Programmer's values ​​- experience is priceless

When I first thought deeply about my career, I thought all I wanted to do was focus on being a technical wizard. I wonder how far becoming a technical expert for my company will take me. I felt that the role of team leader and manager was not for me. I can't even imagine what it would be like to not be able to code for a day... let alone a few weeks without coding. Over the past few years, I have held on to this belief and resisted what seemed like a natural consequence of career progression.

However, people around me tell me that I am a good leader, that I am good at architecting solutions, and that I bring a lot of valuable experience. So, I started getting into the management side and started leading projects and teams, even though I wasn’t keen on it at first. However, the more I thought about doing it, the more I realized that I didn’t actually hate it as much as I thought. In fact, I enjoyed it. I enjoy helping others, making technical decisions, mentoring colleagues, and leading development projects and teams. Now, I not only accept it calmly, but also feel great fun and satisfaction from it.

… As each year passes, you’ll find yourself competing harder and harder against developers who are fresh out of school.

Over the past few years, I’ve come to terms with something I’ve always been reluctant to admit… As each year goes by, you find yourself competing more and more with developers who are fresh out of school. The harder it gets. And it is more difficult to compete with the new generation of programmers, because unlike our generation, they grew up in an environment where computers have become widely popular. Some developers who grew up in this way even started programming when they were still in elementary school. Recently, I was speaking to a group of middle school students who had started a coding club of their own, and I was truly impressed by what they knew about computer programming and the types of questions they asked. I still remember that I got my first computer when I was a freshman in college!

Later in my career, it became clear to me that my value proposition had changed... and it had to change. In the past, my position was to write code, and I would type on the keyboard and write code all day long. Now, however, I am positioning myself more on experience. I have almost 20 years of professional software development experience. During this long period of time, I did write some cool stuff, and I learned a lot of new and interesting tools, techniques, and techniques... but that doesn't really matter.

I always thought that focusing on tools, technology and processes was the right choice, but I didn’t know that I had gone further and further down this wrong path. In the end, I discovered... In fact, value has nothing to do with technology.

What I did in the past, and what I saw others doing, were actually in the wrong direction regarding the emphasis on value. I always thought that focusing on tools, technology and processes was the right choice, but I didn’t know that I had gone further and further down this wrong path. In the end, I discovered that... value actually has nothing to do with technology.

I found that not all eye-catching and novel things are suitable for you, your team, and your project... Even if the articles you read state that new things are OK. However, did you know that most of the time, the authors of these books only talk about some ideal paths and do not cover more difficult use cases and scenarios. Perhaps the subsequent deployment, support, and maintenance will be less than ideal. Perhaps the maintenance team is not ready to implement this particular technology, tool, and process. Perhaps this maintenance cost will exceed the customer's budget. All this experience and insight is extremely valuable, both for projects and for clients and employers.

...After reaching a certain limit, if you can only write code, your bargaining chips for higher salary will become less and less.

At the same time, I found that after reaching a certain limit, if you can only write code, then your bargaining chips for higher salary will become less and less. Once you reach the limit of what your company is willing to pay for a job like writing code, it's hard to go beyond that. In the eyes of employers, as long as they pay three-quarters of the salary of mid- to high-level developers and senior developers, the former can do the same things as the latter. Therefore, you have to stand out from many programmers from the perspective of experience and become irreplaceable. Project management, architecture, and leadership skills will not only set you apart from other developers, but also give you more justification and confidence when negotiating salary.

As my career has progressed, I have become someone who enjoys answering questions, developing architectural solutions, and leading development teams. I'm no longer hanging on the coding tree. That's not to say I don't like coding. It’s just that, having been writing code for nearly twenty years, I’m ready for new challenges. I found that I enjoyed my new role more than I thought, and I often wonder if I had listened to the advice of those who urged me to change directions.

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