IBM General architect Covendon on Programmer's career planning

Some young programmers ask me, how can I go on the way to the future? As the saying goes, all roads pass through Rome. Different ways can be successful, in the end choose which road, depending on their interests. Maybe a programmer would ask: what if you haven't found your interest yet? My advice is to try harder, and that's the only way to get a career. When you have accumulated a certain amount of technology and experience, you will face a variety of options. Which route to choose, varies from person to person. Common roads are as follows:

　　Expert programmer

If you are interested in one or more of these technologies and can continue to delve into them, you can gradually grow into an expert programmer After a certain period of accumulation. Expert programmers have mastered the expertise of the professional skills of non-general programmers can, and to the common problems in their hands can be solved, it can be said that such experts "the older the more valuable." But such experts also have a certain risk: as experience increases and age increases, these people will pay more and more, and when companies change their technical routes without the expertise of expert programmers, or if they want to reduce the cost of doing things, they may face unemployment or other job-seeking situations.

Senior Training Specialist

The senior training expert is also a good development direction. To become a training expert, not only need deep technical skills, but also have excellent communication and expression skills, because their main work is not to develop a certain technology, but the dissemination of technical knowledge. This road is very wide, some excellent technical trainers in addition to the job, but also part-time to the university lectures. Although training experts may not be able to meet the level of expert programmers, the work content is relatively richer and more people are contacted.

Technical Director

Becoming the company's technical director is a dream for many programmers. This route was developed from a junior programmer to a senior programmer, focused on doing the project, then developing into a project manager, a development manager, and eventually becoming a technical director and even a vice president of the company. These programmers go to the technical management line, starting from the project, gradually accumulate management experience, and then grow into a good technical manager. The technical director has an extraordinary influence in the company and even in the technology world, and is a big temptation for programmers who are interested in becoming the leader of the company. But the power and the number of people, it means more pressure, technical director not only to maintain sensitivity to new technologies, but also to take the energy to do management. The road may be tougher than being a pure technical expert.

General architect, chief architect

There are also some programmers who are the end point of career development is the total architect, master Designer. The interest of such programmers is not a particular technology, but rather a preference for the design of software products or software application projects. If the software project development team is likened to a band, then the programmer is the equivalent of a musician who is responsible for playing the instrument, the project manager is the conductor of the orchestra, directs and coordinates the band's cooperation, and the architect is the equivalent of the composer. Starting with an architect, you are becoming a senior architect and even a master architect. Like a great composer in history, an outstanding architect can compose melodic "tunes" in a variety of software.

The ideal of Entrepreneurship

Other programmers with the ideal of entrepreneurship, wait until they have a certain technical accumulation, and then master some of the market demand and management methods, they will start the road to entrepreneurship. Once successful, such people will be very influential, such as Google and Yahoo's founders, are a success model of technology entrepreneurship. But this road is also the most arduous, there is a word called "improper home do not know rice expensive", not personally entrepreneurial people also difficult to understand his hardships. Entrepreneurship involves all aspects, a little bit wrong will be fall short, to join the entrepreneurial programmer and a lot, but the real success of the few. Stepping on this road requires not only extraordinary courage and boldness, but also perseverance and deep business acumen, coupled with market opportunities, to win the final.

Industry consultant

Many programmers take technical support routes and develop into business-savvy technology and industry consultants. This type of programmer will join the sales team after becoming a senior programmer, directly facing the customer, responsible for the technical aspects of the problem. If a line of pages (such as banking, telecommunications) is very familiar with, over time, become proficient in the industry's technical experts, if for a certain type of solution (such as ERP, CRM, SCM) very good, can develop into a cross-sectoral technical experts.

Several of the routes mentioned above, programmers can choose according to their own interests, but in general, regardless of which path, there is a prerequisite: From the Novice programmer advanced to senior programmers. Because before that, you don't even have the chance to choose. From beginner to advanced, it usually takes 2-5 years, due to differences in personal qualities. We all say that the programmer to endure loneliness and boring, young programmers to customer service impetuous mentality. In the initial stage of career, many people will always feel the mind, when it must be quiet, multi-skilled programmers to ask, slowly familiar with technology, familiar with the development process and industry. Sometimes you feel like you're falling into a knowledge ocean, and it's hard to catch all the strange food around you. So it is more to explore, gradually looking for direction, looking for progress.

The success of advanced programmers does not mean that the future is bright. If you want to learn from beginner to advanced, then from senior to expert, what is needed is to keep trying and sticking to it. This process is much longer than the previous one and usually takes 5-8 years. In this period, because of the previous accumulation, and has achieved certain achievements, people will be more confident, but also more hesitant, there is a problem will often hover in the brain: The future of the road in the end how to go? It is possible to use their own accumulated resources, do more to try, try different roles, different projects, with different customers, long time, will naturally find the most suitable for their development direction.

To sum up, junior programmers and senior programmers are all part of the first stage of a career, and we can call it the Golden Age. This stage of the programmer's age is between 20-35 years old, because young, so is more good at learning, and physical strength, many of the programmers who pass this stage have worked all night experience. In this period, you have a lot of time to learn to improve, for the future career to lay a solid foundation.

And once over 30 years old, both physically and mentally, there will be changes, from 30-40 years to a transition period. At this time the programmer many people have no longer programming and have their own development direction, towards the goal of efforts to make their own achievements.

IBM General architect Covendon on Programmer's career planning