I haven't left the tech industry per se, but have had a good career using my programming skills without ever being employed as a programmer. I work for a company that makes measurement equipment, and am in kind of an "architect" and R&D role, so I use programming for everything but actual code that ships to a customer.
Something I kind of like about the hardware side, is that you're forced to keep at least one foot on the ground. Real physics problems are a good source of real business problems because you can't wish them away, and mother nature will tell you if your stuff works or not.
Granted, I'm not rich. I'll never see the kinds of salaries that get thrown around for programmers at the big five.
I've read a lot of the posts here, about the headaches of programming in a modern setting, and the ethical issues spanning a large swath of the "tech" industry. At one time I thought that I'd encourage my kids to get into coding, and I'd still do so, but they are aware of what the culture is like these days, and I'm not sure the money is a big enough attraction for them to jump through the hoops. Also, I can't honestly say that it's career worthy, given the level of attrition and the specter of age discrimination.
One of them is easing her way into coding anyway, because it's fun, and I always guessed that she might have a bent for it. I'm inclined to let her do it as a hobby without pushing her to make a career of it.
Something I kind of like about the hardware side, is that you're forced to keep at least one foot on the ground. Real physics problems are a good source of real business problems because you can't wish them away, and mother nature will tell you if your stuff works or not.
Granted, I'm not rich. I'll never see the kinds of salaries that get thrown around for programmers at the big five.
I've read a lot of the posts here, about the headaches of programming in a modern setting, and the ethical issues spanning a large swath of the "tech" industry. At one time I thought that I'd encourage my kids to get into coding, and I'd still do so, but they are aware of what the culture is like these days, and I'm not sure the money is a big enough attraction for them to jump through the hoops. Also, I can't honestly say that it's career worthy, given the level of attrition and the specter of age discrimination.
One of them is easing her way into coding anyway, because it's fun, and I always guessed that she might have a bent for it. I'm inclined to let her do it as a hobby without pushing her to make a career of it.