I have called myself “programmer” for 40+ years, never “engineer.” I worked as an employee in cubicle farms for over 20 years, then freelanced full-time for abo

I have called myself “programmer” for 40+ years, never “engineer.” I worked as an employee in cubicle farms for over 20 years, then freelanced full-time for about 15 years as I aged out of the cool startup/FAANG scene. Since you asked about career moves, the best things I did: - Learned relational databases and SQL in depth. Many applications (and almost all business applications) are built around databases. Databases tend to have more business value and longer lifespans than application code. - Learned Unix/Linux and the command line tools. I can get a lot done with simple stable tools that come out of the box when other “engineers” are writing piles of code to get the same job done. - Get along with other people, learn from them, listen and pay attention. I always want to learn how the business works and what people who aren’t programmers do. That pays off in the form of contacts in various industries and positions who may give me work later. Connections count for a lot, more than languages and tools (now called “stacks”) in my experience. - Domain expertise. Rather than think of myself as a “C programmer” or “PHP programmer” I present myself as someone who can understand business requirements and add value. Knowing how logistics or retail or finance works has more long-term career value than mastering a programming language.