I myself just graduated college and started working full time as an "Interactive Developer". I work with a couple of guys that are older than me and it continues to surprise the lack of a difference in our knowledge. There's not much that they know that I don't and the gap is closing daily. I think the biggest issue with older web developers is their lack of free time due to family, more bills, and other concerns. As a recent college grad living by myself, I spend a good amount of my free time working on web applications and learning about and keeping up with current trends in web development.

As an older web developer, I think most people stop looking at your work as something you enjoy doing and something you do to get a paycheck. You stop coding in your free time, due to a lack of free time, and quickly fall behind on best practices and current trends.

Is coding to you fun or just a way to get a paycheck?

Most developers fear management because they don't understand the role or are uncomfortable with the people issues. Make a spreadsheet wtih the pros and cons for possible choices and use that as a guide (hint: be honest with yourself). I'd caution that you should remember that younger developers are cheaper to hire and don't mind working insane hours because they usually don't have families. In any case, if you're not comfortable dealing with people issues, stay out of management.

BTW, I've been doing tech since the 70s and have held all sorts of roles from developer to president of my own consulting company. Each role has its challenges.

Regards,

Chuck

Oh, and find something that you're passionate about. I know it sounds trite, but that's really the key to happiness and success. If you're just taking the job to have a paycheck, then nobody wins.

You never really say what scares you about older web developers. Is it the case that you fear their typically poor coding skills or that you are intimidated by their venerated prowess?

I've not met mentor-capable older web developers; I don't know anyone who has been doing this as long as I have who is substantially older than me who has enough to teach me that I could call them a mentor. I know plenty of people younger than me (older than you by 8 months) who know more about coding on the web. But I think this is typical, if only because the web is a relatively new job space.

I think you'll find that you and I and others of our age are defining what it's like to be an "older developer", and since we get to decide, there's no reason it can't be awesome. On the other hand, should you decide to go the management route, there are so many years of history of the position of "management" that you'll simply be labeled "an older manager", whatever stigma that already has attached.

There really are only a few paths for older developers and at 33 I'm already thinking about this. I see my options as either becoming a project manager, architect, consultant or to start my own business which I already did in my early 20's. Right now I'm thinking a few more years in dev roles and then trying to transition into a start-up as the seasoned scrum master/project manager.

First, let me say that I think your 1,000 character limit for comments is causing me to post this in 3 chunks, that is retarded

I understand your dilemma, as I am your worst nightmare so to speak. I am a 52-year-old web programmer. I have been a web programmer full time since 1996. I have built or worked on so many sites I can only estimate, but that number is certainly well over 300. In the last 15 years, I have only had two employers, each for a year, the rest of that time I have been self employed, occasionally taking on a partner, but generally I prefer to work alone. Like you, my last job was as Webmaster and systems administrator for our award winning local paper; The Taos News. I left the paper almost 6 years ago and went out on my own (again) and have not regretted doing so.

I am here to report from the dark side (50+ years of age) that all is not lost and there is some benefits to being a web programmer of advanced age. I still have to spend a fair amount of time reading and learning new skills. This part of my job I don’t mind at all, I find at 52 I am perhaps more curious than ever, and even have more of a sense of urgency in my quest for ever more knowledge, spurred on by the thought that I am entering the “death zone” by taking note of others near my age dropping like fly’s (Billy Mays, Patrick Swayze and Michael Jackson to name a few).

I also am thankful that I am a web programmer partly because the whole mortality thing came up and slapped me in the face several times in the last few years. When I became sick with Myasthenia Gravis, a rare auto-immune disease that combined with H1N1, nearly killed me last fall and left me bed-ridden for months.

Being self employed, for most of human history, this would have been the end of life as I know it, but thanks to the timely invention of the laptop and the fortunate career choice I made, I was able to earn a living and support both myself and my wife despite barely being able to stand and walk to the bathroom. It wasn’t easy, my arms felt like they were made of lead, I had severe double vision and had to wear an eye patch in order to be able to read. I had to limit my workweek to 20 hours tops.

However, having 15 years experience made all the difference, I still make mistakes, but now I can find them in seconds, rather than hours. I write code a lot more efficiently than I did 10 years ago, but more importantly the concentration and focus required to perform our craft was a Godsend and allowed me to escape the depressing reality that my body was failing me and my future was not the one I had dreamed for myself, not even my nightmares were that bad.

Things have improved since the dark days of last winter when in the middle of all of this, my house burned down. My body has recovered much strength, my vision has improved and I have enough energy to take short hikes, surrounded by the incredible beauty of the mountains of Northern New Mexico. I thank God every day I chose to be a web programmer.

It's my birthday today as well, and like you I've been doing a lot of thinking about where my career is headed.

From my experience, management with deep technical knowledge can garner a lot of resentment from their subordinates because they have a hard time letting go of the technical stuff. That's not to say that people with deep technical skill shouldn't get into management, but it can be tricky.

Moving higher up the development rung seems like a safer bet. The further up the development ladder you get, the less you need to worry about the churn in development technologies. You still need to keep abreast of the changes, but you're insulated from the really low level details that the developers in the trenches live with.

One the one hand, there aren't that many older "web" developers because the web is still a relatively new field, on the other hand there are some older developers who have migrated to web development.

I had the honor of working with a guy a few jobs ago who was old enough to have a) worked in binary and b) graduated with a physics degree because computer science was not yet offered as a class. While on the one hand I knew more about Ruby on Rails and JavaScript, he knew a LOT more about software patterns and architecture and the relationship was very mutually beneficial.

I think it all comes down to individuals. I have worked with good and crappy developers of all ages. Sometimes someone younger than yourself can even be smarter/more experienced than you.

I'm a couple years older than you, and made my split several years back. I did stay close enough to the stuff happening under the hood to keep me interested, but I'm glad I got out of the trenches, and I really enjoy putting my practical experience to work driving digital strategy and solving bigger problems. You can always stay close to home and go up the food chain to CTO or something similar. In my experience, the best CTO/tech leads are the ones who have many years of practical coding experience.

5-6 years ago I was at your age and was...drafted into management. Prior to that I had been a lead and, by some descriptions, in an architectural role.

I can't say that management is anywhere near the reward level of developing software and I was never a 10 hour a day, week in-week out, code monkey. There are days when playing in traffic would be a lot more fun. In fact, those can be most days.

However, a management role, if you embrace it can be one of the more complicated problems you're ever given. Whether your focus is on the people (it should be) versus what it really tends to mean (everything else), the permutations of relevant aspects of the problem is infinite. To do the job well, requires more thinking, consideration and even experimentation than anything I've found in the development role. The sad end note, its too easy to do a poor job that allows you to get by or even be promoted.