Ben Halpern
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Do you know anyone who codes on the side but does not pursue a career in software development or code for their job?
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Top comments (15)
I sadly know hundreds of individuals from under represented populations this description applies to. For many they need to connect to APIs occasionally at work, creating an app, or pull some data from a database every so often but they don't see these tasks as part of a career in software development. Whenever I teach classes I meet people who are learning how to code, but don't see a career in software development as a path that is available to them.
I imagine I'd be part of one of those underrepresented populations. I did pursue a career as a developer, but I've been slowly moving away from that over the last few years.
There has definitely been some discrimination at play before, but my reasons for moving away from it were less racism (which I did face) as much as it was good, old-fashioned parsimony. Being underpaid, constantly reminded of being young and therefore ignorant (yet being an "expert" when it suited them), and the companies' excuses about "hands being tied" while telling me I should be thankful for it is what did it. Sadly, these practices came from other underrepresented groups, too.
At this point, I would say software development is still an available path, but not really a worthwhile one.
Thanks for sharing your story, this sadly happens more than it should. I look about 10 years younger than I actually am and that creates some very interesting scenarios in this regard.
How did you cope with that and the usual problems in the field?
Teaching helps a lot. In my classroom, I get to create the welcoming environment where anyone could build anything that I wish I had in my career.
One of my best friends does this. He's a photographer who has gotten into software development in the past few years to help him with other projects. One item he's pursuing is learning machine learning topics with Python. The other project he has is working with drones. What he does exactly, I'm not too sure. But software development is a means to an end for him to accomplish the tasks that are part of his general interests.
Me.🙌🙌
One of my best friends has a PhD in quantum physics. He's working with lasers all day in a world-wide known lab. In his spare time, he learns to code by himself and is building a tool to create a direct democracy with modern tools. Once in a while, he sends me his PRs so that I review them.
Regarding his level, he could totally enter a web company (he's not an amazing developer, but he definitely has a better level than I had when I got my first IT job), but he is perfectly fine being a scientist. Programming is for him a hobby and a tool to build a better society.
My friend is swag.
We don't know each other personally but Karlie Kloss learned to code and set up a foundation to get girls into coding. She's still a super model AFAIK: cc.com/video-clips/78uxb1/the-dail...
:-D
I used to write code ( a lot of code) as a hobby for a long time. Then decided to change careers and now write code for a living. Why did I do it? It was fun making the computer do what I wanted it to do. Why did I start doing it as a job? Money 😉
Do PMs, managers, or executives count? There is a whole career track for "Technical but not Coder".
Similarly I know Scientists and Engineers who are encouraged to code, but that is like 1% of their job. Some of them work on code projects on the side.
Depending on what you mean by "codes on the side". A friend I went to school with for computer science (who I learned a lot from as a programmer) ended up going into product management. He recently took a year off to code his own game and then got hired as the CTO, over engineering and product depts, of the company we used to work for.
I spend a lot of my free time coding. Im an ex developer turned solutions architect so I still have the bug. I tend to just build lots of small hobby projects related to my current interests. Right now I'm building telegram bots to manage crypto currency communities on telegram.
My sister did a nice job on her myspace profile. #html #css
Me. Architect (buildings) in real life.