May 17, 2012 at 3:11 pm
I've been working as a developer since the late 70s, and have been offered many other positions, but currently enjoy writing T-SQL, .Net, and Jscript code, wouldn't have it any other way. I've been consistently working and getting a 6 figure income, working from home, for 10 years now, and hope to do it another 10 at least. I refer to myself, when talking to clients, as a plumber who can GetR done!
Not all of us want to be a slave to "things" in our lives, I don't even own a car anymore, and live just fine in my little beach shack.
May 25, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Excellent article, Steve. At almost 65, I have found myself a victim of ageism too, but recently managed to obtain a gig as a SQL/VBA developer. In the past month I achieved two spectacular successes, both of which decimated the execution time of the former code. In the latter case, execution time shrank from 14 minutes to 1.45 minutes. This was due to two reasons:
1. I knew something the previous programmer didn't (in this case, table variables).
2. I didn't write a single line of code until I had thoroughly documented the steps I needed to follow.
Reason #2 is the big thing. "Kids" just crank up the editor and start coding. Experience teaches you to avoid coding until the last possible moment - after which it is usually a breeze to write.
There's a third reason to prefer experience over youthful enthusiasm, although in the two cases I'm citing it didn't play a part. Having been in the database business for 20+ years, I've written just about every kind of database there is. I bring a wealth of experience to the table. I don't need to be educated on the principles of GAAP, the laws of safety engineering, the measurements of PCBs, the rules of the Canada Pension Plan, and 100 other knowledge-bases. That is a huge difference. And I don't just mean me, I mean every SQL guy who's spent a decade or two in the trenches.
I have little desire to "move up" into management. I kind of like knife-fighting at close quarters, rather than lobbing missiles from afar.
Arthur
Arthur Fuller
cell: 647-710-1314
Only two businesses refer to their clients as users: drug-dealing and software development.
-- Arthur Fuller
May 25, 2012 at 6:01 pm
fuller.artful (5/25/2012)
Excellent article, Steve....
Reason #2 is the big thing. "Kids" just crank up the editor and start coding. Experience teaches you to avoid coding until the last possible moment - after which it is usually a breeze to write.
Thanks, Arthur.
As Abe Lincoln said "If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend 6 hours sharpening the ax."
May 25, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/25/2012)
fuller.artful (5/25/2012)
Excellent article, Steve....
Reason #2 is the big thing. "Kids" just crank up the editor and start coding. Experience teaches you to avoid coding until the last possible moment - after which it is usually a breeze to write.
Thanks, Arthur.
As Abe Lincoln said "If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend 6 hours sharpening the ax."
Now there's a quotable quote concerning software development if I ever heard one. Thanks, Steve.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 1, 2015 at 6:12 pm
Gary Brownjohn (5/14/2012)
Why do the older developers get a raw deal when it comes to opinions on why we are still developing?I think someone else mentioned comparing a carpenter with 25 years + of experience, so they must be good at their profession to have been in the trade for so long?
Why doesn't that same scenario work for developers?
Beats me!
Actually for software development there is a pretty obvious reason.
From its beginnings in the 40s (or from the first commercial computers in 1951) until maybe 2001 the number of software developers needed grew at an enormous rate. when there were a tiny number of people with 10 years experience (true at any time between 1960 and 2000, I think) there was a tendency to push anyone with that much experience into management to manage the hordes of younger and less experienced developers. So today, most managers in the industry moved into management when still very young, and the older people who didn't become managers fall into two groups: those whio weren't much good at software development or at being a clerk in a project management office, so were never thought of as potential managers (whether or not they would have made competent managers) and those who didn't want to have anything to do with management and were sufficiently bloody-minded to avoid becing made managers. The problem is that the definition of "older" that most people of my generation use is not much older than the age when they themselves were pushed into management (usually less than 30) so that they think someone of 35 or 40 who isn't a manager must either be incompetent or be very bloody minded.
I don't think that way, and in fact most managers who are software engineers don't think that way because they understand that the industry has matured. However people in HR and in Accounts still think that way, because while they've seen the number of people who became managers when young they are not aware of how the market for software development people have matured.
Once the industry has been mature for a generation or two, the problem should disappear; but there's a risk that the professional recruiters working in recruitment companies will prevent this happening, because almost none of them has a clue as to who is or isn't competent so they use useless keyword matching combined with outdated concepts about how age and current job title represent value for money to a new employer instead of looking at track record.
Tom
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