Author: Frank Jernigan, former Google software engineer
Translation: coder turns over
I joined Google in 2001, when I was 55 years old, yes, 55 years old. During my four years at Google, I have been the oldest employee in the company.
What do I do at Google?
I am not a CXO or a manager. I am just a software engineer working with my dear colleagues. Their average age is 25 years younger than me. No one thinks my age is a big problem, I feel like a part of the team and my colleagues accept me.
There is no such thing as "downhill". In order to avoid becoming an irrelevant person, I never stop learning.
I started my career in 1975, when we were still using punch cards and mainframes, and the programming languages were Fortran and PL/1. By the 1980s, a promising new technology was artificial intelligence. I was lucky to have a teacher who recognized my technical level in a Lisp course and let me work in his AI research team.
Not only did I learn more about software development here, I also learned the importance of staying on the cutting edge of technology, and I have continued to learn throughout my life.
In the mid-1980s, I became interested in the new thing of object-oriented programming. I tried my best to learn as much as I could, and wrote a master's thesis "Design Methods of Object-Oriented Programming", which should now be buried somewhere in Boston University. place.
After ten years of Lisp programming, I turned to C++, an object-oriented language, for programming. A few years later, the Internet exploded, and I turned to Web programming again, using newer technologies such as HTML and JavaScript.
Learning, continuous learning, is the key to continuous transformation in my career.
I observed some of my peers either moving into management and starting to move up the corporate ladder, becoming irrelevant and being laid off, or changing careers altogether.
In every job I've had, my managers have noticed that I'm a talented programmer and somehow come to the conclusion that I should be a manager! I did become a manager, but every time I found that I actually hated being a manager. I love programming, that's what I want to do.
One day, my manager walked into the office and saw me busy programming. He said to me: What are you doing? ! You are a manager now!
It couldn't be clearer. What I love is programming. I am very good at programming. Why should I do management?
I've been told many times that I couldn't retire if I didn't advance into corporate management, but every time I tried, I hated it. I tried some management related courses but I found them very boring.
Finally, in 1996, I announced that I would never be a manager or take care of people again. I don't care if I retire, I think this will be figured out later.
By 2000, I had moved from Boston to Silicon Valley with my newfound PHP skills. By that time, I had become accustomed to working with younger colleagues half my age. But then shortly thereafter, the dot-com bubble burst and I was working there. worked for more than 10 months and then was fired.
A friend of mine sent my resume, along with letters of recommendation, to a small company with about 200 people. It was one of the few companies that had the potential to succeed. When Marissa Mayer called me for a phone interview, I told her a lot. Making it clear that despite my age, I did not want to be a manager, she assured me that they did not expect me to go into management. In fact, they are looking to hire people with decades of experience who don't want to be managers.
(Note from coders: This small company is Google. Marissa Mayer is employee No. 20. She was appointed CEO of Yahoo in 2012 and is known as the beautiful CEO)
I got this job opportunity and it confirmed what I have always believed in my life: if you find something you love, do it to the best of your ability.
Four years later, I retired. I made many friends along the way. I have close relationships with my colleagues at Google and other companies where I worked. I married the man of my dreams in 2008, just before Proposition 8 took that right away.
(Code farmer’s note: Proposition 8, English: Proposition 8, is a state constitution amendment ballot initiative in California in November 2008. This proposal is committed to limiting the definition of marriage in California to only between opposite sexes. , thus denying same-sex marriage)
We traveled together and I started learning about art. Yes, I'm still learning new technologies because I enjoy it. In the past few months I learned Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and other Ruby enthusiasts should know Things like Git, Gems, bundle. I'm 69 years old.
My advice is to keep doing what you love and don't deviate from your main course. Always help others with a kind and generous spirit, and you will never have to worry about becoming irrelevant and being abandoned by the times.
Postscript : After reading the experience of this old programmer, it is really emotional. This is really a life of programming. The IT industry in the United States is 20 to 30 years older than China. Those who have come from the era of punched cards are the real hardcore programmers. There are many older programmers in the United States. In comparison, domestic programmers are more miserable and have age anxiety. In 996, if you want to stay on the front line as a programmer while eating youth food, it will be difficult without transformation. I hope that the domestic environment will continue to improve, so that people who truly love programming can continue coding.
Original link:
https://www.quora.com/What-do-people-in-Silicon-Valley-plan-to-do-once-they-are-over-35-since-most-will-neither-make-it-big-nor-move-up-the-management-chain-of-command
(over)