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As a senior software engineer who retired in 2014 at the ripe old of 64, I have to agree with the comments made by poster Gary Wheeler.
The problem is not how well skilled you may make yourself but your age. Ageism is rampant in the IT industry with the median age for the over whleming majority of all technical professionals now being under 40. In short, professional development today has little use for us seniors anymore even though we have a lot of experience we could provide the younger sets to help them avoid making the major mistakes they will make without such guidance.
One senior analyst (55+ years in age) I read about resigned her somewhat secure position to move into the up and coming younger environments that were already beginning to take hold at the time. She tried her best to help the younger professionals make cognizent decisions regarding design and implementation practices only to be ignored and see the relevant projects all blow up in the younger peoples' faces.
I was pushed out of my last position just for being in my 60s, though I produced the most solid applications in the shop and my users all liked my work and dealing with me.
And to add insult to injury, professional development is not just about the coding. You have to know how to design your applications, link them to work with the relevant databases, understand the various frameworks you could be using in addition to your chosen languages, whether that be a database ORM or a front-end JavaScript based framework for web applications. And of course, for the web, you need knowledge of HTML markup, CSS, and of course the profession's favorite hated language, JavaScript.
The profession today (as it always has been) is also comprised of horrible deadlines, bad technical management, and growing disillusionment by even the younger professionals as a career choice. Women, who tend to be smarter than us men, saw the writing on the walls and got out years ago and have never returned
to the 1980s high of 35% of the workforce.
I know this may put a damper on your aspirations but I went through three separate technology eras in my career and I can say that the zenith of our profession was reached in the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. From 2010 on, it has been in a downhill spiral with no end in sight.
Given all this, if you still want to pursue this avenue, I would recommend that you attempt to find a company that is willing to hire people in your age bracket, which is just as interested in your working experience as it is in your new skills. Look for companies that are still open to hiring older professionals as some larger companies are who are trying to "diversify" their workforce. The new startup environments will not be your cup of tea...
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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I'm in my mid 40's and thought my career was over when I hit 40, so I had to change. At the time I was working for a small industrial refrigeration company building the control software for their clients and had been for 20 years, but I was burned out being the only developer and doing way too much traveling.
In one respect, I had huge job security, my software was the flagship product that kept all the hardware working correctly. In another respect my skills were getting very stale, and looking around not many jobs were around for that kind of skill set.
I had a choice to ride it out to retirement, feeling dead inside, or look for new opportunities, one landed in my lap that liked what my skills were, but also was willing to invest in me learning a bunch of newer technologies that were not present at the previous job. I picked up a bunch of new skills, but the job was still too similar the last one with too much travel, that I finally found my current work as a web/app developer which is a far cry from the original one.
At least in my current job (local collage), there is options for moving up eventually to management, and getting retrained. I'm less worried about my future here than the private industry, but It's going to be constant change for me.
Steve Naidamast wrote: and of course the profession's favorite hated language, JavaScript.
the funny part when I was first introduced to JS I hated it, it broke all the rules that C & C# I had known and loved most of my career. Being the stubborn B@$terd that I am, I knew people were doing amazing things with it, so I did a deep dive to understand how the parser engine works on the script and I started to really love it. It's like the opposite of C in ways, even though the runtime is built in C. I think once I gave up on the notion of modeling, with strict types everything just clicked in place. It made me re-think much of the way I design other code.
Many of the younger folk just getting started, it must seem daunting about the breadth of what to learn. I've met quite a few that couldn't function outside of frameworks like React or had no idea what bitmasking was. They simply don't have the fundamentals that make you think of how their code effects the machine. One developer had 15+ layers of loosely coupled functions of implementations of interfaces at runtime to get to the actual code that was needed; making it not only hard to debug, but also use way more system resources than needed, almost every class also had a interface to base off of it.
As I get older and continue to learn more, I see more of the mistakes I took early in my career and code. Eventually I'm going to transition to teaching software development when ever I get around to working on my teaching certificate for a soft retirement. I think older developers should consider this path; We have vast experience. We know the pitfalls, and most importantly the fundamentals that all coders regardless of their path should know before starting their career.
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I'm over 45 and two years ago, went from embedded/industrial control (20 years) to web development with only a couple of web projects under my wings, it was like learning everything over again.
I would choose the language(s) that you might be most interested in.
C# = desktop, services & web (easy to get going, lots of applications)
Java = mobile app development (there are others, but never got past this area, not the funniest language to me)
C++/C = OS services, gaming, complex utilities, embedded (still love C with embedded)
JavaScript = mainly web. (a lot of potential job openings)
As someone who did the jump, I was able to use my existing C# knowledge and build basic ASP.NET apps to get up and running. For the JS side on my pages, concentrate on the fundamentals of JS and pick up some good books like: You don't know JS.
Don't fall down the rabbit hole of jumping to React or some of the other frameworks first; they do get you up and running, but don't teach you how it works in the background.
With all web dev you will also need to know a lot about everything to get things working like the ends and outs of CSS (checkout Kevin Powell on Youtube for some great tutorials). The HTML side is pretty easy (but a bit frustrating to get layouts to work correctly in the beginning.)
After you get comfortable in the basics then try out Node or other frontend and backend frameworks. they do make the resume look great, but a pit fall if you don't know how HTML/CSS/JS all work together. For projects at my work place it can be anything from C# desktop apps/services to basic HTML, to simple ASP.NET, to ASP.NET + React all depending on how complex the final product needs to be.
For me: to really get to understand JS I spent a weekend and first made a Tetris clone working on html canvas. and that was a good start. I figured out controls, sound, layout, drawing, classes and a bunch of other things along the way. about a month later built a "Crule" solitaire clone, to dive deeper into it. I am still no expert on JS, it is such a huge ecosystem.
So look around, and find out what you are passionate about, or at least super interested and start some Youtube tutorials to get going. Try out the different languages on a couple projects and see what clicks and what doesn't. For me Java was so abysmal, I swore I would not touch it again after the last job.
hope this rambling helped.
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I want to tell everyone about the benefits of eating dried grapes – it's all about raisin awareness.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Yeah, I heard it through the grapevine.
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Ooo I bet you're wonderin' how I knew
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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I'm sure Gladys thinks you're a pip.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Reminds me of a time I nearly went loco pruning a plum tree.
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
modified 9-Aug-21 11:15am.
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thought of the day - is that what you're currantly thinking?
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So get yourself a Crete of Candia.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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And I'm about to loose my mind.
Honey, Honey, next.
modified 9-Aug-21 22:02pm.
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I don't want to wine, but this one is has got me red and dry. It was grape, though it's getting old and shriveled.
Repo Man
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Data source seems suspect...
A handful of CS students posting 10,000 Java homework questions between them on Stack Overflow could hardly justify calling it a surge in popularity.
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musefan wrote: 10,000 A handful of CS students posting a handful of 10,000 Java homework questions between them on Stack Overflow ...
FTFY!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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A sure sign of the end times.
Real programmers use butterflies
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kmoorevs wrote: I wonder how many newbies get the terms confused on searches? If they were only newbies...
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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kmoorevs wrote: Ah, TIOBE. The top two languages are now Java and Javascript...frightening!
Nah, not TIOBES this time; they were just tapped for a random quote. This is RD ea dMonkey 's organic fertilizer.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Might be a reasonable way to determine which languages are the trickiest or hardest to learn or have the least resources available for beginners -- but definitely not "popularity".
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Isn't that the same as saying Android is popular?
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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Don't get me started on Android and Kotlin!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Cp-Coder wrote: Android and Kotlin The horror, the horror...
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Cp-Coder wrote: Good thing I spent some time learning it!
Good thing I never learned it (well, I had to work in it once, but that doesn't mean I learned it.)
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