Journal BarbaraHudson's Journal: How many career changes will you make in a lifetime? 11
The idea of "one career for a lifetime" is getting more and more outdated. It's not just that change is now the only constant when it comes to jobs, but also because people are living longer.
When 80% of the population worked on farms, and people died at an average age of 47, the idea of a "lifelong career" was taken for granted. Then again, so was "lifelong marriage", and "following in your folks footsteps."
That last option is impossible for many, because the jobs their parents had just don't exist any more - and this means that the "work culture" they were exposed to second-hand at home also is no longer a useful reference.
Think of how many jobs the post-WW2 technological revolution has created and now is killing off. TV repairmen? Not too many left. VCR and DVD repairs? Forget it. When's the last time your car needed an "electronic tune-up?" Or, thanks to long-life, self-lubricating materials, to have a "chassis lube?" Points changed? Physical newspapers and books? Even Saturday morning cartoons can't compete with "teh innert00bs."
My situation - at a crossroads
After a couple of years away from the keyboard because of damage to my retinas, I was really relieved to find that I could program again. But something has changed. Me. I found myself asking "Do I really want to get back into *that* rat-race again? The crappy hours, impossible demands, sleazy management, and over-the-top hype, the much ado about nothing that seems to accompany everything in the software industry today?"
After I transitioned, I got to see how women are not treated equally first-hand. We'd be sitting in meetings and end up just rolling our eyes as the men went off on yet another pissing contest, totally ignoring our input, even though in many cases I was the programmer who had to fix the problems their virtual circle jerks caused. And people wonder why women drop out of tech after an average of 10 years in the field???
I loved creating software, so it became my career. Do what you enjoy doing, right? But more and more, I cringe at the thought of the poison that accompanies today's "development culture" - the bogus deadlines, the "ship it then (never) fix it" mentality, the juvenile "pissing contests". I have my development environment all set up, and I find myself doing anything but
I've been toying with an idea
Every few years, someone comes along and tells me I should write a book. Sure, I can write, and I've got lots I've always wanted to write, but "life gets in the way." I was thinking of going back into programming to pay the bills, and do the writing on the side, but that's not the entrepreneurial spirit that got me into starting my first business, or into programming. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I can either devote all my energies to one or another - or do a crappy job at both by trying to do both. It's true, just as you can only serve one master, you can only follow your own muse.
And I really should follow my muse.
So, I did my research, did some more thinking, and at this time, for me, changing careers is the right thing to do. I've registered with the government as a publisher, and will be receiving my first batch of ISBNs in the next little while. As you can see from a previous post, I'm not going to engage in the more and more lame "I have an idea for a book/game/software - everybody give me money and I'll create it" crowdsourcing model. It's time to let the internet work for me for a bit, and not vice versa.
Warning: (Score:2)
I'm all for writing a book. But to set financial expectations appropriately, you should read this [wordpress.com] first.
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My financial expectations are exceedingly low :-) And I won't be writing just ONE book ...
Too many people have the idea of "I'm gonna write a best-seller, make a wad of cash, and retire." Isaac Asimov said it best - it's a job. You have to be able to come up with 1,500 words every day before lunch or you're not going to succeed. Me, I know I can consistently pump that out on demand on pretty much any subject, so why not? It's not like there's a shortage of subject material out there :-)
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You mentioned my favorite author. In one of his books he noted that he didn't make a dime on Foundation for ten years; his publisher couldn't afford to market it properly. When Doubleday bought the rights from the previous publisher (I don't remember who it was) it was a hit.
My advice is, write as a hobby. Yes, it will take longer; Nobots took me five years to write. Now that I'm retired I'm doing it full-time, I started writing Mars, Ho! this time last year and am just putting the finishing touches on it.
I
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Thanks for the reply. I *still* love programming, and did all the time I was doing it for a living. It's just the additional baggage that comes with doing it as a job working for someone else, with people who have never programmed making stupid decisions "just because" and when you ask them to give a reason why, they can't - they're going with their gut feelings rather than hard facts or anything tangible.
Or they claim the client now wants a certain feature, and when you talk to the client, it's an outri
Addressing the Trees (Score:2)
To address the trees in your post rather than the forest:
I have two grease fittings on my car (added while my brother owned it). It's funny to point them out at the quick lube places. Really throws off their rhythm. (Usually do my own work on the car, but I've been without workspace for a while.)
Not sure how you would count it, but I'm on at least career number three, maybe as high as five.
The worst pissing contest at my workplace has a woman as one of the participants. She's retired army, so she's probably
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My forest has trees as well :-)
Not sure how you would count it, but I'm on at least career number three, maybe as high as five.
Same here, because the definition of "career" is somewhat flexible. But in my mind, this is the third "real career." I know that if I put half the effort into it that I did into my past endeavors, it will eventually work (but that could be because, as my sisters say, I'm to stubborn/stupid/whatever to quit :-)
The worst pissing contest at my workplace has a woman as one of the participants. She's retired army, so she's probably somewhat atypical.
Must make for an interesting dynamic, because in pissing contests, the usual rules of civility and logic don't seem to apply - it gets personal even if on the surface
How many times will they let you, is the question. (Score:1)
I attempted to make just a technology change, at the midpoint in my career, and I was damn lucky to be given the chance to do so. As 50 approacheth, I don't dare risk even that again.
And good luck being offered a move into management. We already have plenty of managers. I have to keep programming until no one wants me anymore. Because it's all I can do. Really. YMMV, OTOH.
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I have to keep programming until no one wants me anymore. Because it's all I can do. Really.
That's what I thought too. I was even thinking "Heck, is that all there is out there?" when looking at the jobs available. Honestly, I'd rather walk dogs or mow lawns than return to the sort of work environment I was in, because it's all a race to the bottom nowadays, and the only way management can keep their job in IT is to step harder on the necks of the people under them.
The fun is pretty much gone, unless you're scratching your own itch - and that you can do in your spare time.
I was lucky I had a g
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Part of my problem is that I dislike people. Of course I like the people I know; I'm talking people in general. So that kinda limits me to working mostly with machines.
And then there's the issue with my almost complete lack of physical coordination. Which pretty much then limits me to only working with machines that I can work with with my mental dexterity.
And finally, while I've definitely noticed us in this field being treated worse as the decades have progressed, for all I know it's not just an IT thi
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I.T. is bad in part because of the culture of "surviving death marches", being "tough", "manning up". And what is expected has gotten worse over they years, in part because people entering the field are excited by the technology, and blind to predatory work environments.
Other fields are not nearly as bad. I've worked outside the field, and the work environment is more humane, even when you have to on occasion put in long hours - it's appreciated, not presumed. Honestly, I think I'd rather work at a do
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People are stupid and mean. I hate my species with a passion. It's a good thing I have a religion, that puts stipulations on me and things in a context. As an atheist I'd be a bad mofo, and not in a cool way. So working with tons of people, esp. the public in general, is definitely out for me. I can't afford anymore fuel on the fire.
I didn't work in any sweatshops during the dot com era nor know anyone who did. Rich people weren't trying to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of us at the time,