MARTYHAUGHT

Developer Opportunities, The Rest of the Story

Picking up where we left off, I want to go deeper into the opportunities that you have once you’ve got some meaningful experience. Whether that’s 3 years in different gigs or 10 years, it doesn’t matter. You’re skilled enough to know how to build software on your own and you can now entertain offers from just about anywhere. What do you do? I’ll break this down into two categories — Mid game and end game. What if you’re not at this point in your career? I’ve got a third post that will cover how to get started and get up to this point. Expect that in a few days to a week.

New Education Model

Paul Graham recently wrote about frightening ambitious startup ideas. After reading this I was struck by #3 Replacing Universities. I’ve long wondered how the cost of 4-6 years at a university studying computer science compares to the benefit. I’m pretty sure there’s a better way to teach people to program for considerably less. So given the topic my mind went to work envisioning what would be ideal and here’s what I came up with.

Staying a Developer

Do you need to leave programming to advance your career?

This question came up recently in two places. First, during the Ruby Rogues episode 44, which I was a guest on, James Edward Gray opened the discussion with a related statement. He said that ultimately most developers will want to transition into a content provider (railscasts, peepcode, etc.) and asked me to prove him wrong. Second, tenderlove asked on twitter the other day about career options for developers. The premise of both of these questions is if it’s viable to remain a developer for your entire career and that you must transition to something else. Must you leave programming to advance your career?