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If you ever stop learning and feel your job is tedious, move on. You are inevitably an expert at something after 16 years, and if that's a relevant technology,

If you ever stop learning and feel your job is tedious, move on. You are inevitably an expert at something after 16 years, and if that's a relevant technology, you're set. If it's not relevant, find something else. Your engineering experience, even if not too relevant, is valuable because it's also a process, not just an outcome, and experienced people can apply the process of engineering to anything. 25+ years in, though, while I'm still an engineer in the org chart, I'm in charge of mentoring a lot of younger engineers, and my job has turned more into keeping them from making big mistakes and helping them grow as engineers, versus producing code myself. Through them, I can get much more done in aggregate, than if I sat down and did it myself, even though I'm probably faster than any engineer that I mentor. Given what I have done, startups are a great place to learn via trial by fire, while big companies are good places to earn some big bucks while in between cool startup jobs.

silarsis 4y ago
Seconding this - in the last ummm... almost 30 years I've been in the industry, the whole industry has only expanded, and you gain value as you gain skills - if you feel like you're not learning or not enjoying or no longer able to find valuable roles as eg. a programmer, branch into infra or security or data tech or any of a bunch of different places that have grown - your expertise in any field inside IT will make you more valuable in others. As an example, I've recently shifted from manager back to hands-on tech, and then from platform work (building tools for devs) to security - and knowing the engineering space makes me more valuable in the security space. I'll do this for a few years, then look for the next interesting jump. Nothing I've learnt is ever wasted - and I started when everything had to be patched to work on linux and sendmail.cf files were state of the art ;) Also, flipping between the big three types of workplace - startup, enterprise, and consulting - adds to your understanding of the world and overall value. When I started out, old engineers weren't a thing - it used to be accepted wisdom that this was a young person's field. That's not true any more, and I doubt it'll ever be - just keep learning, pace yourself (marathon, not sprint), enjoy yourself, and keep expanding your awareness/knowledge.

silarsis 4y ago

Seconding this - in the last ummm... almost 30 years I've been in the industry, the whole industry has only expanded, and you gain value as you gain skills - if you feel like you're not learning or not enjoying or no longer able to find valuable roles as eg. a programmer, branch into infra or security or data tech or any of a bunch of different places that have grown - your expertise in any field inside IT will make you more valuable in others. As an example, I've recently shifted from manager back to hands-on tech, and then from platform work (building tools for devs) to security - and knowing the engineering space makes me more valuable in the security space. I'll do this for a few years, then look for the next interesting jump. Nothing I've learnt is ever wasted - and I started when everything had to be patched to work on linux and sendmail.cf files were state of the art ;) Also, flipping between the big three types of workplace - startup, enterprise, and consulting - adds to your understanding of the world and overall value. When I started out, old engineers weren't a thing - it used to be accepted wisdom that this was a young person's field. That's not true any more, and I doubt it'll ever be - just keep learning, pace yourself (marathon, not sprint), enjoy yourself, and keep expanding your awareness/knowledge.