"Running to three", programmer, how should you choose the future path?

Abstract: The ancients said "stand at thirty". For programmers who are similar to "running to three", they should also calm down and think about their future development direction, whether to continue to devote themselves to technology, or to turn to management and others. In fact, no matter what kind of choice you make, there is no absolute good or bad. Ask yourself in your heart and ask yourself what you want, and then you will find the answer to all your questions.

In fact, the debate on whether the programmer industry should eat "youth rice" has never stopped, and everyone often insists on their own opinions. In fact, in my opinion, this problem varies from person to person. Everyone becomes a programmer and enters the Internet industry for different reasons and goals. Many people simply enter this industry because of their love, so Steve Jobs He founded Apple in the garage, and Bill Gates founded Microsoft before he even finished college. To this day, there are still countless "older" programmers in the Silicon Valley of the United States who are still fighting on the front line of software development, not them. Technology has grown too slowly, and until today they are just programmers, but on the contrary, they are big cows in the programming world. Maybe they have written a language or framework in the world of buzzwords. The code is the love of their life, compared to For dealing with people, they prefer to use machine language. Of course, there are also many programmers who, when they become technically mature, choose to switch to management or high-level technical staff, and no longer write a line of code, this way may be very exciting.



The ancients said "Thirty to stand", for programmers similar to "running to three", they should also calm down and think about their future development direction, whether to continue to devote themselves to technology, or turn to management and others. In fact, no matter what choice you make, there is no absolute good or bad, and naturally there is no right or wrong. In fact, only in the dead of night, when you ask your heart and ask yourself what you want and what you want to be, can you find Answers to all questions. This article has compiled some opinions of netizens on the professional development and transformation of programmers on Zhihu. I hope everyone can learn from it. Of course, in the end, Follow Your Heart!



Angry instant noodles:

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Game life:

I am also a programmer of 30+. I have 5 years of experience in large companies and 4 years of experience in self-employment. Now I have failed to start a business, and I have returned to dormant in one of the largest companies in the industry. Personally, I feel that my experience is more in line with what you said. Let me talk about my experience. Let’s look at this problem in 3 stages: 1. Young fantasy period: After graduating from college, I entered a large company in a second-tier city to work. Because of a little bit of shit luck, I was promoted to the main engineer from the internship for half a year to the regular (don’t be surprised). , just because a new overseas business department was opened, and the popularity is not bad. The boss of the department asked me to come over), and was promoted to program manager in 1 year (in my game industry, the maximum number of program managers in the team reached 15) 4 years project manager ( Team size 80+). Although there are no major projects, the rapid improvement step by step is still a bit dizzying. I started as an engine, and then after I was promoted to management step by step, the technology was gradually put down, and it was the last project. At that time, because I felt a bottleneck period, and the boss of the company did some things that I thought was disgusting at that time (actually, it was to remove the grind and kill the donkey, and now it is more relieved when I look back), I resolutely left and chose to start a business and join the Internet trend. .   

Summary: In stage 1, choose 2, with no regrets. 2. Grinding period of maturity: After coming out of the company, I worked with my former colleagues to invest in various places. It is considered that the strength of the team is not bad. I pulled a 500w+ investment and started a dream journey that is a nightmare in retrospect. In the 4 years of entrepreneurship, I have seen too much human ugliness. I don't want to talk about the details. Maybe in the future, I will write a summary and send it to Zhihu, so that more friends can see it. Don't leave me. The mistakes I have made, go my old way, let me tell you in one sentence, in that startup company, I worked as program development, program manager, and numerical strategy.



Zhu Hong:

Although I am not a programmer. But there have been similar problems. Is it to continue learning? Or do you want to go to an adjacent field? Or start your own business?

In fact, I think these problems are related. You have to have a goal, and then divide it into small stages to achieve it. It does not mean that if you want to start a business, if you want to start a business, if you want to change careers, you will be successful.

First of all, from the perspective of being a programmer, if you want to switch to sales, then I think that the ability of IT industry programmers to communicate with customers is a weak point. Still have to consider whether it is really suitable for you. Maybe you think your communication skills are not bad, but you will know how weak you are when you meet a real salesperson, public relations, or have a meal with people in the service industry. However, nothing is absolute. If you cooperate with an old salesman, you will be able to communicate with customers if you understand the technology.

In operation, I have been in contact with the Internet industry for 4 or 5 years. I really don't think that programmers are very good at operating, and all they know is fur. First of all, their thinking is different. As an operator, he will think about what to do to develop, what is the best thing to do in the market now, and where there is a breakthrough in promotion, and then decide what to do. The programmer is, what kind of product I want to make, I feel that the user is lacking, but the actual promotion strategy is based on the product, and is slowly formulated, but the promotion result is "unknown".

So, in thinking, there is a difference between the two. If you decide to do operations, you still have to contact this circle early, and after you get to know it more and more, turn it around. Starting your own business involves more problems. Whether it is operation, technology, or sales, you better understand everything and have your own thinking direction. A programmer with rich experience, good thinking and certain leadership skills, I think it is quite good to be a PM. So, if you want to change careers, do your research on a certain aspect as soon as possible, don't just think about it. to act. I wish you all the comrades in the third year, a bright future.



Program Hunter:

First of all, to correct a concept, to do IT, not only programmers are project managers (PM). The industry has developed for so long, and there have been many divisions of labor. Are there any programmers over the age of 30? The answer is definitely yes! I've also seen people change careers as programmers at the age of nearly 30. I can't remember whether it was a steel maker or a clothing seller in the past.
But if it is a narrow definition of a programmer, if you have done it for decades, it is estimated that you will not be willing to do it.
The programmer in the narrow sense here refers to the person who does not design and writes code according to the detailed design.
If you are not a programmer in the narrow sense, take the technical route, as far as I know, there are at least the following non-PM development routes:

Architect: Analyze the technical solutions developed by business consultants for customers and choose the most suitable software and hardware implementation architecture and Scenario
Computer Technology Domain Expert: An expert in a computer technology domain. Such as Java experts. Once the architect decides to implement the product using Java technology, this person can design and guide the team through the technical implementation.
Technical researcher: to understand, research, and even create the latest technology.
Of course, my knowledge is limited, there may be more options waiting for you. In addition, with the development of the times, there may be more division of labor.
All in all, the future looks bright.
However, remember that you must keep improving yourself, otherwise everything will be a cloud.



Niu Hui:

I recently read some articles on the career development of programmers, and then I listened to the training of a programmer who has written code for 10 years in the company. After work, I have also cooperated with quite a few programmers. How to cultivate and cultivate can have a better career development path. From the perspective of PM, I will talk about my own ideas for reference only:

1. The premise of doing things professionally is to be able to pay attention to details.

I think being careful is the most basic thing for programmers Self-cultivation, quality, and logical ability are more advanced things. It’s useless to think about algorithms and architectures all day long. Do you know how turbulent the product manager despises when you explain to the product manager that the bug for a long time is because of the lack of a semicolon? If you can't even pay attention to the basic details of these codes, what else?

2. Respect everyone as you respect code

Many programmers are arrogant and feel that the product is made by themselves, and other people are auxiliary. Therefore, many programmers despise the product and test it, which also causes a lot of communication barriers. First of all, people like the above must only write code for a lifetime, no matter how good the technology is. I don’t agree that writing code can only be written until the age of 30, but after the age of 30, if a programmer wants to have a greater development, then do team management, Either do technical consulting to expand your capabilities and accumulated experience. At this time, excellent communication skills often become the key.

3. Use experience to build a global view of your product technology.

This involves architecture. When product managers put forward requirements, they not only want to hear whether this requirement can be done or not, but if it can be done, then develop What is the cost, what impact will it have on the current system product modules, what risks are there, and if it cannot be done, is there a good alternative or simplified solution?

If the PM can get these answers during the needs assessment, they will definitely kneel and lick you. Of course, on the other hand, if these are not thought of in the early evaluation, the various consequences caused later also need to be borne by the programmers themselves.

4. Do a good job of emotional management

In theory , programmers are calm. But in reality, there are quite a lot of emotional impulses. I don’t know how such a personality will affect writing code, but it is not good because the emotions affect the judgment. This kind of thing, after all, will have a great impact on your reputation. This kind of thing happens to me often. . .

5. Technology should be better

There are so many programming languages. Although multilingual programmers are in demand, if it is half a bottle of water, it is estimated that no one wants to. There are a lot of programmers now, because the threshold for entry in this industry is very low, which causes the level of the industry to be uneven. Is it difficult to make a website? Find a ready-made framework, understand some databases, build a data table, find a ready-made template on the front end, and modify a website. But is this the end of contentment? Then the level may be like this forever. In fact, each of these points can be deeply studied, such as the big data storage of websites, how to provide the efficiency of parallel operation of programs, and the technical division of the computer industry in the future will become more and more detailed. Experts in either area are quite useful.

6. Career planning, in fact, you don’t have a choice.

I heard a senior, and I was also very confused about my career. Later, I simply started a business, but I failed in a mess. Finally, I realized that what I know best is to write code and understand the most. Or Java, sometimes you really don't have a choice.

7. Stay hungry, Stay Foolish

technology is never-ending, good programmers must maintain their sensitivity to new technologies, maintain enthusiasm for learning, and at the same time reading and learning can get more thinking patterns, and can find problems in the fastest time. If there is no good thinking mode, many programmers meet the needs, first Baidu, to see if there is any similar code, if you encounter a bug, go to Baidu to see how others solve it, this is always just a code farmer Just heard that a good program book needs to be read at least 12 times to understand. . .



Some of the views in this article are transferred from Zhihu