Summary

This article discusses the career paths and roles of programmers as they age, particularly focusing on the challenges and opportunities for those over 50.

Abstract

The article begins by describing the typical career progression in software factories, where programmers are often transitioned into management roles as they age. This is due to the seniority-based salary system and the need for project management and coordination. However, for those who wish to remain in a programming role, the author suggests specializing in a specific field, such as platform engineering or software engineering. This requires acquiring skills beyond just programming, such as design, analysis, and documentation. The author also emphasizes the importance of working for a company that values senior engineers and provides an environment where they can thrive. The article concludes by stating that in the current social environment, there is still room for older programmers to contribute due to their specialized skills.

Bullet points

In software factories, programmers are often transitioned into management roles as they age due to the seniority-based salary system.
To continue working as a programmer even at 50, one needs to have a specialized field and become a specialist.
Specializing in platform engineering or software engineering requires acquiring skills beyond just programming, such as design, analysis, and documentation.
Working for a company that values senior engineers and provides an environment where they can thrive is important.
In the current social environment, there is still room for older programmers to contribute due to their specialized skills.

Programming opinion

When a Programmer Reaches His 50, What Kind of Work He Can Do

This is based on the assumption that this is a typical software factory in a programming society. It is difficult to continue working as a programmer until you are 50.

First of all, from around 30, you are forced to take a job called System Engineer, which is mainly applicable in software factories and can hardly be called an engineer.

We do not do programming or design but rather listen to customers, manage project progress, outsource, manage budgets and man-hours, estimate, and make various arrangements. In other words, he is the on-site supervisor and arranger.

In software factories, it seems these System engineers are called engineers, but that’s aside. You are usually promoted to a management position as you get older, up to 50—a section chief or department head. Even if you are not very good at it, you will probably be able to become a supervisor. And instead of technology, I am made to manage my subordinates' attendance.

In software factories’s seniority-based salary system, wages increase with age, so this is the only course available. They become section managers in their 40s, department managers in their 50s, managers in their 60s, become executives or work as managers, and then retire.

If you stubbornly refuse this promotion course, what will happen if you work for a major company is that you will be transferred to a subsidiary. In small and medium-sized businesses, you must choose between becoming a manager and outsourcing management or being dispatched yourself.

If you don’t want to be in a managerial position, don’t want outsourced management, or don’t like being dispatched, you have no choice but to quit the company. I can’t continue working as an office worker.

Due to the set up of software factories, there are almost no programmers over the age of 50 as ordinary company employees. Of course, in other companies, there are usually software engineers who are senior engineers but have no subordinates and are not in managerial positions.

So, how can you continue to work as a programmer even at 50? First, you need to have a specialized field and become a specialist.

You will not get there if you only write business applications for contract development. After much thought, error, and twists and turns, it turned out to be a platform engineer. Device drivers, OS porting, etc. This software reads hardware drawings, understands the OS architecture, and controls chips.

To go in that direction, we also need to choose a company. You need to look for a small company with a small number of elite people specializing in a specific field who are not bound by software factory tradition and can move freely. It’s a company where everyone from the president down is an engineer.

Alternatively, it could be a venture company or startup with aspirations. Also, the conditions will be even better if it is a foreign company. In the case of the company I worked with, you were given your space separated by a partition. That’s why I could continue working as an office worker and programmer until my 40s.

I’m 40s years old now, but I’m a programmer. I write programs every day. Since I am specialized, I have no problem with my ability. Surprisingly, in this day and age, perhaps because of the aforementioned social environment, there are few young people who have acquired specialized skills, and, ironically, there is still room for older people to play an active role.

An ordinary office worker can't continue working as a programmer even after the age of 40, so I cannot reveal the details. Still, to deceive the world and software factories, we need to come up with one or two ingenuity.

Another skill that will allow you to continue working even after age 50 is to acquire software engineering, not just programming. You need to know design and analysis methods and the skills to perform everything from requirements analysis and design to implementation.

Programmers in their 50s who are considered useless are simply people who can program. In this day and age, if you can’t at least analyze requirements, you can’t be a proper software engineer, and a mere programmer is useless.

In addition, you must be able to write documents that ordinary people can understand. If you acquire the skills to that point and then put in one or two ingenuity to set yourself apart from the average office worker, as I mentioned earlier, you can still be a programmer even in your 50s.

The programmer here is an engineer at that level and is called a software engineer. In the world, such software engineers are not called system engineers. There is no such profession. An actual programmer (software engineer) is different from an SE/PG, as they are called in software factories.

Unfortunately, software factories still cling to seniority and do not have an environment where senior engineers can thrive. If you want to become a relaxed senior engineer, you won’t be able to do it just by working as a casual programmer. It is necessary to explore and devise something consciously.

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