「龙腾网」软件开发在35-40岁之后真的是没有前途的工作吗

正文翻译

Is software development really a dead-end job after age 35-40?

软件开发在35-40岁之后真的是没有前途的工作吗?

评论翻译
Steven Ussery
I am a 65-year-old software engineer who has worked for Apple, Adobe, eBay, Microsoft, VMware, Cisco, FileMaker, XO Communications, 2Wire, Egnyte, Nexsan, and two other start-ups. I have been laid off five times in my career. I always find another job within 3 to 4 weeks — even during a recession. I have had my job outsourced to India or China four times: especially in the last eight years. Nonetheless, there is always another employment opportunity waiting afterwards.
I love what I do. I’m still doing it; and, I have no immediate plans to stop doing it. Moreover, I am good at it. That’s not so much because I am a genius but rather because I have been doing software development for a really long time and I learned from my mistakes. In fact, there is no wide-spread computer language I can’t program in. Nor is there any OS platform I am not comfortable working on. And, besides the U.S., I have also worked overseas in Apple’s factories in China and Ireland. Besides English, I’ve learned to speak (poorly) Spanish and Italian, and I can manage about a ten phrases in Mandarin.
I have managed to do all this while successfully being married for 40 years, raised two adult children (one who is a Netflix software engineer), and I now have five grandchildren. According to the last Social Security report I receive annually from the government, my total lifetime income to date is: $3,042,040;

我是一名65岁的软件工程师，曾为苹果、Adobe、eBay、微软、VMware、思科、FileMaker、XO Communications、2Wire、Egnyte、Nexsan和其他两家初创公司工作。在我的职业生涯中，我被解雇了五次。不过我总是在3到4周内找到另一份工作——即使是在经济衰退期间也是如此。我曾四次将工作外包给印度或中国：尤其是在过去八年里。尽管如此，之后总会有另一个就业机会等着我。
我喜欢我做的事，我仍在做；而且，我没有立即停止此类工作的计划。而且，我很擅长。这并不是因为我是天才，而是因为我从事软件开发已经很长时间了，我从错误中吸取了教训。事实上，没有一种广泛传播的计算机语言是我不能编写程序的。也没有任何操作系统平台让我为其工作时会感到不适应。而且，除了美国，我还曾在中国和爱尔兰的苹果工厂工作。除了英语，我还学会了西班牙语和意大利语（说得不好），我能用普通话说大约10个短语。
我成功地做到了这一切，同时成功地维持婚姻40年，养育了两个子女到成年（其中一个是Netflix软件工程师），现在我有五个孙子。根据我每年从政府收到的最后一份社会保障报告，到目前为止，我至今取得的收入总额是:3,042,040美元。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Having said all this, it is very much true that age discrimination and outsourcing is rampant in the Silicon Valley. Before age 45, I had a better than average chance of getting a job after a single interview. Now, at age 64, it takes me about ten interviews before I get the next job. Even then I sometimes have to work as a contractor without benefits. And, I have even learned to tolerate being interviewed by arrogant and entitled young preppies, most whom think they are somehow better than me even though they haven’t accomplished one tenth of what I have, nor have my superb academic credentials. (I have a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a M.S. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University — the latter at the top of my class.)
So, the answer to your question is: NO, software development is most certainly not a dead end job! It is a great job. Does it get tougher to get your next job as you get older? Oh hell yes. But, so what! If you love it as I do nothing but death or poor health can stop you. All it takes is a determination.
Never give up!

说了这么多，年龄歧视和外包在硅谷很普遍，这是千真万确的。在45岁之前，我在一次面试后获得工作的机会高于平均水平。现在，在我64岁的时候，在我得到下一份工作之前，我需要大约十次面试。即使这样，我有时也不得不做一个没有福利的承包商。我甚至学会了容忍那些傲慢自大、自命不凡的年轻预科生们面试我，他们中的大多数人认为他们在某种程度上比我优秀，尽管他们所取得的成就还不到我的十分之一，学历也没有我耀眼。（我拥有德州农工大学的土木工程学士学位和计算机科学硕士学位，读后者时的成绩在我的班上名列前茅。）
所以，你的问题的答案是：不，软件开发肯定不是一份没有出路的工作！这是一份很棒的工作。随着年龄的增长，找到下一份工作会变得更难吗？哦，见鬼，是的。但是，那又怎样！如果你像我一样爱它，只有死亡或健康不佳可以阻止你—只要有决心。
永不放弃！
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Connor Stricklan
A software developer I know recently got a call from a recruiter at Google, asking what it would take for him to come to work for them.
This developer had actually already worked for Google, but he left about five years ago to pursue other projects, and he didn’t want to live in one of the cities that have a Google office. Even though he didn’t have a degree in computer science and never took a college course in OOP, he must have impressed them enough to keep him on the recruitment list these years later. The recruiter suggested maybe he could be interested in interviewing with the Project Loon team in Singapore.
He gave a little chuckle to the recruiter over the phone, and his first question was: You know how old I am, right? The recruiter confirmed that yes, his date of birth was on file, and that Google didn’t factor age into its recruitment policies. The developer agreed to think about the prospect and they agreed to touch base again in a week.
That 66-year-old developer is my father. He is collecting social security while being courted by Google. He had a fulfilling career running his own company, consulting, and being an employee. He made contributions during the early stages of numerous technologies such as TCP networking, USB protocols, 802.11b implementation, and military GPS. Then he was hired by Google in 2008, when he was 58.
While at Google, he wrote software in Java, a language that wasn’t even invented until he was 45. And he was an individual contributor, without having any other engineer report to him.
One of the great things about software development is it’s all about your passion to learn and ability to perform, which is demonstrated by my dad’s career and the careers of thousands others. If you don’t have those required ingredients, then sure, software development is a dead-end job at any age. But if you have the passion and skill, then it is not a dead-end job after 40, 50, or even 60.

我认识的一位软件开发人员最近接到谷歌招聘人员的电话，询问他需要什么条件才能为他们工作。
这位开发者实际上已经为谷歌工作过，但他在大约五年前离开了谷歌，开始从事其他项目，他不想住在一个有谷歌办公室的城市。尽管他没有计算机科学学位，也从未上过面向对象编程的大学课程，但他一定给他们留下了深刻的印象，以至于多年后他仍在招募名单上。招聘人员表示他可能有兴趣与新加坡的龙计划团队进行面试。
他在电话里咯咯地笑了笑，第一个问题是：你知道我多大了吧？招聘人员证实，知道，他的出生日期已存档，谷歌没有将年龄因素纳入其招聘政策。开发商同意考虑前景，他们同意在一周内再次联系。
那个66岁的开发者是我的父亲。他一边领取社会保障，一边被谷歌追捧。他有一个充实的职业生涯，经营自己的公司，提供咨询，并成为一名员工。他在许多技术的早期阶段做出了贡献，如TCP网络、USB协议、802.11b实现和军用GPS。2008年，58岁的他被谷歌聘用。
在谷歌工作期间，他用Java编写软件，Java是一种直到他45岁时才发明出的语言。他是一名独立贡献者，没有任何其他工程师向他报告。
软件开发的伟大之处之一就是你对学习的热情和执行的能力，我父亲的职业生涯和成千上万其他人的职业生涯都证明了这一点。如果你没有这些必要的素质，那么软件开发在任何年龄都是一分没有出路的工作。但是如果你有激情和技能，那么在40岁、50岁甚至60岁之后，这都不是一份没有出路的工作。