Is programming a career dead end?

Do you like to program? Then do not dream about the position of CEO, unless you start your own business, and even then, management will most likely push coding out of your life.

In most companies, as long as you write code, you have a limited number of promotions. Usually these are positions from junior to team lead. Perhaps you will get the position of architect, but most often, architects do not write code.

If you decide to switch to managers, then all roads are open for you. The former CEO of the company I work for started as a programmer 25 years ago, 10 years later switched to management, and went all the way to the CEO of a four billionth company. Not so long ago, he retired with a mansion, cars and no worries. In the meantime, I work with people who started with him and who are still just leading software engineers.

Not fair? Maybe, but if you really like programming, you have a decent salary, you like your job - do you need constant upgrades? The problem is that no matter how strong you are in programming, you won’t get as much as ordinary managers do. Maybe you should give up and become a manager?

My former leader was a programmer for 15 years, before he assembled our group 5 years ago. When the group formed and began to work successfully, he occasionally fixed minor bugs, and made non-critical changes in the code, just because everyone else was busy, but he never seriously programmed again. In the end, he went further, received the position of Vice President in a well-known company in another state, with much greater responsibility, significance and, of course, salary. Now there is almost nothing left of our group, and most of us have already moved, or are only just going to the same job, with the same salary.

Of course, maybe you are very lucky, and you work as a programmer, with a huge salary, but you must admit, this is very rare. I think people working at Google and other large companies have much higher salaries than the average programmer, but these salaries are still limited, unlike what managers have.
Another rare example is my neighbor, who worked at several startups. And they all failed until he came to the one that shot, enriching him with $ 12 million. Now he works as a programmer for a penny, simply because he likes to program, and does not need money and additional responsibility.

Over the course of my career, I have more than once experienced the bitter taste of management. In the first startup in my life, I was a team leader, but I also worked in the press, investors, hiring people, marketing, and much more. This was an incredible amount of time, and programming was very rare. In the second startup, I was a product manager, so programming did not work at all. After that, I promised myself to do only my favorite thing!

On the other hand, my sister started as a programmer in her company, but after half a year, she became a manager. Now she is one of the most important Vice Presidents of the company. And again, all paths are open if you leave programming. But if you, like me, like to program, remember, you will not go up the career ladder. It sounds silly, but you have a choice between doing your favorite thing and making good money by doing something else. For some, the best choice is to start your own company. For someone, turn a career in the other direction, leaving programming. For me, programming is what I want to do, but you need to be realistic.

Whatever you do, you must find a balance between doing your favorite job and earning enough money for a comfortable life for your family. And often, this is a very difficult choice.