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Whether an employee or contractor, it has to start with delivering value.
Or at least until recently: Dilbert 2020-12-24[^] 
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virang_21 wrote: has celling on how much you can make doing certain things.
Everything has a ceiling. You cannot make more than what the market says you are worth. Not for long at least.
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Let me see
Im 61 now and in all honesty I havent had to work for a living in 35 years, I get paid pretty good money to do the thing I really really enjoy.
They even come up with new ways for me to entertain my brain. I dont see that stopping soon.
Yes I know I could have gone independent and raked in lots more £$ but that is not my motivation, as long as I have enough for my needs and wants and have something fun to occupy me, Im happy.
I get to learn on the job and make a difference. I work with great and talented people, from where I sit, Ive got it made.
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g_p_l wrote: Yes I know I could have gone independent and raked in lots more £$ but that is not my motivation, as long as I have enough for my needs and wants and have something fun to occupy me, Im happy.
My feelings exactly!
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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I don't care about money any more than I have to. I've never pursued it. I pursue coding for its own sake. The money is so I can afford to do it more. That's all.
Everything is either a labor of love, or something I feel helps someone.
At one point in my career I realized that the only way to keep coding was to ask what I was worth, so I had to learn what that was.
I was young and the answer shocked me at first.
So I'm probably not the best person to ask.
I'm one of the luckiest people in the industry though, because I barely actually "work" - I get paid to play.
Real programmers use butterflies
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virang_21 wrote: how do you manage getting $$$ amount that align to your skill set.
If I were to ask for the $$$ that align with my skill set, I would never find a job.
Instead, I look at what I need, what the market for the region typically pays for the position, and what I'm offered. At the end of the day, if (whatImOffered > whatINeed + painFactor) then I'm happy.
painFactor is for the mitigating circumstances: commute time, crappy environment, crappy development rig, outdated tooling, excessive management, excessive processes, other developers are not anywhere near my skill level, etc.
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The short answer is: I always picked my jobs based on what interests me most, not based on the pay checks. That keeps me motivated and open to new things: At 57 I started in my current position as a CAD plugin developer for a startup company(!).
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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It's not when 'careers' end that matters, given that if you are gainfully working then it is still a career, but rather where/when it starts so that you can navigate, or at least steer, your way to a happy old age.
Old age will come despite what all the "it's over by 40" headlines say. It's usually that folk get experienced, and experience usually pays in whatever you are good at (even COBOL, so I've heard).
Management often pays that bit better (so they say) because many [technically oriented folks] don't really want to do it!
If all you are after is $$$ then there are plenty of bad jobs that pay well because they are known to be bad. The trick is matching your skills and expectations to the customer's (employer's) needs.
Look for the wave to ride, not the wave you've just missed.
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there are plenty of great jobs that pay sh*t loads of money too. Lets not equate $$$ with only bad jobs. 
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True. And bad jobs that pay badly! (truth tables are fun..)
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Some places value skills that never age and you'll be fine if you have those skills. Other places value skills tied to particular products, and you'll have to retrain every few years.
If your skills are mostly tied to a particular application then, sure, you'll be coining it for a few years until it gets superceded by some other application, at which point you will have to retrain. This is the "treadmill" that most people refer to; you'll be on the relearning treadmill all your life if you specialise in some vendor-supplied proprietary tech-stack.
If you *are* going to specialise in some particular application or program, choose something that has obvious staying power (Linux kernel dev, for example, rather than Sage Accounting dev).
VB developers were the most in-demand, until VB was displaced, then they had to retrain. Win32 developers were high in demand, until C# allowed non-Win32 specialists to write Windows applications.
Being tied to a particular proprietary tech-stack makes you vulnerable. You'll know you're in this position when interviewers ask you questions about a particular product.
A question like "What are the callbacks needed to make a service on Windows?" is clearly product-oriented, while "How would you write a service provider for services over TCP" is clearly not.
Windows and Windows Services is clearly a product. Service provisioning and the TCP stack is clearly not. Knowledge of the former becomes less useful over time. Knowledge of the latter has gotten *more* useful over time.
Coincidentally, I'm 45, and in the middle of interviewing with Amazon. The questions are all based around algorithms and data structures, and I'm doing quite well so far. My compatriot (22 years dveloper on various Windows applications) who also applied didn't make it past the first interview. He is still looking for a job where his experience (native development on Windows) matters. He is probably going to have to accept a Game-Dev position if he wants to move at all.
One year of non-vendor related knowledge beats out 22 years of vendor-specific knowledge.
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How much you get paid is based on what it would cost to find someone else to do the job as well.
Supply and demand. Not just an economic theory, it's a Law.
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First, I only work because it affords me 2 Luxuries I've grown Accustomed to:
1) Living Indoors
2) Food
So, given that. Yeah, you either manage teams, or manage more people. You slowly become a lead.
The real question is "Are you chasing $$$ or is it a career/lifestyle?" As I am over 50, I am
at the point where I don't have to do most of the programming, and I am happy for that. I would rather design the system at a higher level, and push the developers to grow!
Honestly, I am learning PostgreSQL right now. It's been a lot of fun. But I am mentally SHOT at the end of the day UNLIKE when I was 20-30 years younger. My raw CPU power is lower.
So, capitalism works best when EVERYONE is seeking their own values... Find what you value, and go for it. In the end, WEALTH comes from starting your own business, and hiring others. Otherwise, you get a salary, and you MIGHT get some stock options (I've had 3 sets effectively expire worthless).
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It's not an obstacle, other than for yourself. The simple truth is you will eventually rise to a level of compensation commensurate with your skills and experience and the local job market. In my case, I hit the peak salary for my area over 20 years ago.
Over time you find that there are intangible compensations that come with age and experience. I don't have people looking over my shoulder. If I have to report a problem or a delay in completing a task, I don't get yelled at over it. My supervision (who is 20 years younger than me) trusts me to be honest, which I am.
Actually, that's important. With age and experience, you worry less about consequences and feel far more confident in being forthright and honest. When I was younger and a project was running behind or an idea wasn't working out, I felt intimidated and fearful about going to my boss and explaining. Now, if something is a bad idea and won't end well, I say so. If I have a better idea, I'll express it. I give reasonable schedules, most of which I meet pretty well. When I'm not meeting a schedule, I tell my boss as soon as I realize it so he can plan accordingly.
Fortunately my boss and his predecessor both viewed a large part of their job as herding cats insulating their team from the worst ravages of the Forces of Evil sales & marketing. The more accurate information I give him, the better he can do this part of his job.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I'll be 66 in July, currently a systems designer. Other than the four months of COVID shutdown I have not been out of work - other than taking time off for travel - since I
got out of school in the mid 1980s.
There is no real "obstacle" IF you have kept your skills up (there is not much call for FORTRAN programmers). AND IF your are willing to work (there is always a place for
do-nothing managers but they are never hired as such). AND IF you like what you do (being
miserable at work because you don't like what you do is just plain dumb).
Do not let someone sell you on this idea "it ends at 40". Maybe it did for them, maybe they
should have been selling insurance from the beginning not doing IT.
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Completely agree!
I'm also in my 60's and the only time I couldn't get work was really early in my career during a massive unemployment crisis (if you have heard the UB40 song "One in Ten", I was one of the one in ten!)
In fact, just after I turned 40 I sought out a new job, in a skill set I was completely ignorant of, for much higher pay and a much nicer company car.
Within 3 years I had doubled my income from my previous job.
So I overcame the (non-existent) problem through hard work, picking up new skills all the time and generally making myself useful and not resting on my laurels
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If I understand the premise correctly, by not seeing it as an obstacle.
Have a simple lifestyle, which suits me. When I was still working, I couldn't spend the money I made developing software. I was probably a bit better than average, but certainly not an all-star developer.
I have the advantage of being in USA#n. I can't speak for salaries in ROW.
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You find your comfortable spot. My income for the area I live in brings me to about upper(ish) middle income, but if I moved to somewhere like Seattle, I would be low middle income at best.
Since I have no want or desire to live in a big city, this works great for me.
Being 45 now (25 years professionally writing software), I'm more concerned about growing my retirement packages and as keep the best health care package I can find. I've had job offers in the last couple years that would move me out of this, but grow my career, and I've declined those offers because at the end of the day, it just wasn't worth it.
As far as the skill set goes: some of the languages, OS API's, most of the tooling, and all of the frameworks/libraries learned in my early career are no longer in use, and don't have much of a bonus on a CV, I could put down that I was writing graphic print drivers for HP printers to work with DOS applications, or use dbase 1 databases, but no one cares anymore about that stuff, it's fringe work at best.
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Don't even think that you will make it into your 60s with the current trends in IT.
Ageism in our profession is considered one of the worst in all US industries, considering that a majority of IT trends today are made up fantasies by people looking to make a name for themselves.
If I were you, I would look to strike out on your own into consulting, commercial software development, teaching, or writing.
After 42+ years in the profession I retired at 64. I could have continued but I was simply fed up with the hypocritical bullshit from management...
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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Knowing more tools and more tech doesn't necessarily relate to making your employer significantly more profit, you might produce less bugs and be slightly more efficient than someone with less experience but it doesn't scale well, they can easily just hire 5 grads instead of giving you 5 times your current salary.
Working in financial markets is one place where your coding efforts can have significant impact on a company's bottom line and where the rewards can scale accordingly.
Honestly, if you're not a 'wiz' and adding multiple times your peers to the bottom line why would you expect to be further rewarded for experience or years of service to the company or industry? It is fine to plateau.
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I still have years to go but am going to end up in management probably replacing my boss when he retires in a couple of years. We are a small shop so he still gets to program sometimes and that's what I am hoping for.
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... Specifically, he can turn it on, he can send emails, he can make phone calls.
But tonight he's been demonstrating an new ability: he can turn on Herself's Galaxy tablet and ... use Google ...
His chosen search term? "How to get cat urine out of a sofa". I'm really, really hoping he's not planning something.
"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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I love the fact that you think your cat will do something evil, not trying to correct something wrong 
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He's a cat.
They are all fiends from Hell - that comes with the territory.
"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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Once he opens a youtube account you have to find a new place to live
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