Thirty years old: Career Development of programmers

The "30-year-old phenomenon" must first find the cause from the programmer. The simpler the skill required by a profession, the higher the reliance on energy, the easier it will be to be eliminated. The computer industry is an industry that requires a high degree of accumulation. It usually takes more than five years to get out of the road. However, the practical knowledge accumulated by many software developers over the past five years is very limited. It is not a high-tech thing, so it is easy for young people to surpass it. In addition, the current social environment and public opinion orientation often make these people focus too much on the operation layer, for example, whether they will use a programming language. However, the knowledge at the operation layer is endless. In addition to exhausting and coping with the results of excessive pursuit, the higher level of knowledge and technology that truly can be called core competitiveness are often lacking, of course, the result can only be waiting for elimination.
Important causes of the "30-year-old problem: companies do not pay much attention to the programmer's development plan and programmers do not know the direction of their development. The "30-year-old problem" is not a stage of psychological and physiological problems like menopause, therefore, it is caused by many reasons. First of all, the software environment in mainland China is not mature. Most software companies are pursuing short-term benefits, which is reflected in the limitation of 30 years for talent recruitment. Moreover, it is difficult for the company to plan the development of programmers. A friend named Zhang Jun said: "I have worked in more than 10 IT enterprises, and none of them really care about their career plans, of course, no one has combined the company's development plan with the employee's personal career plan." My friends who work for a software company in Germany are also sorry to mention that their company does not have any guidance in this regard. Most companies simply finish working by teaching developers, there is no long-term plan for employee education and training. In this case, it is difficult for programmers to closely integrate their own development with the company's development. Many people think that their company's management is zero. □however, they only observe the attendance system, divide several modules for each person, and develop according to the software engineering routine. There are no ideas, no norms, and nothing else. Even if some people are able to work as low-level supervisors, they are often influenced by project progress, customer requirements, and other situations. They cannot take their own responsibilities from a technical perspective, after a period of time, we will gradually lose our pursuit of advanced technologies, and then gradually fear the rapid development of technologies. I found that some software companies have very few considerations in this regard, and there is also a lack of senior engineers (in foreign countries, senior engineers can enjoy the treatment of vice president, as well as a lot of decision-making power for products) such a level-based position, programmers over 30 years old lack of development space. As a result, programmers are very mobile, and at the same time, they have to change jobs to give themselves a new position and a high degree of view.

The major cause of the "30-year-old problem" is that few people have a clear and steadfast goal. Many people I have come to know are not saying, "Alas, confuse yourself !" That is to say: "I want to be a millionaire !"

In my personal opinion, when I was in my twenties, I just graduated and few people were able to have a clear and steadfast goal. Many people I have come into contact with did not say, "Alas, confuse me !" That is to say: "I want to be a millionaire !". In this kind of self-hypnosis without considering the actual situation, we lost our way. Once we reach the age of 30, if we still cannot determine the direction of our development, we will sigh "what else can we do after the age of 30. Some may be "lucky". After a while, when the qualifications or funds are sufficient, the idea of "don't work for others" always comes out on your own, as a result, small workshop software companies with Chinese characteristics are constantly emerging. Of course, we cannot simply attribute this phenomenon to the word "impetuous". In addition to personal factors, the inmaturity of the overall development environment of programmers also leads to the increasing phenomenon.

An important way to solve the "30-year-old problem" is to provide technical levels for programmers within the company and develop career development plans for programmers according to their own wishes to analyze the causes of the problem, it is not difficult to find a solution. We know that the management level is a pyramid structure. The higher the job, the fewer people can do it. If the programmer can develop in management, so there are a lot of restrictions. It also makes the development of programmers unable to maintain a continuity. Because in the position-level organizational structure,
People usually tend to rise to a position they are not competent for, coupled with the prevalence of personal interests, leading to various problems. The boss has the boss's strategy and the employee has the tactics to work. The question is that these ideas differ too much, and both sides seldom think about each other. Sun Tzu said: "Upper and Lower are the same as those who want to win ". For enterprise management, it is the most difficult to achieve the "same desire for going up and down", but it is also the most critical. Therefore, for the development of programmers, the first thing is to solve the problem of the organizational structure. When talking about the development of programmers, Chen lingsheng, general manager of Motorola's China Software Center, told reporters that Motorola was not "30 years old" because the company provided two ways for the development of technical staff, one is technology and the other is management. And the two aspects are at the same level. The technical level can also be very high, as to how high it is, Chen lingsheng said: "from a technical perspective, we can be senior vice president (VP )." In addition, youli software also provides software developers with a similar development plan-adopting a technical level. The development direction of the developers of youli company:

In China's tradition, if I am a boss, my salary will be higher than the employees below, and my technology will be better than the employees below to manage the employees below. But this is not the case outside China. Chen lingsheng stressed that in Motorola, many technical personnel may have a higher technical level than their superiors, but he still needs to be managed by his boss. This is a culture, foreign software companies generally accept this culture. In Motorola, we don't have to be a boss. Some people have been a small boss for a year and find that they are not suitable for management work. Instead, they hope to develop in the technical field. However, in China, it is still necessary to accept this culture.
Time.

In the development of programmers, personal willingness is very important. Chen lingsheng said: "The direction of technical staff development in Motorola is not defined by the company, but a personal requirement. Every year, Motorola employees have to talk to their boss four times. The theme is personal performance, development planning, and development requirements. In line with the company's overall interests, the company will provide more opportunities to promote personal growth, including various training and corresponding support ." I personally feel that the programmer group is lacking in communication and expression, so here we should also remind our readers that development is in our own hands, make sure to put forward your own requirements and development plans. An individual's career development plan should be his/her own business. It is by no means the company's responsibility. Company □helps you achieve your career development in line with the company's overall interests
Plan.

So in what direction? In fact, software development involves many aspects and is a system engineering. coding □is a very small part. Developers at all levels include the underlying coding and system design. For example, just like a construction site, after a small engineer has been working for a long time, he may understand the drawings and then gradually design them. That is to say, his technical level has been improved. In addition, it is also like in the clothing factory, there are designers, there are cutting divisions, there are also women who finally sew. For a designer, he can also sew his clothes, but his main focus is on design. This is a matter of hierarchy. Programmers themselves need to have a full understanding of this, in order to have a clear understanding of their own development.

Chen lingsheng also said, "in a well-developed Company, it should be the company that has created an environment for development, and individuals have fully put forward their own requirements. Regardless of the technology, management, and product development direction, programmers must be able to recognize their own shortcomings and restrain their impetuous emotions, so as not to let some external things lose themselves ."

The final solution to the problem: the professionalism of professional programmers and programmers from a deeper perspective, the core of all these problems is the inmaturity of professional programmers. Software companies and developers do not regard programmers as career but work. At present, programmers in China usually consider technical capabilities rather than comprehensive professional qualities. This is in line with the late start of the domestic software industry, lack of industrialization environment and conditions, where the software enterprises themselves are struggling to survive. Under such circumstances, the professionalism of programmers is impossible to talk about. What is the saying is that there is no such thing as skin. However, in recent years, the environment and external conditions of the software industry have been greatly improved, and the rapid development and sustainable development of software enterprises have become more and more promising. In this way, the professionalism of programmers becomes the external requirements and pressure, and also the demand and motivation for programmers to pursue their own development.

What are the requirements for the professional development of programmers? Chen lingsheng of Motorola's software center mentioned the following points: first, the most fundamental thing is to improve your basic skills, write less program errors, learn more solidly, and cannot be impetuous (I don't want to do this, that does not want to do). In the first few years, I learned Software Engineering well. The second point is to constantly learn. In the field of technology that you want to develop, you need to change from a preliminary understanding to a corresponding expert, so that you can understand the development of the technology field as a whole. The third point is to learn to innovate, because if you stick to your own fields without innovation, you may be eliminated. For the entire software industry, the professionalism of programmers is also a top priority, because □a group of high-quality professional programmers have been trained from the height of the industry, in order to truly drive the development of the software industry.

Based on this, we believe that we need to strengthen the following aspects: 1. Professional education training for programmers and re-education training: based on the current situation of software development in China, the ideas and technologies passed to software developers. In addition, we need to promote our own experience based on our national conditions. For example, if a company has its own experience in using a tool, we should take it out, train others to understand and use these tools to drive the accumulation of the entire industry. 2. Strengthen the publishing industry for programmers: this is also a necessary condition and development trend for the industrialization of programmers, because newspapers, magazines, networks, and other media can drive the exchange of ideas and technologies in the industry, in this way, the rapid development of China's software industry and international software industry can be met. 3. Professional Consulting: The constantly upgraded development platform and language have led many programmers to lose their way while following them, developers of the DOS platform cannot find their own location in the development of the Windows platform, and the Windows development experts cannot adapt to the technical development of network development. In fact, not because these people cannot accept new technologies, but because the technical staff cannot communicate with more experts due to the limitations of small companies, workshops, and teams, in the face of new technologies, □we can study it alone to make slow progress. On the one hand, many programmers are still repeating their previous problems while on the other hand, some experts have their own experience and lessons, but cannot find a proper way to tell the future. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage professional consultants, and the rise of the consulting industry will also provide a good direction for the development of programmers. In fact, looking at the development of foreign countries, because they have a set of systematic consulting institutions, when there is a new technology, □ask him to be able to understand the essence of the new technology from experts, then, with strong communication service support, we can quickly adapt to the development of new technologies.
Bai Ling believes that for a 30-Year-Old programmer, it is more important to have a "working with others" team spirit and accumulated experience in a certain field. She believes that the following five ways are good "maintenance methods": first, we will switch from the technical field to the management position, and use our accumulated experience to manage and lead the team to achieve smooth transformation; second, the number of technical posts is constantly rising, and programmers are moving closer to technical experts. Third, looking for industry support, technology changes are changing with each passing day, however, the industry's requirements for technical applications are relatively stable, and the change cycle is not very fast. A software talent who understands both technology and a certain industry still has great room for expansion; fourth, cross-region development. Beijing and Shanghai may be at the forefront of technological innovation. However, there may be a time difference in technical applications in some second-tier cities, cross-region development can make full use of the comparative advantages of the original technology. Fifth, relying on years of accumulated technical experience and customer resources, it is not a good way to be a small owner.
Being "Thirty-Thirty" is not applicable to programmers. On the contrary, being 30 years old should be a watershed for programmers to break through. Of course, to make such a change, we also need to have ideas, preparation, and goals. With the maturity of China's software industry and programmer professionalism, the "30-year-old problem" is no longer a problem.