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I've been programming for over 45 years, since I was 14. I consciously made the choice, back around 2005, to NOT move into task management, but to remain a wor
by wduquette 3y ago
I've been programming for over 45 years, since I was 14. I consciously made the choice, back around 2005, to NOT move into task management, but to remain a working software engineer. Writing software is what I love; had I become a manager of programmers, I'd have been miserable. (I tried it for six months, actually; I was miserable.) If you find the jobs farther up the ladder challenging and exciting, go for it. But I've found I was able to build a career on being the "person who programs things well".
- shrimp_emoji 3y agoI'm glad that's a viable path (at least in your experience)! I really hope it'll be in mine. Management seems awful. :p "Hey, you already make great money doing what you love and are good at. The next step is to make more money while having a much higher workload full of stuff you hate and are bad at." ...Like, what? It makes sense if you're a janitor or a paper pusher or something. Now you manage janitors without getting dirty; it's mostly upsides. But with our bizarre, quasi-"artist" attachment to the work, it's an almost tragic trajectory.
- wduquette 3y ago"quasi-artist": That's how I've always felt about it. My job title says, "engineer", but I think of myself as more the software equivalent of a master cabinet maker, an artisan of fine heirloom software. ("Heirloom" is no joke. I'm currently replacing software I wrote over 25 years ago, that's been in use ever since.)