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I've been coding for a long time. All that has changed is your perspective. It used to be that the "real" developers were working on "real" technology, like sat

I've been coding for a long time. All that has changed is your perspective. It used to be that the "real" developers were working on "real" technology, like satellites and mainframes. This whole messy website muck was chided. So those companies hired people like me and trained them. I was 14 working nights, weekends, and summers. Now, the web is Serious. It has enough pro devs to make it nothing but a waste of time to drag along some high school kids. But there are still high school kids getting recruited, you're just not in the same low-standards part of the industry that they're in. Motivated kids these days are building weird shit in VR and hitting bug bounties. If anything it is not a problem of training and mentorship, it is a problem of getting people interested in programming in the first place. When I got my first computer at 4 years old I had to use a CLI to get around. Most of my games were in QBASIC and could be inspected and changed, which I would do when I was bored. It's harder to get the spark these days, but once it starts it is so much easier to learn than it used to be. I was struggling with pointer math at 10 years old. Kids these days use JavaScript and Swift.

glitchc 8y ago
If enough kids weren’t interested, the science and technology pipeline would dry up. Diversity in the stream may be an issue, but overall dearth is not currently a problem (used to be a much bigger problem in the past when computing was a less reputable industry). Does it really matter what the technology or application area is? Electricians train and apprentice, as do scientists (what a PhD and post-doc are after all). Given that you are a senior, do you feel these kids would not benefit from your mentorship? If so, does the organization you work at create opportunities for such mentorships? Do they count towards your promotion case?

glitchc 8y ago

If enough kids weren’t interested, the science and technology pipeline would dry up. Diversity in the stream may be an issue, but overall dearth is not currently a problem (used to be a much bigger problem in the past when computing was a less reputable industry). Does it really matter what the technology or application area is? Electricians train and apprentice, as do scientists (what a PhD and post-doc are after all). Given that you are a senior, do you feel these kids would not benefit from your mentorship? If so, does the organization you work at create opportunities for such mentorships? Do they count towards your promotion case?