A programmer's career roadmap worth paying attention to to help you clear the fog

Recently I have been thinking about where the path of programmers is. After constant self-torture and substitution, I finally got a picture in the foggy forest, which made me suddenly enlightened. It is better to share happiness with others than to enjoy it alone. Share it:

Glossary

Many terms are used in Figure 1, which are explained here first. Communication will only be smooth if we all speak the same language.

Programmers: Intellectual workers who write code, produce software, and help improve social productivity. It is said that they drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and produce code. They are a group that has gradually emerged since the birth of computers. They are a mixed group, with rich and beautiful people soaring high in the sky and short, ugly and poor people low in the dust. In short, although they are of the same kind, they have all the qualities.

Junior Engineer: An entry-level programmer who entered the IT world with dreams of becoming rich in the IT industry and began his gaming journey of leveling up, killing monsters and seeking upgrades.

Intermediate Engineer: After several years of hard work, he has acquired certain copy and paste skills, mastered a skill such as Taizu Changquan or Luohan Palm, his typing speed has become faster, his eyes have become a little more charming, and he has a deeper understanding of the Zero-One World than a junior engineer.

Senior Engineer: Masters the art of copying and pasting, and has mastered the art of playing with blocks and building buildings on the beach. He can also prescribe medicine for terminally ill code like a quack doctor.

Architect: I firmly believe that technology can make people awesome. I have resisted the hot temptations of all kinds of unconventional methods. After years of seclusion, I finally realized that one gave birth to two, two gave birth to three, and three gave birth to all things. I can now sit down and talk about things and give comments. I feel that I have the qualities of an immortal. It is nice to have an immortal show me the way occasionally.

Technical Expert: He has seen various martial arts schools, and finally on a narrow path on a dark and windy night, he suddenly realized the sword technique of exorcising evil spirits, thus becoming a master of a different martial art, unmatched in his own field.

CTO: The strongest technical person in history? Not necessarily. But one thing is certain: you will be at the top of the world and see all the other mountains. The orthodox CTO specializes in studying various martial arts and seeking the secrets to defeat the enemy in the future. The domestic martial arts world is in chaos, and many CTOs are actually doing odd jobs and management.

Team leader: This is not an official title. In Jianghu Yiwenlu, the team leader is entrusted by the head of the group to lead the raid, just because he has the potential to be a leader and can inspire everyone's fighting power. Although he does not master the ultimate skills such as performance evaluation, it is also a necessary process on the road to management.

Project leader: There are a lot of things to take care of. You have to lead people, lead projects, and maintain good relationships with product managers. Usually, you have to treat all members of the team the same. In short, you do everything. You are doing the work of a project manager, but without a title. It doesn't matter. Once you have led a project well and there is a vacancy for a project manager, you can take over.

Project Manager: This is a formal handyman, and I finally have a title.

Senior Project Manager: Also called Project Group Manager. He moved a stool to stand higher so that he can see the situation of multiple projects in the chaotic world. He usually needs to coordinate this and that, talk to the project manager, comfort the aggrieved heart of the project manager or project leader, and sometimes he will be overwhelmed by the pressure from above.

Department (Project) Director: So, I don’t know what to say. I have started to take care of all kinds of things, evaluate the project development process, formulate various systems such as evaluation, performance, and job levels, or run this project today and chat, run that project tomorrow and chat, the latter is fighting with each other and chatting with myself, and looks like an idle person.

That’s all. I don’t want to say anything else. Because what we want to discuss is the future of programmers…

Where is the road for programmers?

What is framed in Figure 1 is the main theme of programmers.

Programmers are professionals, similar to bricklayers, carpenters, hairdressers, cleaners, etc. They are just one of the myriad divisions of labor in society. There is nothing high-end, nor is there anything short, ugly or poor. They are just a group of people who are swept forward by the rolling torrent in the tide of the times. The so-called being lost in the crowd refers to this.

So, what should I say?

How did you get in?

Have you forgotten why you did this in the first place?

So think about it. There are benefits.

• Some people are for the high salary of programmers
• Some people just want a decent and stable job, not to travel
• Some people are here just for fun and have already decided to leave after two years.
• Some people want to understand the world and try to see if they are suitable.
• Some people just like the world of computers, like a duck in water
• Some people think this business is both professional and mysterious, and it feels great.
• Some people like challenges, because software development feels like a battle every moment, with all kinds of problems coming one after another.
• Some people like to constantly learn new technologies and live for technology, but no other industry requires constant learning like this one.
• Some people like the sense of accomplishment in this business, and the constant little stimulation always makes people climax continuously.
• Some people want to have their own software works
• Some people want to change the world with software. Some people think this is a pure land, where there is little intrigue and deception, and there is no need to spend the rest of your life in the sea. Some people think that the threshold of this industry is low and anyone can try it.
• Some people come to start a war. It feels great to break through other people's defenses.
• Some people come here because half of the IT industry's top people are out.
• …

There are all kinds of reasons, and you must have your own. Right? Your own?

Where to go in the future?

Dick Cowboy's "30,000 Feet":

• Where to fly to? Where to fly to?
• Stupid question
• I'm floating in the sky
• Freedom is powerless

A few days ago, I was reading Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" at a friend's house. The debate on lightness and heaviness at the beginning of the book is very interesting, and seems to have something to do with us. Those who are interested can read it. This book was a must-read for the petty bourgeoisie ten years ago.

The choices you make today determine your path tomorrow.

Those who come here to join in the fun will leave tomorrow. For example, I had a colleague who came to me to resign after working for a while, saying that he was going to go home to work in private finance. Later, he contacted me on QQ and said that he was doing well, and asked me if I wanted to invest.

Some people heard that the IT industry has high salaries, so they eagerly joined, but after working for two or three years, their salary is still only three or two thousand, so they have to leave disappointed. In fact, unless you are a genius, there is no reason to get a high salary from the beginning. Work first, then make money. If you think about money first, it will be difficult to make money. This is probably how programmers and developers work.

I heard that a friend of mine jumped to Huawei and worked until 11 or 12 pm every day. One day, he was finally sick and went home after 9 pm. He was despised by the whole team. But Huawei made a lot of money after three years. The year-end bonus and dividends are equivalent to your annual salary. The key is, can you endure it? Can your wife endure it?

For a while, I felt that my mind was not calm enough, so I bought a few Buddhist scriptures to be influenced by them. I read the Diamond Sutra, the Platform Sutra, the Heart Sutra, and the Ksitigarbha Sutra, but I didn’t finish them. Later, I saw a colleague post a sticky note on her desk:

• When Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva practiced the profound Prajnaparamita, he saw that the five aggregates were empty and transcended all suffering. Shariputra, color is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from color, color is emptiness, emptiness is color, and the same is true of feeling, thought, action, and consciousness. Shariputra, all dharmas are empty in nature, neither born nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing.
• Therefore, in the void there is no form, no feeling, no thought, no consciousness, no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind, no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma, no vision realm, and even no consciousness realm. There is no ignorance, nor is there an end to ignorance, even no old age and death, nor is there an end to old age and death. There is no suffering, no accumulation, no extinction, no path, no wisdom, and no attainment.
• Because there is nothing to be gained, the bodhisattva, relying on the Prajna Paramita, has no worries in his heart. Because there are no worries, there is no fear. He is far away from upside-down dreams and finally attains Nirvana. …

It turns out there are so many people who are restless. Well, I’m not fighting alone, I’m so relieved.

Not long after I saw the passage from the Heart Sutra posted by my female colleague, she left the company. Later, when I wandered around in a bookstore, I found that the books displayed prominently were all written by this Zen master, that Taoist priest, some spiritual practitioner, or Western meditator to save everyone's soul. There were also many chicken soups written by domestic psychological writers. It was really a lot. Only then did I realize that we all have diseases and we can't stop taking medicine.

Is this going too far?

What I want to say is that as a programmer, your mentality determines your future. How you view the work you do, whether you enjoy it, hate it, don't care, love and hate it... these determine how far you will go on this road.

We live in a network of social relationships. You exist because others can see you. This is "The World as Consciousness and Representation". The people you see and the you others see are just what the observer wants to see, not the real person. Although the real person exists objectively, no one can see such a real and complete person, including yourself.

You see what you want to see, he sees what he wants to see, Zhang San sees what Zhang San sees, Li Si sees what Li Si sees... The awareness of you by the people around you constructs you in socialized relationships, but that is only a small part of you. That's all. If others don't know you, you don't exist. In order to exist, you have to appear in front of others, and this is "sense of existence".

So now many people are checking WeChat, Weibo, blogs, forums, and Momo to show their presence, including myself.

You exist only when you let others know you. You exist only when you leave something unforgettable for others.

If you understand this truth, a programmer who truly loves technology and wants to do something in this industry will not care about what others say, such as "software development is a job for young people", "the average life expectancy of programmers is lower than that of ordinary people", "the social status of programmers is lower than that of chickens", "you have to find another way out after you are 30".

As an industry that is no different from other industries, with only a different division of labor, why are there so many opinions? There are many different opinions, all of which are noise. If it is useful, it is not like this, the great sound is silent. In fact, Huang Xiaohu also said in the song "Not That Simple":

• Feeling happy, busy doing this and that
• When you feel tired, just let yourself go
• Just listen to what others say and make your own decision
• I don't want to have too many emotions

Of course you can also think that the whole article is bullshit, it doesn’t matter.

Two main paths for programmers

As Figure 1 clearly shows, there are two main career paths for programmers: technical and management.

There is a very bad tradition in China: those who excel in their studies will become officials.

If you have worked in a technical department for many years but still cannot become a leader, you will be looked down upon. This is also the reason why many people quit the technical channel after working in development for a few years, when they are in their prime and productive.

This is because most leaders follow this routine: "Are you doing a good job? Okay, you can lead people. Are you leading well? Okay, you can be promoted to manager..." Therefore, many people who could have become technical experts were abducted in this way.

There are also some developers who focus on technology and have to take the technical channel.

There was a buddy who worked on CMS and could handle both the front-end and back-end. His boss asked him to lead three people and make him a project manager, but he was not happy about it, saying that he could do it himself and it was a waste of time to manage others. The boss persuaded him to be the project manager, but he didn't care about his friends and didn't assign work to them. When they asked him how to do it, he said, "Don't worry about it, I'll do it."

In the end, one person did more than 80% of the work, and the others were bored. Later, the leader kept talking to this guy and taught him how to be a project manager... Then this guy resigned...

There is another very bad thing about "study hard and get a job": it is generally believed that the salary of a leader is higher than that of a high-tech person. This is also the reason why many talented developers want to go the management route. I want to be a technical person, but you look down on me and don't pay me that much. People around me also think so. I can't keep doing this.

In fact, if you don’t care about the opinions of people around you, working in technology may be a happy path.

Jump out of the three realms

• I mentioned earlier that a colleague went into finance, and there are other stories.
• I used to have a colleague who was a very good programmer and was a senior engineer in the company. But he later quit his job and opened a convenience store.
• A few days ago, a friend of mine told me that he had found a partner and leased some land to do organic farming and grow vegetables...
• There was a girl named Ayuan who sold underwear on Taobao, and later she quit her job...
• There is a monkey who opened a coffee shop called Programmer Coffee...

These are all stories that transcend the three realms. In fact, they are also very common. It is your choice, and you make the decision. If you feel that this industry is not a place for people to stay, and you don’t want to suffer this anymore, then leave. If a job brings you more pain than joy, there is really no need to stay. Really, you must have taken the wrong path.

When I was reading "45 Habits of Highly Effective Programmers", I quoted a Turkish proverb in the first chapter. I wrote it down below for you and for myself.

No matter how far you go, if you make a mistake, you must go back again.