[Baypiggies] career advice?

[Aahz]

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010, R Aubrey wrote:
>
> I could use some career advice: where do people go when they hit
> middle age?

Into programming!  ;-)

Seriously, although I've been programming for more than thirty years,
the job I was hired for a year ago was the first time I've been hired
specifically as a programmer.  I love it.  I also know people who've had
programming careers for decades and haven't stopped at old age (not even
talking about middle age).

> I moved on from programming as a day job almost five years ago, into
> a technologist/architect/evangelist/product management/"whatever
> needs done for the business" kind of role reporting to the general
> manager.  And while I am very glad to have learned a great deal about
> the business side of the software business, now I am sort of stuck in
> not having a clear place to advance to. Time to reboot the career,
> perhaps, but a good part of my problem is figuring out where to look
> for maximum overlap between what I've enjoyed doing and what positions
> are available.

Perhaps part of your problem lies in thinking in terms of "advance"?

I certainly have no interest in advancing.  For the most part, I like
staying a low-level grunt (albeit on the senior side; I am currently
essentially a team lead, for example).  I have no interest in going into
management, and I'm fortunate to be in a position where I'm not pushed
into looking for more lucrative positions.

So my advice is to figure out what makes you unhappy with what you're
currently doing and change that without specifically focusing on
"advancing".  Maybe you'd like to try tech support.  Tech writing?

In fact, are you even unhappy with what you're currently doing or just
feeling an itch that you "ought" to be doing something different?  Maybe
you want to keep doing the same thing but with different people.  If you
like your job but are bored (and given the allusion to working at a
not-tiny company) maybe you can just pick up some other projects or
responsibilities.

Think outside the box!
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"If you don't know what your program is supposed to do, you'd better not
start writing it."  --Dijkstra