Comment by djb_hackernews | Hacker News Reader

Comment by djb_hackernews | Hacker News Reader

I live in Boston, which is another high cost of living area that prides itself on technology and innovation.

- I am told I am overpaid and life is comfortable but I know I'll be working until normal retirement age and am very concerned about ageism in tech as I get older.

- Very few programmers strike it rich. Probably immeasurable.

- I am told I am overpaid yet I can't afford a single family 3 bedroom home that doesn't need major updates to its systems in the town where my office is or the 6 or 7 surrounding towns. Some people obviously can, but it isn't me or my fellow programmers.

- I'd say no one will become wealthy based on tech salaries alone. Possibly upper middle class if you a) have a partner and b) they make 6 figures.

- I personally don't think our high salaries will last, at least not for as many of us as we currently have. I don't also think our salaries are particularly high especially considering all of the downward pressure on salaries in our industry.

- What will programmers do? This is a good question. The truly smart will skip programming all together and go in to medicine, law and finance where they have professions that protect themselves and/or have a respect for experience. The less smart but clever ones will grind it out in to management where you do find protection and respect for experience and the less smart and less clever will just feel happy they get paid above poverty wages in the US to play with computers all day.

I've consistently read that law is a bad bet these days:

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-20/the-employme...

From everything I've heard about finance, it is a dog-eat-dog world which everyone hates.

And medicine -- well, good news there, residents can now legally not work more than 24-hour shifts (they used to have to do 40).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_resident_work_hours

I chose academia, and although I love my job, and I'll probably get tenured soon, I might end up living the rest of my life in a rather uninspiring town which would otherwise not be my first choice.

I don't want to be sarcastic, or deny that your frustrations are very real. But from everything I read, programmers as a profession have it pretty good. Indeed, if I had it to do over, I would very seriously consider programming.

> I'll probably get tenured soon

That's a bold claim the face of fewer and fewer tenure-track positions being available, universities opting instead for non-tenure-track, full-time faculty. I'm glad you're able to make that claim, but your case is exceptional and not the average.

At least in my discipline, getting a tenure-track position is the hard part; afterwards, it's very typical to get tenure. (The only consistent exceptions that I know of are at absolutely top schools; and tenure-track faculty there often end up moving to slightly less good schools and getting tenured there.)

>your case is exceptional and not the average.

My case is not exceptional; it is merely above average. Certainly I got lucky, but not wildly so. I continue to pay attention to the job market, and it strikes me that people who have done work comparable to mine are, on average, getting positions comparable to mine.

(It is in the humanities that the situation is really dire, and that even the most brilliant people are getting screwed over.)

So aegism is a thing I guess but not if you are good. One of my best guys is north of 55 and man oh man the code he can do and the reviews he can do put a 30 year old on the top of their game to shame.

So if you are good then I think aegism is not such a big deal. But, yeah, it's a concern. If my company folds I'm not sure how easy it would be for me to get a job (I'm 52 and definitely slower than I used to be).

I am told I am overpaid and life is comfortable but I know I'll be working until normal retirement age and am very concerned about ageism in tech as I get older.

That's exactly it.

And it's bullshit, because of the amount of value we generate for our companies--and if we don't, they aren't using us correctly.

"The truly smart will skip programming all together and go in to medicine, law and finance where they have professions that protect themselves and/or have a respect for experience."

Those are the exact professions that tech will kill.

My advice: Do not worry. You're in perhaps the most future proof field.

The truly smart programmers go where the money is. They go work for hedge funds and investment banks, which already pay more than anything Silicon Valley will spit at you, and you have room to grow in your role (less "ageism" as you put it)

I am curious about how a programmer would skip programming and go into medicine, law, or finance. Does this entail going back and getting another degree?

Graduate degree sure.

At least one of my classmates I graduated with (EE) is now a physician. A former (CS) co-worker went on to get an MBA and a Wall St job last time I talked to him and another friend left the software field to become a financial planner. Another got a JD with the intent of specializing in IP law and becoming a patent attorney.

For quite a while, the people I knew who made the most money were techies with MBAs.

Who keeps telling you you are overpaid?

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