8 ms·

Readers: what's your exit strategy? You probably need one.

by p0nce 8y ago

save_ferris 8y ago
What are some common exit strategies in the industry? It seems like early startup options for employees are more of a lottery ticket than retirement plan.
- p0nce 8y ago
  I guess it would the founder path, consultancy, moving to a bigger company, moving to a company where seniors are valued... and of course focus on maintenance for deep pockets.
- balabaster 8y ago
  I moved to a farm and education centre.
- StevePerkins 8y ago
  You move one of the larger, more conservative companies that employ probably 90% of the world's tech workforce. You do the non-sexy ETL work, or line-of-business app development, that 90% of the world's developer workforce does. Web forums are RIDICULOUSLY overweighted toward students and younger startup employees. Partially because older workers have jobs and families and better stuff to do than play online. Partially because the work they do isn't particularly worth writing about, and the latest fads aren't that relevant to their work. But please don't have the misguided assumption that what you see on HN or Reddit is truly representative of the industry as a whole. It took me a long time, and a lot of unnecessary anxiety, to wake up and see the bigger picture.
  - stopnamingnuts 8y ago
    Amen.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
Traubenfuchs 8y ago
Become an expert on the Cobol/PL1 of 2050, maybe?
- oblio 8y ago
  > Cobol/PL1 of 2050 It's already here and it's called Java :)
  - struppi 8y ago
    And probably als JavaScript.
    - dtech 8y ago
      I highly doubt that. Websites are much more throw-away than the average enterprise backend processing app, even for large apps like Gmail I suspect the churn is orders of magnitudes larger than in their backend systems started in 2004. COBOL skills remain valuable because they're running hard-to-replace data processing systems at the core of large corporations. Java fills the same role.
  - berbec 8y ago
    Cobol is the new Cobol https://increment.com/programming-languages/cobol-all-the-way-down/ https://increment.com/programming-languages/cobol-all-the-wa...
  - Traubenfuchs 8y ago
    In Austria, not even Javascript can beat Java (33% more job openings!). At least in Europe, Java will continue to rule supreme in the foreseeable future. I am currently part of a big project involving >300 people that will lead to 50 - 100 Spring Boot microservices that will run at least 10 years...
yathroaway 8y ago
Management
- Mc_Big_G 8y ago
  No one will even talk to you about a management position, without already having been a manager, no matter how much experience you have as a developer. The only path to management is to acquire it from the inside.
  - cannonedhamster 8y ago
    This is the absolute truth. I've been a lead or performing the role of a lead for most of my career. Recently I started taking on management responsibilities, then I got a new VP who decided I needed a manager because I didn't have the experience. I've seen people who can't manage their way out of a paper bag, but seemingly despite the fact that I've been filling the role for the past year, I'm not qualified for it. It's very frustrating.
    - totalforge 8y ago
      Your new manager is very likely to be a friend of the VP.
- drakonka 8y ago
  I just rejected a path to management a couple of months ago after trying a lead role for a few months and deciding it's not a good fit for what I want to do. I really hope I didn't screw myself over for the future, but on the other hand if the only way I'll have a future in this industry when I get older is in management roles I don't like I may as well move on to something else at that point.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
pjmlp 8y ago
Consultancy, building up soft skills that you can't easily offshore, saving money and doing sensible investments instead of buying tech toys to throw away, be open minded that someday I might do a completely different kind of job.
ashelmire 8y ago
Age discrimination in tech is dumb. I've got a dev 30 years my senior sitting across from me and I guarantee he will code circles around 90% of the devs on HN, and 100% of the new grads getting jobs at big tech (and will until he dies). He's got a huge amount of knowledge in programming, our domain (NLP), he's fast, thorough, and thoughtful. Honestly I don't get the obsession with recent grads. They are basically useless for years.
- zimpenfish 8y ago
  > Honestly I don't get the obsession with recent grads. They are basically useless for years. But cheap and compliant.
- ams6110 8y ago
  > Honestly I don't get the obsession with recent grads. They will work more hours for less money. This is nothing new. My first job out of university in the early 1990s was for one of the "big" consulting firms. 50-60 hour work weeks were the norm. I made decent money (they paid overtime) especially for a first job, but I wouldn't do it at my age now with a family and kids.
  - agotterer 8y ago
    Why is there a belief in this industry that working more hours == productivity? Arguably a more experienced developer could do the same work (if not better) in less hours. The right to not work 12 hours a Day shouldnt be something that is earned with age. If a team is consistently required to put in unreasonably long hours it’s either due to being understaffed or poor planning. Both are a recipe for disaster...
    - PurpleBoxDragon 8y ago
      >Why is there a belief in this industry that working more hours == productivity? Lack of manager ability to measure productivity based on anything else. Between POs, BAs, business representatives, and IT managers there are a lot of people who don't seem to be able to grasp why two relatively simple to describe tasks can require such vast differences in time. So it becomes hard for them to judge if their developer is wasting their time or not (and let's not even begin on overall lack of trust to begin with), so the only fall back measure is if they have their butt in the seat and appear to be working. And even if you are lucky enough that everyone you directly deal with either understands the basics on why sizing varies so greatly or able to accept it without question, you still have to deal with middle managers walking the floor who measure productivity the same as they would in a factory. And if you are lucky enough to not even have this problems, you still have to deal with cultural norms set in party by all the jobs which aren't as lucky.
astura 8y ago
I don't need one. Most people at my current company are >40 (and probably >50 - I don't know everyone's exact age but I can infer somewhat). ~90% are married. I've worked a bunch of places and, quite frankly, none have had an overly young crowd. Experience has always been valued everywhere I've worked. So in my experience its just not a problem for the companies I want to/do/have worked for. I live nowhere near San Francisco.
adrianN 8y ago
Make enough money to retire early to some low stress hobby job like pottery.
whataretensors 8y ago
I plan to create value at a startup where they give me fair ownership of the project I'm working on, and once it's successful I'll live off royalties. Wait what's that about developer royalties?

Readers: what's your exit strategy? You probably need one.

by p0nce 8y ago

Readers: what's your exit strategy? You probably need one.

What are some common exit strategies in the industry? It seems like early startup options for employees are more of a lottery ticket than retirement plan.

p0nce 8y ago
I guess it would the founder path, consultancy, moving to a bigger company, moving to a company where seniors are valued... and of course focus on maintenance for deep pockets.
balabaster 8y ago
I moved to a farm and education centre.
StevePerkins 8y ago
You move one of the larger, more conservative companies that employ probably 90% of the world's tech workforce. You do the non-sexy ETL work, or line-of-business app development, that 90% of the world's developer workforce does. Web forums are RIDICULOUSLY overweighted toward students and younger startup employees. Partially because older workers have jobs and families and better stuff to do than play online. Partially because the work they do isn't particularly worth writing about, and the latest fads aren't that relevant to their work. But please don't have the misguided assumption that what you see on HN or Reddit is truly representative of the industry as a whole. It took me a long time, and a lot of unnecessary anxiety, to wake up and see the bigger picture.
- stopnamingnuts 8y ago
  Amen.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

Traubenfuchs 8y ago

Become an expert on the Cobol/PL1 of 2050, maybe?

oblio 8y ago
> Cobol/PL1 of 2050 It's already here and it's called Java :)
- struppi 8y ago
  And probably als JavaScript.
  - dtech 8y ago
    I highly doubt that. Websites are much more throw-away than the average enterprise backend processing app, even for large apps like Gmail I suspect the churn is orders of magnitudes larger than in their backend systems started in 2004. COBOL skills remain valuable because they're running hard-to-replace data processing systems at the core of large corporations. Java fills the same role.
- berbec 8y ago
  Cobol is the new Cobol https://increment.com/programming-languages/cobol-all-the-way-down/ https://increment.com/programming-languages/cobol-all-the-wa...
- Traubenfuchs 8y ago
  In Austria, not even Javascript can beat Java (33% more job openings!). At least in Europe, Java will continue to rule supreme in the foreseeable future. I am currently part of a big project involving >300 people that will lead to 50 - 100 Spring Boot microservices that will run at least 10 years...

yathroaway 8y ago

Management

Mc_Big_G 8y ago
No one will even talk to you about a management position, without already having been a manager, no matter how much experience you have as a developer. The only path to management is to acquire it from the inside.
- cannonedhamster 8y ago
  This is the absolute truth. I've been a lead or performing the role of a lead for most of my career. Recently I started taking on management responsibilities, then I got a new VP who decided I needed a manager because I didn't have the experience. I've seen people who can't manage their way out of a paper bag, but seemingly despite the fact that I've been filling the role for the past year, I'm not qualified for it. It's very frustrating.
  - totalforge 8y ago
    Your new manager is very likely to be a friend of the VP.
drakonka 8y ago
I just rejected a path to management a couple of months ago after trying a lead role for a few months and deciding it's not a good fit for what I want to do. I really hope I didn't screw myself over for the future, but on the other hand if the only way I'll have a future in this industry when I get older is in management roles I don't like I may as well move on to something else at that point.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

pjmlp 8y ago

Consultancy, building up soft skills that you can't easily offshore, saving money and doing sensible investments instead of buying tech toys to throw away, be open minded that someday I might do a completely different kind of job.

ashelmire 8y ago

Age discrimination in tech is dumb. I've got a dev 30 years my senior sitting across from me and I guarantee he will code circles around 90% of the devs on HN, and 100% of the new grads getting jobs at big tech (and will until he dies). He's got a huge amount of knowledge in programming, our domain (NLP), he's fast, thorough, and thoughtful. Honestly I don't get the obsession with recent grads. They are basically useless for years.

zimpenfish 8y ago
> Honestly I don't get the obsession with recent grads. They are basically useless for years. But cheap and compliant.
ams6110 8y ago
> Honestly I don't get the obsession with recent grads. They will work more hours for less money. This is nothing new. My first job out of university in the early 1990s was for one of the "big" consulting firms. 50-60 hour work weeks were the norm. I made decent money (they paid overtime) especially for a first job, but I wouldn't do it at my age now with a family and kids.
- agotterer 8y ago
  Why is there a belief in this industry that working more hours == productivity? Arguably a more experienced developer could do the same work (if not better) in less hours. The right to not work 12 hours a Day shouldnt be something that is earned with age. If a team is consistently required to put in unreasonably long hours it’s either due to being understaffed or poor planning. Both are a recipe for disaster...
  - PurpleBoxDragon 8y ago
    >Why is there a belief in this industry that working more hours == productivity? Lack of manager ability to measure productivity based on anything else. Between POs, BAs, business representatives, and IT managers there are a lot of people who don't seem to be able to grasp why two relatively simple to describe tasks can require such vast differences in time. So it becomes hard for them to judge if their developer is wasting their time or not (and let's not even begin on overall lack of trust to begin with), so the only fall back measure is if they have their butt in the seat and appear to be working. And even if you are lucky enough that everyone you directly deal with either understands the basics on why sizing varies so greatly or able to accept it without question, you still have to deal with middle managers walking the floor who measure productivity the same as they would in a factory. And if you are lucky enough to not even have this problems, you still have to deal with cultural norms set in party by all the jobs which aren't as lucky.

astura 8y ago

I don't need one. Most people at my current company are >40 (and probably >50 - I don't know everyone's exact age but I can infer somewhat). ~90% are married. I've worked a bunch of places and, quite frankly, none have had an overly young crowd. Experience has always been valued everywhere I've worked. So in my experience its just not a problem for the companies I want to/do/have worked for. I live nowhere near San Francisco.

adrianN 8y ago

Make enough money to retire early to some low stress hobby job like pottery.

whataretensors 8y ago

I plan to create value at a startup where they give me fair ownership of the project I'm working on, and once it's successful I'll live off royalties. Wait what's that about developer royalties?