Career Progress

Question

Hi,
I am a 21-year-old programmer. I must say that I used to enjoy my job but lately I do not like it so much! The reason is that I enjoy programming what comes to my mind, and at work that is not so much possible since in my country we usually work on tailored made programmers!! (Nothing to do with companies like Google :)
This week my company hired a new employee � he is around early 50s � and this got me more hate my work!
�Am I going to still be programming at that age?�
Personally when I think of my career I see myself as a programmer only for 2-to-3 years (have been already working for another 2 years now). I hope that after that time I can go up the corporate ladder and get less code to do and more analysis and design!
Lately I also started a B.Sc. course and maybe after that try to get Sun Certified (although from what I hear it seems very hard).
However I do not know what else I would need to do to actually make sure I am good for a promotion! Also I do not know if my expectations are correct!
That is at what age do you think I would be coding less and do analysis and design more? 25? � 30? � 40?
Also do you think that changing companies help in this? I have just changed my company and went from junior programmer to programmer (next step in this company will be senior programmer � with still lots of code, and nearly 2-to-3 years away)
Anyways, thanks for sharing any comments and experience,
Antonio DiLivorno
p.s. I know this is a java forum, I program with Java every day, and this is a very good community where to discuss this in my opinion since here there is a pool of people coming from all over the world and I am sure some of the people here have come across to situations like these!

Answer 1

Hard question, since it is so personal that I wonder whether I should be writing that at all...
All said below is not stated in the way of general principles, it's just my personal opinion.
There are two problems mixed here, so let's separate them:
- You seem not to enjoy your job.
     In this you are the only person who can do something (be it change of the company, though this rarely is the real problem). Doing things you enjoy is very good, but in most of the time you do things that other people want and need (you provide a service, after all, that's what you are paid for). You still can do your job in a way that you enjoy it.
I would not bother with the age of the other employees - as long as they do the job they were hired for they are just colleagues, why care whether they are 18 or 55 years old?
- What to do in order to go higher in the hierarchy and what are the expected time frames for this?
     Again you are the person who can decide most. Learn, progress, do more than is expected whenever you have the possibility to do it. Remember that you are always learning from experience. Papers from completed courses are a good thing, as it is good to read books, articles, forums. But diplomas alone cannot help you a lot (yes, you can get hired more easily if you have a good CV, but if you have no coverage you can as well get fired). Do your best, never give up, learn while you walk, while you travel, whenever possible stick to colleagues at higher positions when they are discussing topics so you become familiar with the tasks and the level.
The rest depends on the company. You can do nothing if the boss had decided to put his man at a position, but if you are skilled, progressive, conscientious and persistent it is unlikely that you will remain unnoticed. This way even if you change the company you will still be good, wherever you go, whatever you do.
And don't read only about technical stuff. Read about management, people relations (employees and just ordinary community relations), collect some financial knowledge. Broaden your view, accept people's differences, etc.
And be consistent, always. Simply be great without thihking you are.
Mike
Wow, what a pile of BS ;)