ThomaszKrueger

And this has a sort-of easter egg: if you open developer tools in Chrome when at the page, they invite you to apply for developer jobs:

Hi there! Do you want to help build a fast and accessible web experience used by over 300 million people around the world each month? We're hiring people for all sorts of roles. Head on over to http://careerssearch.bbc.co.uk/ (search for "News") to find out more!

Another one is Wawa. They seem to be everywhere now.

And the FAR PASCAL calls as well.

It should be noted that some level of multitasking was achieved with so-called TSRs (terminate and stay resident programs). My preferred utility of course was Sidekick.

I used EAI's analog computers when getting my EE bachelors degree. It was quite interesting, we even had a hybrid model that the professors were scratching their heads to make it work, but the purely analog was great to simulate integrals and such.

American here, can confirm and will admit. Not only that but there is a lot of discouragement for developers to take time off, like a sabbatical, to learn and try new things, or to do consulting or contract work. Being able to count on healthcare equates to being employed. It doesn't suck as badly because there is an overall shortage of talent.

Things are going to be even worse IMO with the new adminstration.

"To get a report, we have to wait two days!"

Who in their right mind would use Hibernate (or any other ORM for that matter) for reporting?

Sadly the story of my current professional life. Rapid expansion first couple of years, two layoffs, now looking for a buyer.

I wonder if there is a larger issue here. I see parallels with sites like StackOverflow - it was fun and productive in the beginning, now there seems to be an army of users and moderators on the ready to shut down questions they don't like for whatever reason.

Not sure if it can be classified as technical debt but I worked at a place that had a very clever and profusely productive architect. As the company grew, some perks available to developers got cut to the point he decided to move on.

From that point on, the architecture froze. It still was possible to continue creating new features on top of it, but I am sure that architect would be able to provide both guidance and new solutions I feel may be needed. No one else picked up his tasks or views, nor was the architect position filled up.

54 here. Will work until drop dead.

Oh I wholeheartedly agree with the last sentence. The best way I found of dealing with that is finding a way of getting in earlier than anyone you care to impress. With some luck they may leave earlier than you so you follow suit. Always give the impression (at least) of being present.

Perception is everything. You don't need to be good, you need to look good. On a tight schedule, deliver what was asked, and only that, even though you know other things are going to be necessary. When asked to estimate, try your best to give the longest you can get away with. Make it look or sound difficult. At the same time, do the hard work by yourself, figure things out on your own.

When asked to account for your time, use the opportunity to be good at creative writing. Give the most flattering and awesome impression about the time you spent.

Being competent is a pride for yourself only, for all others is whatever they want to see. Always act as if you are making less than you should. Act as, not be. Never stay working late, never work on weekends unless you are the one benefiting.

The value you give yourself will be the value people will give you.

54 yo here. Although I have a bachelor's in EE, I have been developing software since the beginning of my career. I am not necessarily nostalgic but I sometimes ponder about the real time assembly I wrote for a Telex switch, or the CHILL code I wrote for a telephony switch. All of it pretty much gone, not being produced anymore. Or the Windows 2 GUI written in C, the multi tier apps in VB6 and Powerbuilder. They are gone too.

However having participated in these projects give me a lot of perspective, and I notice that nowadays I tend to write less and be more thoughtful. I see others here with similar experiences.

Now as for getting old, there is one thing I recommend: get old but never allow yourself to look decrepit. Be always clean, well dressed. Don't complain about your back hurting, or show off the medicines you take. No one likes to be around sickness or weakness, so pretend to be healthy and strong (or try to be, even better). I aim for this reaction - "that guy looks good for his age". This usually helps with ageism, at least in my experience.

That is my experience as well. I have to do my personal development on my own time, buy my own books and pay for my own subscriptions. The other 8 hours if I am not writing code or behaving like I am, things go south pretty quickly.

Yes, that. I always feel managers are pressured to make sure devs are worked 8 hours a day, necessarily or not. As for side projects, it is really hard to keep a flow doing that knowing that at any time you may be given a "real task" or a maintenance issue to work on. Maybe contractors have a different work day since they are paid by the hour to do specific things, but full time always have the issue of nothing to do but not being allowed to go home or work on something to enhance knowledge.

Except that a software engineer has a pretty set salary ceiling and it is much easier to get a side job at night then get a comparable salary raise. The temptation to perform extra work is just too big.

54 yr old here, 32 of experience in programming. Working on a startup, learning something new every day. Never short of offers, grateful for that and for having a rewarding profession.

In Rio some tourists had a pretty harsh reception when they made a turn suggested by Waze.. got riddled with bullets.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/10/05...

Same here. As soon as I say what I make recruiters usually congratulate me on making what I make and won't call me back. So recruiters are only good for run of the mill, entry level folks, not really for highly skilled or specialized developers.

The use of the term Engineer is very unfortunate. In many places (Texas and Florida come to mind) one cannot claim to be or perform the functions of Engineering without being properly licensed and member of a board of professional engineers.

While I appreciate the OP's point of view, I have to say that in my experience once you start making more than you really need your job becomes taking care of that extra money, and the drive to do what took you there in the first place diminishes.

One (like myself) must have a sense of need or urgency to feel compelled to do things such as development. Once the need is gone, so is the will, and I could argue, the thrill.

Same here. Always moved away and up, usually in the 20% range. Thus the importance of always being working on a portable skill.

If you are not interested in learning something new you pretty much deserve to be in a world of hurt. In this business you can stay relevant into your 80's if you never, ever, stop learning and honing your skills. Peaking at 30 is pure BS.

Personal experience here - everything got better when I really started being a dick. I flat out tell them that they can't change reality and things take time; and I will not work extra hours or during the weekend to keep promises I didn't make. I had the same feeling of "when are they going to fire me" but actually it looks I am getting much more respect.

10/10. Electric Engineer turned programmer, never looked back. I get to work on a field for which there is absolutely no regulation, and mobility is very high. I don't get paid as much as a lawyer or a doctor, but neither have their stress level. I pretty much get to the office any time I want and leave any time I want, or not at all if I decided to work from home. I get plenty of time between project cycles, and over 30+ years learned how to establish proper expectation on clients and managers, so it is very rare for me to get in a crunch.

As for dentist, I found mine the best way possible - a coworker's sister studied with this dentist told my friend she wouldn't trust anyone else. Been going to his office ever since.

M'fcking programming. Never failed me.

I read somewhere that the cloud is just someone's else computer. At least in the business I am working with that would never be allowed so if there is a cloud to be had it will be on premises, which may keep these so-called walking dead lumbering for quite some time.

It could, but it would require a compatible budget. Now how many companies that develop software (so I include the myriad of financial, healthcare, etc companies that create their own enterprise software) would do that? For example, take Bloomberg that develops the famous Terminal. How much software engineering is in that product (I can't tell, I never worked for them) but I would guess it is much less than DO-178C. So "acceptable" can mean one thing for the academic community and quite another for the real life companies.