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I'm 46 and this question seems a little ridiculous if you're located in a good market. In the bay area there is such demand for developers that you will find a

I'm 46 and this question seems a little ridiculous if you're located in a good market. In the bay area there is such demand for developers that you will find a job. It may not be the most amazing, perfect job for you but the pay won't be "bad". However, I do see a few problems: 1. If you've been out of the algorithm, leetcode, game for a while, passing the bs interviews is going to be a challenge. The truth is that almost no one uses that shit or they just google an implementation. So, you're choice is to dedicate a significant portion of your free-time to studying or use the shotgun approach unless you have a network "in". 2. It's probably going to be difficult for you if you refuse to learn new things. I've been specializing in front-end for a while and the framework I'm an expert in (Ember.js) is basically dead. Time to learn react. Luckily 90% of what I know translates. 3. If you want ever-increasing salaries, you're going to have a hard time. There is a cut-off for even the best senior developers. The only way up is management. If you can still add value as a developer, someone will hire you.

lordCarbonFiber 8y ago
If you're doing anything more involved than CRUD apps knowing the "bs things" is pretty useful; especially if you think you qualify as a "senior developer". Mindlessly copying from google won't tell you the right questions to ask, and won't help you mentor new talent. If you're found yourself at 40+ and don't know the fundamentals that tells me you've done little to no mentoring and probably don't fit in my organization. Given (1) 3 also becomes a bit of dead end. If you're actually on a principle track (that's ownership, aptitude, etc) senior developer tracks can be nearly unbounded; especially at the usual suspects and increasingly at companies serious about growing their technology department. I'd caution against striving for "just adding value"; being one of the people that have 2 years of experience 10 times is going to cut you off from most employment opportunities.
- Mc_Big_G 8y ago
  Funny because I've built many, many apps and worked as a professional dev for 15+ years and literally never, not even once, needed to write a reverse bubble sort or whatever from scratch. Modern development is more about making good design choices and knowing how to leverage languages, frameworks and systems to develop a solution that meets the companies objectives and does it quickly and in the most cost-effective way. I've saved and produced millions of dollars of value for many companies and advanced algorithms knowledge was never part of the solution. This leetcode shit is just a hazing ritual perpetuated by the majority of companies because they're unwilling to do something more sensible because it requires time and effort. Wouldn't it be more effective to review my code on github and bitbucket than to give me a puzzle to solve? Right, that takes effort. https://twitter.com/dhh/status/834146806594433025 https://twitter.com/dhh/status/834146806594433025
  - lordCarbonFiber 8y ago
    Through these first 2 decades of the 21st century I think this industry has thrived on the fact that all of the fruit is laughably low hanging. You could "produce millions of dollars" with an excel macro. That doesn't make the skill a good thing to peg the long term health to your tech company to. Hint playing this <https://media.giphy.com/media/kwEmwFUWO5Ety/giphy.gif> https://media.giphy.com/media/kwEmwFUWO5Ety/giphy.gif> game isn't software development any healthy company wants to hire for. Moore's law has smoothed over many the failing of a mediocre dev; the next generation isn't going have same luxury (just the same as the current generation has to know exponentially more than those that made their fortune during the dot com boom).
blahville 8y ago
Funny to see this downvoted, when it's spot on.

lordCarbonFiber 8y ago

If you're doing anything more involved than CRUD apps knowing the "bs things" is pretty useful; especially if you think you qualify as a "senior developer". Mindlessly copying from google won't tell you the right questions to ask, and won't help you mentor new talent. If you're found yourself at 40+ and don't know the fundamentals that tells me you've done little to no mentoring and probably don't fit in my organization. Given (1) 3 also becomes a bit of dead end. If you're actually on a principle track (that's ownership, aptitude, etc) senior developer tracks can be nearly unbounded; especially at the usual suspects and increasingly at companies serious about growing their technology department. I'd caution against striving for "just adding value"; being one of the people that have 2 years of experience 10 times is going to cut you off from most employment opportunities.

Mc_Big_G 8y ago
Funny because I've built many, many apps and worked as a professional dev for 15+ years and literally never, not even once, needed to write a reverse bubble sort or whatever from scratch. Modern development is more about making good design choices and knowing how to leverage languages, frameworks and systems to develop a solution that meets the companies objectives and does it quickly and in the most cost-effective way. I've saved and produced millions of dollars of value for many companies and advanced algorithms knowledge was never part of the solution. This leetcode shit is just a hazing ritual perpetuated by the majority of companies because they're unwilling to do something more sensible because it requires time and effort. Wouldn't it be more effective to review my code on github and bitbucket than to give me a puzzle to solve? Right, that takes effort. https://twitter.com/dhh/status/834146806594433025 https://twitter.com/dhh/status/834146806594433025
- lordCarbonFiber 8y ago
  Through these first 2 decades of the 21st century I think this industry has thrived on the fact that all of the fruit is laughably low hanging. You could "produce millions of dollars" with an excel macro. That doesn't make the skill a good thing to peg the long term health to your tech company to. Hint playing this <https://media.giphy.com/media/kwEmwFUWO5Ety/giphy.gif> https://media.giphy.com/media/kwEmwFUWO5Ety/giphy.gif> game isn't software development any healthy company wants to hire for. Moore's law has smoothed over many the failing of a mediocre dev; the next generation isn't going have same luxury (just the same as the current generation has to know exponentially more than those that made their fortune during the dot com boom).

blahville 8y ago

Funny to see this downvoted, when it's spot on.