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Thank you. I'm glad I posted on this forum as the responses are a departure from the usual 'everyone should learn coding' rhetoric.

recursivedoubts 5y ago
100% agree w/ OP here. You would have about a decade or so of work as a programmer and then need to jump to management anyway. Assuming you are pretty smart and can pick programming up, that gives you about eight or nine years of solid work, your comp will be lower than what you can achieve in banking and then you would run smack dab into the programmer wall. I think a better strategy would be to pick up some light coding on the side, get into positions in your own company working with technologies you like (DeFi or DeFi-adjacent) and then look for an problem/opportunity to create a software company from there. You can always hire programmers.
rmk 5y ago
recursive has hit the nail on the head when it comes to your time expense (don't forget to account for the opportunity cost here). Programming is a craft. As with any other craft (carpentry, plumbing), you will take a solid few years to get reasonably good at it. This is assuming you get into a good place where you can be an apprentice who has good teachers to learn from. If that's not the case, then you will have to give yourself even more time to become good, let's say six years. Now you are past 40, and are looking at recruiters who are (a) looking to lowball you and (b) expecting you to have a great deal of expertise, both at the same time. Assuming this doesn't completely demoralize you, you are still only at a mid-junior level after all this effort, not to mention the loss of income and career opportunities in banking. Banking pays well. If you need the income, you are better off sticking to it, because the pay differential and loss of opportunity cost just don't justify getting into this industry.
MrFoof 5y ago
Better option would still to get fairly deep into the technical underpinnings of your org’s platform, and be the guy who can bridge both sides — deep understanding of the business, and one of the few understanding of the tech stack that enables it. That’s probably the best place to aim. Few people in your org will accomplish that successfully, so being the one who can will set you apart, help get things done faster (help developers gain domain context, help the business understand how things work under the hood), and keep yourself relevant and useful.

recursivedoubts 5y ago

100% agree w/ OP here. You would have about a decade or so of work as a programmer and then need to jump to management anyway. Assuming you are pretty smart and can pick programming up, that gives you about eight or nine years of solid work, your comp will be lower than what you can achieve in banking and then you would run smack dab into the programmer wall. I think a better strategy would be to pick up some light coding on the side, get into positions in your own company working with technologies you like (DeFi or DeFi-adjacent) and then look for an problem/opportunity to create a software company from there. You can always hire programmers.

rmk 5y ago

recursive has hit the nail on the head when it comes to your time expense (don't forget to account for the opportunity cost here). Programming is a craft. As with any other craft (carpentry, plumbing), you will take a solid few years to get reasonably good at it. This is assuming you get into a good place where you can be an apprentice who has good teachers to learn from. If that's not the case, then you will have to give yourself even more time to become good, let's say six years. Now you are past 40, and are looking at recruiters who are (a) looking to lowball you and (b) expecting you to have a great deal of expertise, both at the same time. Assuming this doesn't completely demoralize you, you are still only at a mid-junior level after all this effort, not to mention the loss of income and career opportunities in banking. Banking pays well. If you need the income, you are better off sticking to it, because the pay differential and loss of opportunity cost just don't justify getting into this industry.

MrFoof 5y ago

Better option would still to get fairly deep into the technical underpinnings of your org’s platform, and be the guy who can bridge both sides — deep understanding of the business, and one of the few understanding of the tech stack that enables it. That’s probably the best place to aim. Few people in your org will accomplish that successfully, so being the one who can will set you apart, help get things done faster (help developers gain domain context, help the business understand how things work under the hood), and keep yourself relevant and useful.