Programming as a Career

I studied Electronics Engineering originally but I was captivated more by computers but most specifically programming. I was fascinated by the idea of creating softwares that would be used by many people bringing me a sense of accomplishment and maybe also the thought of a good financial reward.

I self studied programming using only the available books I can find (the internet still wasn’t a thing then-Oops! I’m giving away my age) and eventually I landed programming jobs in a few non-IT companies. I was paid much higher than regular employees. Even back then IT jobs were already being paid higher rates than normal office jobs.

I eventually grew tired of my programming jobs because I was creating softwares I wasn’t particularly interested in. I also saw people I know from other companies specifically those working for IT companies progressing more in their career as they were exposed to the latest software technologies and hence can command higher rates.

I also saw the glass ceiling for working with non-IT companies. You may reach the highest level which is CIO or Chief Information Officer but you will never have a chance of reaching the highest management position in the company. Many fellow programmers I know switch to administration or sales jobs once they realised that programming career advancements are very limited.

Eventually even programmers realise that to really control ones career destiny one needs to be able to dictate by himself which products one wants to sell according to ones own terms. Luckily programming as a business is only brain intensive and not capital intensive. Today one only needs a laptop or a PC and an internet connection to be able to create software code worth money.

One usual complaint I get from fellow programmers is that it is a very demanding job which requires one to always study to be updated with the ever evolving programming softwares and the new ones coming up all the time. I used to feel this way before but having worked in other jobs besides programming my thinking about this changed.

There are also other jobs that require people to continually update their skills like doctors, lawyers and so on otherwise they would become second rate in their respective fields. I have also worked in office administration positions that do not require continuous skills updating but rather relying only on mastering the narrow knowledge required to do their job.

This also changed my concept that programmers have a glass ceiling because they are not exposed to management level tasks and are therefore incapable of running companies. I now know that many employees and not only programmers have a glass ceiling whereas as I have explained before most employees are locked to the narrow task assigned to them by those who control the company.

These realisations brought my interest back to programming especially with the increasing accessibility of programming as a career and as a business. If one for example needs to learn even the most recent programming language chances are one can find online resources that will help him learn even for free.

Most of the popular programming languages one needs to learn to be employed or start a business can be used for free by those who want to learn and make a living from them.

The glass ceiling of programmers can be easily broken by programmers who can start their businesses despite being employed by a company. They can easily work from home and connect with global contacts online with minimal cost unlike many industries that require many physical asset investments to be started.

Many of the richest self-made billionaires today can trace their beginnings to programming. For example the youngest and one of the richest billionaires in the world Mark Zuckerberg programmed FaceBook just from the computer located in his dormitory. Everyday in the news we see a lot of IT startups being created by young entrepreneurs all over the world.

Conclusion

A lot of jobs are being lost to computerisation while the number of software codes continues to increase exponentially and is getting more and more complex. There would be a good demand for programmers just do not get yourself locked in a glass ceiling.