Slashdot Mirror
Programming Until Retirement?
DataDragon asks: "Here's the situation- I'm a now 30something computer programmer in Silicon Valley working for one of the local billion+ dollar tech companies. I'm unhappy with my present job, but am thankful that I've got one. Although I pride myself on having written over a million lines of code in my career, with nearly 15 commercial software products under my belt (8 of them were my own concepts from start-to-finish). I've had carpal tunnel for 6 years now, my skillset looks like it came from a 3 year old magazine, and I didn't make good on stock options. Since settling down in a quiet place somewhere and having a family sounds like a great idea to myself and my bride-to-be, I was wondering: instead of all the buzz I always get like Google's 'Do you <insert technology task> in your sleep?' job opportunities I've read about, are there any employers that would rather have a person who: wants to put in an honest day's work; get to know the job and the people well; and a desire to ultimately be a mentor for the company processes, instead of a here-today-gone-tomorrow programmer, who is interested in actually working there until retirement age?"
Yes, there are jobs out there for you... they're called management. Wherein you used to be something great, but now your information is old, obsolete, and you cannot comprehend the new fandangled thingamabobs and whatzits. You'll spend countless hours in meetings looking authoritative, but deep down inside you're just thinking about last night's dinner. Sorry dude, but the average IT programmer employment lifespan is less than 5 years... less if it can now be outsourced.
The irony is that that is not what the "state" should be about. Republicans like to call for smaller government and "freedom" but that just means you are free to fend yourself from companies, who are much more willing to send useless workers to the nearest "execution chamber" or basically lay them off with zero benefits.
welcome to the "ownership society" that conservatives rave about.