The words written in the front

The team in charge developed well last year and needs to be expanded. There are two recruitment positions, one for senior level and the other for intermediate level, both of which are Java technology system. Although I am working from home recently, I am still pushing ahead with the recruitment plan as planned. What I need to do is to dig out talents and conduct technical interviews to pass the first hurdle.

However, during the recruitment process, I met some people and heard some things that made me feel differently about the “crisis in the middle of programmers”, so I decided to write it down and share it with everyone.

The origin of midlife crisis

In fact, the middle crisis is not exclusive to programmers, because people to middle age, there are old and young, and has passed the youth, no matter how to say, how to compare, middle age is the biggest stage of life, both men and women.

Take myself as an example. I am over 30 years old, married, both husband and wife are working, have a child to go to kindergarten, both parents are in the countryside, and are approaching 60 years old.

Daily expenses mainly include:

• Mortgage: when buying a house, only 30% down payment (in fact, their own time is not enough, also borrowed a lot), monthly for 30 years;
• Car: when the child was born, considering the actual needs, bought a car, very ordinary kind, car loan has been paid off, mainly car maintenance costs, parking space is also rented, but the second-tier city is still good;
• Special living expenses: baby milk powder, fruit, you know…
• Others: Related to food, clothing, housing and transportation, no extravagance and waste.

Long-term expenditures mainly include:

• House purchase fund: their parents in other places, far away, long-term plan to buy a small house for parents to live in retirement;
• Pension fund: both parents do not work, there will be no pension, although the parents are still working to earn money, but as children, or to consider filial piety.
• Others: I don’t have any other big items yet, but I plan to have some extra money every year to put away for emergency use. It’s not easy to borrow money these days, and even if you can, the pressure is not small.

Looking at the above expenses, I think there are many middle-aged friends are very similar. Whether in developed first-tier cities, second-tier cities, third-tier cities, or even small counties, the local consumption level determines the income level, no matter what industry you are engaged in, the middle-aged generation will be the same.

Don’t want to be ok, occasionally when I think of it is really a pear quite big, and even sleepless at night…

Programmer’s midlife crisis

Programmers are also a very special group. After the Internet era, their development is getting hotter and hotter, but they are also facing more and more challenges.

Unlike other industries, programmers are both mentally and physically demanding (everyone agrees??). This is especially true for high-income groups, with the exception of the individual nouveau riche, who have become financially free.

In addition, the technology of programmers is updated quickly, and the accumulated experience will be out of date quickly, sometimes in three or five years, or even ten years. Unlike other traditional industries, the longer they work, the higher the value of experience. Even when they become “masters”, they need to keep pace with The Times and learn new technologies, or they will be eliminated by The Times.

Fellow middle-aged friends, should have a deep experience of it. If you haven’t felt it yet, congratulations, you are one of the lucky ones who didn’t have to work as hard as everyone else to cope with the so-called “midlife crisis”.

Although busy with work at ordinary times, but will also take time to exercise, for fear of their physical condition problems, this period really can not drop the chain.

How to survive safely

The “iron rice bowl” era has passed, many traditional industries are in transition, not to mention the emerging Internet & software industry? Therefore, there is no such thing as being safe all the time. We need to constantly improve our abilities in all aspects. Only when our abilities are developing, can we be relatively safe.

A chestnut: a + 15 years programming experience bosses, B company about two years, has been with the technical team to create the company’s core products, is one of the backbone, recently because of being late for work, fired by the boss, the reason is very simple, the tight project, many people are late, not to play a leading role, instead of dragging, for the sake of the company long-term development…

Being late is not the actual reason, as anyone can see.

In the recruitment process, I also met several friends who had worked for more than ten years and had a lot of experience, but I was passed in the end. In fact, it is not really not up to the job requirements, the main reason is because of the serious mismatch between years of work and experience. In other words, why hire a 10-year guy when you can hire a five-year guy? If it is really good, it is also very good to recruit, you can take everyone with you.

Career paths for programmers

A long time ago, I have always believed that programmers can work for a lifetime, because the first employer is a software company transformed from the traditional industry, the domestic is also a large factory, more than 20 years of predecessors, because of their existence, strengthened my confidence.

Later, because I wanted to see the wonderful world outside, I got out and joined a promising startup company, and my personal development was good.

However, in the recent recruitment process, I met a lot of middle-aged friends and learned about them, which made me reconsider whether my programmer career can last forever.

One: When I recommended a resume with 17 years of programming experience to another team, the response was “Over 35, is that really impressive? Especially excellent can consider…”

In fact, in the large circle of programmers, there are a lot of foreign bigwigs are in the job all their lives, because China started late, and because of the relationship of encouraging competition, resulting in the development of the whole industry is not as smooth as foreign countries. Still, many of those who have come before have devoted their lives to completing their career as programmers.

But can you really do it all your life?

conclusion

“In the Yangtze River, waves behind push on those in front, and those in front die on the sand.”

There are still at least three decades left after the age of 35, which is a long time to think about. Instead of wondering about the future, it is better to think about how to do the job at hand well, such as promotion, salary and knowledge, which is the most realistic career goal, don’t you think?