5 ms·

Having just turned 30, this is a topic on increasing interest to me. I'd love to know what HN posters who are over 35 and were devs when younger are doing now?

708733454927516 5y ago
65 and retired 2 years now. Worked as a developer for the last 35 years before that. I lived for the times I could get into the zone or flow state. Maybe 60 to 70 percent of the job was other things, and did not enjoy those parts nearly as much. Still tinker at home now, hoping to move from windows to linux someday...
d3ckard 5y ago
Being 31, I have seen my share of over 40 developers doing their job and being good at it. While 50+ still scares me, let's not get crazy here.
- jmfldn 5y ago
  Why does it scare you?
  - d3ckard 5y ago
    I have seen first-hand what happens when you suddenly lose your job after 50 and it wasn't pretty.
yetihehe 5y ago
I've been programming since I was 12, now at 37 I'm still a developer, but I can do anything that seems interesting to me, I work primarily in backend and embedded (many languages, many microcontrollers), plus a side quest of air traffic control software. Will try to reinvent energy generation and solve global warming soon.
- lpapez 5y ago
  And what will you do after lunch? :)
  - yetihehe 5y ago
    Sleep a little near my fireplace, to heat up my old bones ;).
jakswa 5y ago
34 reporting in, still just coding and avoiding leadership/management roles
durnygbur 5y ago
Living from capital gains in LCOL area with fast fiber internet connection. Interviewing occasionally to check if I still got it, then rejecting lowball offers. Catching up with dating ladies as staring at the monitor for years had turned me into porn-addicted autist and my brain into a potato.
- karolist 5y ago
  I don't know why this is downvoted, thanks for sharing honestly!
cmarschner 5y ago
I‘m 44, IC turned first-line manager and back to IC (several times) and now quite happy in the IC role, occupied with difficult, large-impact projects that span multiple teams and require roadmaps for 1-2 years. I have learned a great deal in the past several years - even at 40 I would not have been up to the challenges I‘m dealing with now. Most importantly, how to reach agreement with different stakeholders on decisions where you have insufficient data. That‘s where making an argument comes in. You weigh different alternatives. You show the consequences. You conduct workshops - where in the end the people might have gone through the same thinking process you have gone through, but now they are buying in to the idea. You learn to manage up and across. You learn when to step back. Where you should let others shine and enable them making a career. And become a mentor. You learn how to take risks. That you need to balance high-risk, high-reward projects with quick, short term wins. That you need to find out how to do both at the same time. One securing the funding for the other. You learn that relationship power always trumps knowledge power and power through authority. You learn to get to know people as human beings and learn about their motivations. You become a servant of the team, filling in the gaps where they exist. Because you can. I‘m still writing code as well, as I have since I was in my teens. Still loving it. Writing a piece of code that solves a difficult problem in a beautiful way makes me high.
saberdancer 5y ago
I'm 37. In the last 3 years I've become an independent contractor and I'm trying to build a small software development agency. It's slow going but it is the path that appeals to me. I feel a lot of people move to dev management when they get older or just find a spot where they feel comfortable and the pay is good.
throwaway346434 5y ago
36. Development manager. Have my ticket as a Project Manager, Technical BA, enough architecture experience I could go for EA roles, enough people experience I prefer leading teams. It isnt that hard to stay "current"; while espousing working technology over trendy tech. I find much else, it's about data at the end of the day - getting good at modelling processes and flows will never hurt. Take a mentor stance: I might not be hands on the tools, but I'll train the next 10 developers - its a provable way to actually make yourself 10x as productive if you tell them not to repeat mistakes you made and provide vision. Hack on things occasionally. If junior devs smile at your ways as quaint, spend the time to find out why, upskill, then apply experience to whatever flavour of the month exists.
pjmlp 5y ago
Closing down on 50 (still a couple of years left). Consultancy, doing T-shape tasks on projects, jungling between Java, .NET, native and Web, using other languages when required to do so, taking over DevOps related tasks when needed, architecture and sales support. "Jack of all trades, master of none", whatever makes the customer happy at the end of the day.
dantodor 5y ago
54, started at 12 on commodore vic 20. Never did anything else than software dev, various roles, ranging from dev to CTO. Currently architecting and deploying systems in Elixir, Scala and Rust... And I'm so sorry to hear my coding days were over almost 20 years ago :D
- quantified 5y ago
  Punched in programs from listings in magazines? That was true open source.
quantified 5y ago
Developing more software in a completely different industry than I spent my first 33 years of software development in, super team, position and rewards that come with it. I love the fact my my career is older than most of my coworkers, it doesn’t make a whit of difference except I know a lot of useful stuff. And I don’t work for a big public company. Come to think of it, my last 3 VC funded startups were great for all ages as long as you had talent.

708733454927516 5y ago

65 and retired 2 years now. Worked as a developer for the last 35 years before that. I lived for the times I could get into the zone or flow state. Maybe 60 to 70 percent of the job was other things, and did not enjoy those parts nearly as much. Still tinker at home now, hoping to move from windows to linux someday...

d3ckard 5y ago

Being 31, I have seen my share of over 40 developers doing their job and being good at it. While 50+ still scares me, let's not get crazy here.

jmfldn 5y ago
Why does it scare you?
- d3ckard 5y ago
  I have seen first-hand what happens when you suddenly lose your job after 50 and it wasn't pretty.

yetihehe 5y ago

I've been programming since I was 12, now at 37 I'm still a developer, but I can do anything that seems interesting to me, I work primarily in backend and embedded (many languages, many microcontrollers), plus a side quest of air traffic control software. Will try to reinvent energy generation and solve global warming soon.

lpapez 5y ago
And what will you do after lunch? :)
- yetihehe 5y ago
  Sleep a little near my fireplace, to heat up my old bones ;).

jakswa 5y ago

34 reporting in, still just coding and avoiding leadership/management roles

durnygbur 5y ago

Living from capital gains in LCOL area with fast fiber internet connection. Interviewing occasionally to check if I still got it, then rejecting lowball offers. Catching up with dating ladies as staring at the monitor for years had turned me into porn-addicted autist and my brain into a potato.

karolist 5y ago
I don't know why this is downvoted, thanks for sharing honestly!

cmarschner 5y ago

I‘m 44, IC turned first-line manager and back to IC (several times) and now quite happy in the IC role, occupied with difficult, large-impact projects that span multiple teams and require roadmaps for 1-2 years. I have learned a great deal in the past several years - even at 40 I would not have been up to the challenges I‘m dealing with now. Most importantly, how to reach agreement with different stakeholders on decisions where you have insufficient data. That‘s where making an argument comes in. You weigh different alternatives. You show the consequences. You conduct workshops - where in the end the people might have gone through the same thinking process you have gone through, but now they are buying in to the idea. You learn to manage up and across. You learn when to step back. Where you should let others shine and enable them making a career. And become a mentor. You learn how to take risks. That you need to balance high-risk, high-reward projects with quick, short term wins. That you need to find out how to do both at the same time. One securing the funding for the other. You learn that relationship power always trumps knowledge power and power through authority. You learn to get to know people as human beings and learn about their motivations. You become a servant of the team, filling in the gaps where they exist. Because you can. I‘m still writing code as well, as I have since I was in my teens. Still loving it. Writing a piece of code that solves a difficult problem in a beautiful way makes me high.

saberdancer 5y ago

I'm 37. In the last 3 years I've become an independent contractor and I'm trying to build a small software development agency. It's slow going but it is the path that appeals to me. I feel a lot of people move to dev management when they get older or just find a spot where they feel comfortable and the pay is good.

throwaway346434 5y ago

36. Development manager. Have my ticket as a Project Manager, Technical BA, enough architecture experience I could go for EA roles, enough people experience I prefer leading teams. It isnt that hard to stay "current"; while espousing working technology over trendy tech. I find much else, it's about data at the end of the day - getting good at modelling processes and flows will never hurt. Take a mentor stance: I might not be hands on the tools, but I'll train the next 10 developers - its a provable way to actually make yourself 10x as productive if you tell them not to repeat mistakes you made and provide vision. Hack on things occasionally. If junior devs smile at your ways as quaint, spend the time to find out why, upskill, then apply experience to whatever flavour of the month exists.

pjmlp 5y ago

Closing down on 50 (still a couple of years left). Consultancy, doing T-shape tasks on projects, jungling between Java, .NET, native and Web, using other languages when required to do so, taking over DevOps related tasks when needed, architecture and sales support. "Jack of all trades, master of none", whatever makes the customer happy at the end of the day.

dantodor 5y ago

54, started at 12 on commodore vic 20. Never did anything else than software dev, various roles, ranging from dev to CTO. Currently architecting and deploying systems in Elixir, Scala and Rust... And I'm so sorry to hear my coding days were over almost 20 years ago :D

quantified 5y ago
Punched in programs from listings in magazines? That was true open source.

quantified 5y ago

Developing more software in a completely different industry than I spent my first 33 years of software development in, super team, position and rewards that come with it. I love the fact my my career is older than most of my coworkers, it doesn’t make a whit of difference except I know a lot of useful stuff. And I don’t work for a big public company. Come to think of it, my last 3 VC funded startups were great for all ages as long as you had talent.