May 14, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Best Days
May 15, 2009 at 12:17 am
Well, I wouldn't say behind me, but the direction of my work is slowly shifting, not by design either, it just kind of creeps up on you.
Not that surprising for me, I have kind of drifted around IT jobs for the last 15 years, hell, I still remember vowing never to touch any database server ever again when I once had to fix an SQL Server 6.5 install that had had a hardware crash (despite having never had any contact with SQL server of ANY version), but then after shifting companies and moving laterally within it, one day I find myself writing copious amounts of queries for staff and their informational betterment as well as helping look after the SQL server (what the, how did that happen!), and now I find that I am helping design business processes, database schemas for the developers and other random stuff :blink:
But that's life, if the path is good, embrace where it takes you, if it isnt, make sure you go kicking and screaming into the night, cause you might break free 😀
May 15, 2009 at 12:23 am
Since I'm 28 years old I sure hope my best days is not behind me and I hope I will always have the drive to want to learn new tec. If that drive starts to decline then I would not feel fit for this sort of work, maybe I'd go more towards project management or teaching.
May 15, 2009 at 2:18 am
This is a really interesting area for discussion.
I feel that as I've become older I am less tolerant of having to learn new technologies, instead getting frustrated at steep learning curves. When I was younger - I'm 36 now, started on computers at 11 - I'd happily spend ages trying to learn stuff.
I think my new attitude is born out of experience and the knowledge that I am now much more interested in stuff that improves my productivity quickly than I am in learning. Anything that seems like it might be fairly hard to learn is something I generally can no longer be bothered with except where my job dictates.
As an example: I'm currently learning Objective-C so I can write iPhone apps. Years ago I'd have dived straight in, but now I get really frustrated at the frankly bizarre syntactic choices and methods required with this language.
Am I just getting old? Or is it because I've got so much experience now that I feel I've served my time in the learning department and shouldn't need to go through it all again? I don't know. Probably just a grumpy old geek.
May 15, 2009 at 2:38 am
Being somewhat older (!) I've found that I may get rusty in one technology but I get better at newer ones. I started back in the days of paper tape, then moved on to command line stuff (pre Windows technology). Feeling somewhat out of date I went back to uni for a Masters degree. New skills, new technology but always building on previous knowledge.
So my view is that you only get rusty on out of date technology. The best days are never behind you; the 'youngsters' are faster at some of the newer stuff but there is no technology which will substitute for experience.
Madame Artois
May 15, 2009 at 3:06 am
Imo worst problem of old geeks is lack of physical activity. Physical fitness strengthens mental fitness.
Next thing is lack of motivation, unless you're your own boss.
So, if you think your best tech days are behind you, take some time for jogging or whatever activity makes you sweat and breathless. Work on your motivation, if your boss is a jerk and demotivates you, don't be afraid to change job. Or even profession. Even if you're over 60, there's hope for you, if you find courage and motivation.
May 15, 2009 at 3:13 am
I think I'm lucky. I'm 39 and have only been working as a DBA for 2.5 years. Before that I was in call centre management. All my experience in IT was from my engineering degree back in the 80's where I still used BASIC and FORTRAN. Luckily my company had an opening as a trainee. So for me I am on a big adventure and I am still learning every day. And being a DBA is a great way to learn about IT as a whole because so many other things depend on it. In many ways I feel like I'm in my early 20's again especially in trying to map out my future career.
May 15, 2009 at 5:25 am
I'm over 50 and female and been in the software business for over thirty years but no, I think my best days are now because I have so much more background in older technology to help me understand the new.
Over the years one of the most important skills I have learned is how to learn and I can learn from self study or do courses and get a high pass mark in the exam whether it is ITIL, SQL, technical or dinghy sailing race management!
May 15, 2009 at 6:03 am
Oh no Steve, don't feel like that!!! I think you are just suffering a temporary "technology blues" moment!
With 30+ years under my belt in this business let me assure you your value is increasing, NOT decreasing. Why? Because as technology becomes more and more and more complex (a bad thing in my view, but...) the young Turks become more focused on tiny areas that for you (and me) are just one piece of our knowledge base. For example, when I sit around with the younger guys on my staff and tell them about the days of XBase when you had to program AND be a DBA at the same time, their heads spin. It sounds alien to them.
My guess is that 5 to 10 years from now people will not know SQL Server - instead you will have Stored Procedure specialists, SSIS specialists, SSRS specialists, and so on and so on. At that time, people will marvel at you and be somewhat astounded when whispering to each other "Hey, do you know that Steve knows ALL of SQL Server!!!" and others respond incredulously "Really?!?!?"
The only sad part is this - if you have kids and they go into technology, cry now over the day they come home all happy and bright-faced saying "Dad, Dad! I just got my certification!!!" You say; "What certification?" and the sad response is; "I am now fully certified as a SQL Server Refresh button clicker!" :hehe:
May 15, 2009 at 6:06 am
I'll start off with the fact that I am fast approaching my 50th birthday. I have worked off and on with computers since the very late 1970's. (Paper tape, not quite, but the university still used punch cards for its introductory computer science classes.) My first programming job was on a TRS-80 Model 1. (But that is another story.)
I think I am always in my "best years" right now. Technically, why would anybody want to hire me at 2 times the salary to learn to do a job when they can hire a kid fresh out of college that will do it better? The fact is that as we move through our careers, we gradually shift from "doers" to "leaders". This doesn't mean that we stop doing, it just means that we try to coach the newer "doers" in the parts of the job that don't get taught in the classroom, but come from years of experience.
I am still a techie. I just started working with SQL Server in the past year, along with intensivly working in .NET. But, it that is all the value I bring to the company, I should be fired, because I won't measure up in performance. The value I have is that my sharp edges are a bit more rounded. I don't injure my clients as badly, and client comments slide off more easily, especially the negative ones. I tend to value other people's contributions to a project, and tend to build and support teams.
Mark
May 15, 2009 at 6:26 am
I think we tend to stick with what we know, it's easier. In the old days there was not so much new tech to learn, it was easier to stay stuck in one technology; nowadays new things come at a much faster pace. It is harder to keep up with all the changes.
I'm looking forward to the day when I'm too old to remember the old days!:-P
May 15, 2009 at 6:36 am
Steve, bravo for speaking plainly about something we all probably fear - unnecessarily, perhaps.
I'm in my late 40's and only a few years into my second career, in IT. My first career was a consulting professional geologist, managing hazardous waste investigation and remediation.
I was often the go-to guy for new technologies or information, so it's frustrating that I don't seem to learn new technology as quickly as I used to. Worse, I don't retain it as well.
At the same time, I have "ancillary" qualities necessary for my job that I lacked in my 20's: an ability to shepherd people through contentious inter-departmental problems related to our ERP database app, and have everyone emerge happy with the solution.
I now feel more comfortable asking what I call "the zeroth questions", the questions about the assumptions and "needs" for a new application or report, before purchase orders are written and development starts. I used to do this when I was younger, but often with a skeptical tone and impatient manner - you can guess how productive that was! Now, I can see the essence of a solution - the end point management wants to achieve - during the development phase, so I can get us there more easily.
In my role as DBA, I work with a lot of departments and people, some of whom aren't very tech. savvy. I've gotten much better over time working with these folks to figure out what it is they are really trying to ask/do, since their initial questions often belie their underlying problem. The fact that some of these individuals own the company or manage large departments 😀 makes this skill essential!
I don't code as fast as I'd like. I wish I had the drive to really dive into .NET and upgrade my "ancient" ASP development skills for building data-driven websites. I acknowledge that I will never learn the entirety of SQL Server, accepting that I will pick up pieces of it as I need to.
But, from my customer's viewpoint - and by "customer" I mean the dozens of users who rely on the applications running on software I build and maintain - I'm probably more useful to them now than I ever could have been 20 years ago.
Which to me feels like success!
Thanks very much for such a great topic, Steve. I think the breadth and quality of the replies you'll get to this editorial is all the answer you need to demonstrate that some of your best days are still ahead of you!!!
Sincerely,
Rich Mechaber
May 15, 2009 at 6:39 am
Though I am approaching my mid-century mark, I can't say that my best days are behind me. In my younger days, I was quick to learn whatever new skill was necessary to get the job done. That ability gave me a wide range of experiences though none of them were too deep. I have now become more focused in my work style and more resistant to pick up a skill-of-the-week. For that reason, I have not delved into the latest trends in development technologies or the latest DBA-type stuff and all of that.
As a Sr. Business Systems Analyst, I focus more on the overall goal of a project. I'll still create schemas and do some T-SQL coding, but I've shifted my focus more to the "big picture" than the implementation details. My previous experiences were not wasted as they have served me well in my overall role. While some may look at my career and see a decline of skills, I instead prefer to think of myself as becoming more "mature".
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sqlrv
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sqlrv
Website: http://sqlrv.com
May 15, 2009 at 6:55 am
P Jones (5/15/2009)
I think my best days are now because I have so much more background in older technology to help me understand the new.
Couldn't agree more with this statement...
a lot of my younger collegues do not have the same background information that I have, simply because they are shielded from it.
And believe me, it comes in handy quite often.
May 15, 2009 at 7:13 am
I'm in my fifties, but didn't start with computers until my late 30s, so I feel like I'm still growing - slowly sometimes, but growing.
I agree about the body aches, etc. I walk and do Tai Chi and Yoga, but I still get wrenched-up neck and shoulders if I'm not careful (like I have now).
So, I carry on with my ergonomic keyboard and my track ball mouse 😉
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