Developer's Age !
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That's interesting, so that was the reason you left MS, as far as I know Google is the best environment to work at, am I right? Regards
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
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If you want to keep a job, all us young folks need to right convoluted code in obscure languages. That way when we are 50 we will get jobs maintaining the legacy code say at $100/hr in todays dollars.
deltalmg wrote:
If you want to keep a job, all us young folks need to right convoluted code in obscure languages. That way when we are 50 we will get jobs maintaining the legacy code say at $100/hr in todays dollars
Its called job security? Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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I'm heading toward 50 and still coding.....The big difference now is that most of the easier coding goes to the less-experienced developers. I end up tackling the tough and extremely complex problems, run more peer code reviews and handle more systems design and architecture. When something doesn't work, I'm the "Go-to" guy....and that's a good thing!
It doesn't matter what profession your in if your good you become a trouble shooter. Been there, done that and got a T-Shirt! Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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I am 52 and have been programming for just short of 40 years. I started in high school, and that was WAY before high schoolers were doing programming. I have spent most of my life/career on mainframes, gradually moving over to MS (VB, VB.NET, C#, etc.) starting about 4-5 years ago, partly because of learning something new, partly because I was pretty sure there weren't going to be any more jobs in the mainframe arena. I do have a lot of enthusiasm - the reason why I was hired where I am now - not for what I knew or did, but because I was willing to learn and tackle a miriad of projects. The biggest problem IS my age - all the people are hiring are younger than my children; and I KNOW that for a number of openings, it was blatant age discrimination. Also, w/ the youngsters, there seems to be a big thing about terminology - though I had worked w/ SQL, I couldn't remember the formal definition of Inner vs. Outer join - and that was the reason I was given as not being hired. So, stick in there - you're right, it IS in our genes - but expect to be discriminated against, laughed at, and ignored.
I've been over comming that all my life, but recently its age! I agree they just don't want to hire us old farts. Look at all the experience they are missing out on! I look at it this way...its there lose!~ Mike P.S. Then you remember punch cards. :) Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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Why does this post always come from young coders? Is there something that makes them uneasy about the future of programming? I was told in 1980, that in the near future programming would be unnecessary. That prof is probably dead now.:)
There always gonna need a grunt to do the dirty work! Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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Kareem Shaker wrote:
I think you've started to enjoy it because it's less than before, as you're leading now
:-D May be correct. But what I think is now I am having some better understanding of the technology and the domain, so I like to play with all those. :)
Apurva Kaushal
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Hello, Just wanted to know if there are people out there willing to complete their lives in programming, in other words, how do you plan your career vs. your age, I have seen developers aged at 40s and 50s, do you think that the one should quit development at a certain age and shift to technical consultations or project management, and if you are old, and still into code, does this make you small or big ( I think it varies from one country to another ) ? Please share your experience here !
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
I am 57 years old and I want to keep on coding because that's what I love to do. I have been a contract C++ developer since 1992. Right now I am fixing Entourage bugs for Microsoft on the MAC. I have friends who are still contracting in their sixties. Raj
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That's great Jim, I would like to know if you are coding just for coding, or you are a member in a development team?
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
The journey with computer of more than 45 years must be very interesting.
Jwalant Soneji (BE IT) Mobile: +91 9969059127 http://jnsoneji.spaces.live.com http://jnsoneji.blogspot.com
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Hello, Just wanted to know if there are people out there willing to complete their lives in programming, in other words, how do you plan your career vs. your age, I have seen developers aged at 40s and 50s, do you think that the one should quit development at a certain age and shift to technical consultations or project management, and if you are old, and still into code, does this make you small or big ( I think it varies from one country to another ) ? Please share your experience here !
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
It all depends on individual. In Government Jobs, there is no promotion like Project Manager .If you start as developer you have to end as Developer.
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Kareem Shaker wrote:
and if you are somehow old, let's say 35
Hey, don't discriminate us old people! You'll be one of us in about 5 years...
Regards, mav -- Black holes are the places where God divided by 0...
I'm another "older" programmer. I started programming when I was 16...in 1964. Obviously, personality plays a part, but I think part of whether you stick with it or not is bound to why you started in the first place. I became fascinated with computers, and this fascination was enabled by the UCLA Computer Club, which allowed me 3 minutes a night on a 7094. I didn't do it for money, or because it was a "good career choice". Along the way I've done other things...mostly technology management. I've tried other hobbies. I've even fought the urge to program, because other people don't consider it a "suitable" hobby. But then I thought: no one asked Picasso when he was going to retire; no one told Picasso he was spending too much time painting. I view computer programming the same way. For some reason, not of my choosing, I care about the program. At the end of the day, when I want to do something after work, I often program something. Right now I'm trying to automate IE7 with a BHO (the codeproject was VERY useful!).
Lawrence Lewis
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Hello, Just wanted to know if there are people out there willing to complete their lives in programming, in other words, how do you plan your career vs. your age, I have seen developers aged at 40s and 50s, do you think that the one should quit development at a certain age and shift to technical consultations or project management, and if you are old, and still into code, does this make you small or big ( I think it varies from one country to another ) ? Please share your experience here !
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
I'll be 44 in a week. Started out with IBM Mainframes and the Heathkit mini's Been through punch cards & teletypes. Then the console went from a TTY 33 to a ADM3 CRT 'glass teletype.' My personal computer started out running CPM and then DOS 2.0 My first hard drive cost several hundred dollars and held 5 MB. I thought it was great that I no longer had to load Pascal from 8" disks. The internet started as an ugly cable terminating in a huge connector labelled 'ARPA.' When the internet finally caught on there was a big debate about using it for pure knowledge or commerce. Turbo Pascal, VB3, VB4, VB5, VB6, ASP and ASP.net. It keeps getting better. And MySQL is free! The things we can do today - absolutely great. Just wait and see what lies ahead. I personally like coding since I work from my home. I may stay coding a few more years. I'll see what happens. Stay current, take advantage of opportunities to upgrade your skills, invest your money wisely for your future years and enjoy life. Live long and prosper. Etc.
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Hey, I am so sorry if you've got it as discriminatory expression, I just wanted to give an example, with all respect to you. However, I am eager to hear about your experience, I know I will be 35 in 5 years time, that's why I want to learn from your experience :)
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
I am an "old turd". I work where pretty much every one is an "old turd". Many of us work in health care and use SAS. Funny, they don't teach SAS overseas, so for the time being we won't be H1B'nized. However this "old turd" is scoping out a new carreer path in human resources. Someone has to be there to supervise you youngn'z outsourcing. MrPlankton aka ("old turd")
MrPlankton
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Hello, Just wanted to know if there are people out there willing to complete their lives in programming, in other words, how do you plan your career vs. your age, I have seen developers aged at 40s and 50s, do you think that the one should quit development at a certain age and shift to technical consultations or project management, and if you are old, and still into code, does this make you small or big ( I think it varies from one country to another ) ? Please share your experience here !
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
No, I think that wisdom comes with age and experience. The older generation can provide insight into areas and directions that younger people can't. For example older technologies get abandoned and the younger people don't learn them. Then when it becomes necessary to use them who has to do it.. Its like black smithing.
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Hello, Just wanted to know if there are people out there willing to complete their lives in programming, in other words, how do you plan your career vs. your age, I have seen developers aged at 40s and 50s, do you think that the one should quit development at a certain age and shift to technical consultations or project management, and if you are old, and still into code, does this make you small or big ( I think it varies from one country to another ) ? Please share your experience here !
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
I have always love doing programming though I'm still quite "young" in programming. I got fond of computer and programming since primary school. But my love for programming only started blooming since secondary school where I only had chance to touch on BASIC a tad. I don't really program until I furthered by studies in college and I fall in love with programming and web development since then. I do not know whether I will continue to code or not, but by writing codes, that keep my minds fresh and running all the time (tired though, but I get excited and energetic when I program). I don't really program during my free time, but I did keep programming as my hobbies. Most of the time after work, I do scripting and edit/add-on the scripts in my forum and personal blog. I love it even though I'm only 27 right now. Only doing serious programming for 2 years now. Not having the chance before this due to lack of relevant working experience until I landed myself in the current company based on my little bit of experience in a VB browser project for a secondary school internet kiosks while I were working there as a IT trainer =) Cheers, Jenson :: Vision is Power ::
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Hello, Just wanted to know if there are people out there willing to complete their lives in programming, in other words, how do you plan your career vs. your age, I have seen developers aged at 40s and 50s, do you think that the one should quit development at a certain age and shift to technical consultations or project management, and if you are old, and still into code, does this make you small or big ( I think it varies from one country to another ) ? Please share your experience here !
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
I have been programming since the 70s when we had machines that filled whole buildings (if you ever saw them at all). In my 30s, I was asked several times to move into management roles. In the 1990s, we had a couple of recessions and many of those managers ended up on the heap. In my 40s, they stopped asking me to be a manager as I was considered to be too old. Now they treat me like a mysterious sage. The benefits are that I get to sit on expensive ergonomic chairs, wear loose clothing and always have a huge screen. Perhaps they'll offer me incontinence care soon.:-D:-D:-D
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That's great Jim, I would like to know if you are coding just for coding, or you are a member in a development team?
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
I am working full-time as a developer for ChartLogic, Inc. We sell an Electronic Medical Office software package. My task is to build an internet-enabled thin-client version of the package so doctors can work from wherever they happen to be, without being tied to the LAN in the practice office. Lots of fun!
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The journey with computer of more than 45 years must be very interesting.
Jwalant Soneji (BE IT) Mobile: +91 9969059127 http://jnsoneji.spaces.live.com http://jnsoneji.blogspot.com
The interesting part is a) looking back at all the really hot new stuff that has just faded into the background when it turned out to be not so hot after all, and b) looking at the evolutionary durability of some of the cockroaches and dinosaurs that were supposed to be superseded by the aforesaid hot new stuff. I started coding in Fortran. I still write quick-and-dirty stuff in Fortran from time to time, although most of the time I use VB or C#. A friend of mine writes in COBOL.NET. My current project uses ASP.NET. In between I have used at least a dozen different assembly languages, macro translators, and procedural languages, plus a pile of graphical design tools. I have seen a lot of boutique languages come and go in that time. I can't even remember the names of most of them, even though they were surely going to be the ultimate tool at the time. Hardware has gone down in price from over $1.00/byte to 0.1 microbuck/byte. Speed has gone from 20 uSec/cycle on a machine that used 6 cycles per instruction to pipelined dual processors that run instructions in parallel at over 5 billion instructions per second. I missed the relay generation completely, and just got in on the tail end of the vacuum tube generation. The Fortran run-time package on the IBM 1620 occupied 400 6-bit characters out of a 20,000 character memory. I added line printer control to the package at a cost of 200 additional characters. When IBM added disk drives to the system the thing bloated up to 1400 characters or thereabouts. When we got a 360/40 with disks and tape the operating system grew to occupy an astonishing 6000 bytes. I started doing real-times systems with the IBM 1710, which was a 1620 with interrupts and analog and digital I/O. Now the power of that system can be yours for about $6. I could go on, but no one wants to listen to an old guy ramble.
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The interesting part is a) looking back at all the really hot new stuff that has just faded into the background when it turned out to be not so hot after all, and b) looking at the evolutionary durability of some of the cockroaches and dinosaurs that were supposed to be superseded by the aforesaid hot new stuff. I started coding in Fortran. I still write quick-and-dirty stuff in Fortran from time to time, although most of the time I use VB or C#. A friend of mine writes in COBOL.NET. My current project uses ASP.NET. In between I have used at least a dozen different assembly languages, macro translators, and procedural languages, plus a pile of graphical design tools. I have seen a lot of boutique languages come and go in that time. I can't even remember the names of most of them, even though they were surely going to be the ultimate tool at the time. Hardware has gone down in price from over $1.00/byte to 0.1 microbuck/byte. Speed has gone from 20 uSec/cycle on a machine that used 6 cycles per instruction to pipelined dual processors that run instructions in parallel at over 5 billion instructions per second. I missed the relay generation completely, and just got in on the tail end of the vacuum tube generation. The Fortran run-time package on the IBM 1620 occupied 400 6-bit characters out of a 20,000 character memory. I added line printer control to the package at a cost of 200 additional characters. When IBM added disk drives to the system the thing bloated up to 1400 characters or thereabouts. When we got a 360/40 with disks and tape the operating system grew to occupy an astonishing 6000 bytes. I started doing real-times systems with the IBM 1710, which was a 1620 with interrupts and analog and digital I/O. Now the power of that system can be yours for about $6. I could go on, but no one wants to listen to an old guy ramble.
Dear Jim, In fact, me and I am sure many others would sure have found your post as an interesting thing to learn. It gives insight to something that we have (I am 23 yrs right now) neither seen nor heard. Please don't feel bad if someone could not show interest in learning rather listening your experience. I would like to continue with your say.
Jwalant Soneji (BE IT) Mobile: +91 9969059127 http://jnsoneji.spaces.live.com http://jnsoneji.blogspot.com
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Hello, Just wanted to know if there are people out there willing to complete their lives in programming, in other words, how do you plan your career vs. your age, I have seen developers aged at 40s and 50s, do you think that the one should quit development at a certain age and shift to technical consultations or project management, and if you are old, and still into code, does this make you small or big ( I think it varies from one country to another ) ? Please share your experience here !
Kareem Shaker http://cairocafe.blogspot.com
I'm 13 and I'm programming for Windows (VS 2008), Linux and the Nintendo DS. I'll defenitly investigate programming as my career, because I enjoy it and I don't think you can ever be "too old" (or too young) to do anything!