[lug] Career advice

[Michael J. Hammel]

On Wed, 2009-12-30 at 16:47 -0700, Aaron DeWolf wrote:
> What are some career choice I can make? 

Become a software architect.  We have plenty of people who can write
code.  We don't have nearly enough who can define how systems should be
built.  That's because most engineers are terrible communicators.  And
software architects can't afford to be the same.

> Is anyone on this list over 40 and still going strong in their career?

I'd like to think so.  I vaguely remember 40.  Every year I learn
something new.  This past month I dove into visualization of software
security data and distributed virtualization management.  Cool stuff.

>  What is the progression you have made in your career and what are
> your career plans until you retire? Thanks for the info.

Software Test Engineer
Software Support Engineer
Software Developer
Dad
Principle Software Developer / Author

Retire?  Who the heck wants to retire.  This crap is far too much fun.
What I'll do until I don't retire is more of what I'm doing now -
thinking about how new systems should be built and then building them.

I spend much of my time architecting large systems, often in order to
bid on projects for the government.  When we win one, I get to code.
And lead younger engineers into not doing all the dumb things I did when
I was learning.

It's still fun.  The younger crowd has no monopoly on that.  I just wish
I had more time to exercise.  My knees need to unbend. 
-- 
Michael J. Hammel                                    Principal Software Engineer
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org                           http://graphics-muse.org
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