The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - Being a coder from 25yo to 70yo

Being a coder from 25yo to 70yo

I'm a 34 yo developer with 10 years of experience

Last week my boss ask me during my yearly review (last time I had one was 7 years ago) asked
me where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years...

I told him what I'm now, that's a bloody code monkey ...

He said fair enough

Do you think it's odd that if one dont want to move to management ? project manager? architect

I'm now asking myself if I should cut code for the rest of my life...
Do you plan pissing code the rest of your life (are you still enjoying it ?)

Scooopex
Friday, April 30, 2004

I think it was the classic "Art of Computer Programming" book that talked about this, but it might have been something else.

Basically, it's baffled managers for years that programmers tend to like their jobs, and most don't actually want to advance to management positions. I know of at least one individual who threatened to quit if given such a "promotion."

So yes, it is very common, and it will bug your manager, who thinks that being a manager is great (obviously). He will never understand why you don't want to "advance" your career.

JT
Friday, April 30, 2004

Not much different than in other fields, where management can't fathom why a worker bee may not wish to become another drone in the owning class...

Not a Capitalist
Friday, April 30, 2004

TO: Not a Capitalist
Management drones aren't in the 'owning class.'
But uh, fight the machine, comrade. Etc.

I guess it takes all kinds.
Friday, April 30, 2004

Yeah it's pathetic. Go up and become a manger or something. Get a life basically.

Dewd looks like a lady
Friday, April 30, 2004

I'm 37, been coding since I was er 15 or so, still love it (mostly), still getting better at what I do (generally), still find it a challenge. Can't think why I'd want to do anything else to earn a living.

I did the promotion to management thing once and didn't like it. I'd found that as an employee of someone else's company the only way I could earn more was to be promoted to management; so I started my own company. Now I do contract programming and consultancy for banks (which fixed the 'earn a bit more without being promoted' issue), and fixed price development and product based stuff for other clients (which helps with the 'working for banks the whole time is often a tad dull' issue).

If and when the age descrimination thing bites I'll just switch more of my focus over to the fixed price and product based stuff and hope that people think I'm just the boss...

As for why I still love it, well, these two babblings on my blog explain that in a little more detail:

http://www.lenholgate.com/archives/000164.html

http://www.lenholgate.com/archives/000300.html

Len Holgate (www.lenholgate.com)
Saturday, May 1, 2004

> Management drones aren't in the 'owning class.'

But they sure wish they were.

Saturday, May 1, 2004

Managers are soooooo adorable when they think they're in a higher position than programmers. (Or, for that matter, that they're actually calling the shots.)

"Moving up" indeed. Ha!

Rodney
Sunday, May 2, 2004

Architect is not a title. It's reaching the level of Master Programmer. "Architects" who don't write software every single day might have been granted a corporate title, but their relevance, skill, and understanding dwindles every day spent not writing software, while that title becomes a badge of embarrassment.

If you love building software, aspire to mastery. Management is a degradation compared to a creative endeavor like programming.

goody
Sunday, May 2, 2004