Coders Don’t Die, They Fade Away
Seasoned coders seem to be a rare thing these days. The stalwarts who can solve your problems with a simple few taps of their keyboard seem to be an endangered species.
They haven’t all been teleported to another dimension. They’re still around, and you’re simply not looking in the right place.
Age Bias
Unfortunately, the tech world is in a not-so-secret love affair with youth.
The classic car means nothing to people these days when they can buy a shiny Tesla with their sweet bonus money.
Photo by Courtney Cook on Unsplash
Sure it’s not as easily available. The initial and running costs are high. It won’t use the supercharger you installed at home. Yet it can do the job better (particularly in looks) and can do the job just like developers.
The industry seems to have an infatuation with youth. If you’re a little grey (or losing it) on top you might well struggle to even be interviewed.
This infatuation excludes a whole demographic of tech gurus who have more in their arsenal than just the ability to code. They have wisdom and experience which is vital to the software development process.
The Disappearing Act of Veteran Developers
If the door is closing on a large cohort of developers where do they vanish to?
Nowhere
Inevitably many of them do stay. You might see them as valuable individual contributors in your current company. You might buy in their expertise as expensive contractors.
The problem might be simply you’re not lunching with them. Hear me out.
If you’re a younger developer perhaps you’re hanging with your friends. you don’t see the whole rainbow of developers and possibly forget that some exist. You think that older developers don’t exist because they are “out of sight, out of mind”.
Into Management
Inevitably some crack developers are put onto a people management path. They start spending more time with people than with technology and move to being a coding manager.
I think it’s a shame that as an industry we don’t pick people with the skills and abilities to be a great manager but often pick the strongest coder. That means some of our veteran coders go to be a manager.
Into Freelance
I used to work with a tech lead who disliked the following (in no particular order)
Management
Managing other people
Meetings
They primarily wanted to code. Yet once they started getting really expensive things started to not work out in their job. Sadly, they couldn’t find another job in the industry, so they became a freelance coder.
Luckily their code quality allowed them to continue making a good living, doing what they love. Unfortunate for the industry, good for them.
Into Product Management
Moving away from hands-on coding, some use their technical background to guide product development from a strategic perspective, ensuring that products meet market needs and technical standards.
Although they stay in technology, they aren’t using their technical skills to the full, and this is a rather major loss for the industry.
Move out of the industry
Programmers sometimes move into parallel careers. This might be teaching; it might be a support operation like a product manager or product owner.
This can happen when the programmer in question wants to leave the world of coding and wishes to move away from the grind that coding can become.
They take their experience and apply it to a new job. This can mean tech companies lose some of the best people and their experience.
One foot in, One foot out. The Unsung Heroes
Not all heroes wear capes, and not all coders stay in the spotlight. Some of our most seasoned developers find a new calling in mentoring, shaping the future of technology one mind at a time. These unsung heroes take their battle scars, lessons learned, and uncounted lines of code to their colleagues and onto online forums.
By nurturing new talent and guiding juniors they ensure their wisdom doesn’t fade away but lives on.
These coders are creating a legacy. While many coders might fade from the front lines, these heroes never truly disappear as they embed themselves in the practices of the future generation.
Conclusion
As an industry, we should remember that wisdom doesn’t expire. We need to keep the best technical talents in the industry and celebrate their enduring impact.
In the world of coding, every line of code tells a story, and every developer has a lesson to share. Now we just need to convince the rest of the industry.