logan's…

My pet theory is that it used to be something hard and for the young and innovative, but was eventually commoditized. My aunt was one of the IT pioneers in the late 80s in Poland(her first task was to figure out how to put together her work machine - fun stuff), and was only laid off in 2010 - two years before retirement - due to stuff unrelated to her performance. I think currently it boils down to us being expensiv…

That anxiety is due to incompetence, at management levels and business side. They simply are clueless how to manage IT, and refuse to learn.

This induces impostor feelings and confusion downwards..

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#102

Post by plank_time »

giantg2 wrote: post #91
clcaev wrote: post #7

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…

I'm in my 30s and think I'm close to aging out

I’m 50 and I don’t feel like I’m aging out. I’m going to go through a dozen interviews over the next several months so we will see how that turns out though.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#104

Post by rammy1234 »

Life is a long term game. Don't box yourself with status and compare yourself with others. Take a step back and assess what you want out of life and what you like to do. Go behind experience rather than money. Money will follow you when you have gained experience. There is no end to learning in this life. Think Long term always. 35 is an age where we are no junior or seniors. You have lot of options to chose from, so take your time to choose.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#105

Post by giantg2 »

plank_time wrote: post #102
giantg2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in my 30s and think I'm close to aging out

I’m 50 and I don’t feel like I’m aging out. I’m going to go through a dozen interviews over the next several months so we will see how that turns out though.

Nice. I've been in the industry and in the same company for 9 years. I'm a midlevel dev. They've had me switch stacks 4 times. Every time it becomes much more difficult to learn the new stack. I think part of it is lack of motivation - why try my hardest if the knowledge will be thrown away in a year or two? (And they don't follow their own policies, to my detriment)

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#106

Post by rishabhd »

I probably want what you have now, mundane fixed schedule job which gives you the time and freedom to work on your passions post your office. Could very well go with wood working and infosec research. Those passions can (probably) be leveraged later for a different career opportunity or a small, bootstrapped startup. I know friends who were pure play project managers but worked on their passions after office hours (whenever they had time). Now they are working on their passions at a job that pays them to do so.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#107

Post by TheCoelacanth »

giantg2 wrote: post #92
derwiki wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Principal (even many Staff roles) at my company is reduced coding and many have direct reports, so YMMV. To stay coding, stay “senior” level.

He could stay below senior level too. I'm intermediate and almost 9 years in.

9 years feels like a long time, but it's important to remember that it's not even a quarter of the way through your career.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#108

Post by TheCoelacanth »

derwiki wrote: post #58
tilolebo wrote: post #42

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.

When technical track people have direct reports it's usually like here's two senior devs. Give them a sympathetic ear when they get frustrated about something and give them some tips about how to move up to the next level.

When management track people have direct reports it's usually like here's six people to manage. Three of them are junior-level and need constant hand-holding.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#109

Post by mylons »

rammy1234 wrote: post #104

Life is a long term game. Don't box yourself with status and compare yourself with others. Take a step back and assess what you want out of life and what you like to do. Go behind experience rather than money. Money will follow you when you have gained experience. There is no end to learning in this life. Think Long term always. 35 is an age where we are no junior or seniors. You have lot of options to chose from, so…

gonna go ahead and give a big hell ya to this.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#110

Post by practicalpants »

Yeah similar age and similar thoughts over recent years. My suggestion is go entrepreneurial. It doesn't have to be IT related or VC backed. In fact you might have an easier time if it isn't.

Spend some months researching spaces. There's opportunity everywhere and I think anyone smart enough to do programming is smart enough to dive into other spaces too. Short list some ideas and put some stakes in one or two.

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