The Curmudgeon Coder Rants and raves, tips and tricks from Aaron Korver, the curmudgeon coder

Career Paths for Coders

Something has been bothering me lately. You could say that it is another reason I'm Curmudgeon. Once a coder hits a certain point, say senior level, in his career he will plateau. There are only a few ways to continue moving up on the career ladder.

1. Start your own business
   This isn't for the non-risk takers out there. Basically it is assumed that after five to ten years of experience in the field, you can start your own business. It can either be consulting out to other companies or maybe you have a great idea you've always wanted to make. Either way, you can continue on your career path by starting your own business. Be warned though that you will need to know how to run a business and thus may still need that MBA. Which leads us to our next option.


2. Become a manager
   I think that this is the most common path that senior level coders take. Either by going back to school and getting an MBA, or by simply being "promoted". Companies seem to think that the low level code is beneath the senior coders so we need to manage instead. There is a small problem here. That problem lies in the fact that great coders don't always make great managers. Heck, I doubt that they even make good managers. Yet companies still force us into this role with little to no training and then wonder why a great coder failed as a manager. Go figure.


3. Become a teacher
   The third option for continuing with your career is to go back to the academic world and teach. You will still be able to do research on "cool" things, but your pay will most definitely drop. If you aren't coding for the money, then this may be an attractive option. Personally I find mentoring a very rewarding experience and given the opportunity would love to teach some classes. Another way to teach is by writing books and going on tour with a conference such as No Fluff Just Stuff. This might not be as fulfilling to you as teaching a class full time, but I would wager the money may be better.

I know that our profession as a whole is very young, but are these really the only options that I have? If I want to be a professional coder for 30+ years what more can I look forward to? Maybe we need to rethink the current standard of what it means to be a "senior" developer. Many people that I interview seem to have really just one year of experience repeated five times.

This is what I propose. In order to have a year of experience it must be in doing something you have never done before. My definition of experience is "things learned from failure". Thus you need to do something new and fail in order to really have experience with it. So working ten years with the same company might only net you three years of "experience". This would push the salaries up for people who really are senior level, and perhaps make companies rethink forcing great coders into that management position.

What do you think? Do we have any other options besides these three?

Posted at 08:57AM Jun 30, 2006 by Aaron in Java  |  Comments[17]