1 post tagged “pontification”
It's coming up on 2 years now that my full-time job was essentially a "flash-developer". It's only recently hit me how deeply I've already enmeshed myself down the flash and web-front-end developer path. Besides moving within my company, I think it'd be hard at this point to switch jobs to another segment of development without taking a pay-cut. That's because I can be a somewhat-senior "flash developer", but I'd be closer to "entry-level" developing desktop c[derivatives], or back-end java, etc.
I maintain a strong interest in development of other sorts, most notably Ruby and Rails. And I think self-education and then demonstration is vital to successfully shifting your development career-path. But inevitably what I am doing for 35+ hours a week is going to be the area I have the most experience and expertise.
It's odd, and certainly somewhat disturbing, that what started as a very happenstance coincidence has snowballed into such an important reality of my current professional career....and one that will only grow further with time. Initially, I hunted for jobs anywhere across the computer science spectrum. In 2005, the same week I got my first job programming flash, I also interviewed to write C for digital-cable-switchers. It was real-time, embedded-application C-development. I thought I did horrible at the interview, (I couldn't tell them what a "singleton" was!), and expected a prompt "no thanks". But they wanted a 2nd interview. Yet the flash company wanted me more immediately, and they had a really interesting simulation project. So I took it, and never had that 2nd interview with the cable-coders.
Inadvertently stumbling down a certain specialization of development that you may have not intended is something that I think is true for a LOT of developers. What you get into from the start, which is often by luck of which company would hire you, ends up deepening into your "focus". Even those people that get to choose exactly what they want, may still wish to reinvent themselves in the future to avoid burnout.
Of course, many developers just shift into management or other peripheral paths. But for those with the intention to stay in development long-term, I think it's an issue worth considering. Or maybe the same language/tool for 5-10+ years isn't all that bad....
