Future for Programmers

theone0621 · 03-18-2009, 12:05 AM

Hi All,

I am a soon to be MS-CS graduate and I have been researching game programming as a career.
My question is that what happens to programmers after years of experience?
Many sites that I have researched only mention positions up to lead/senior engineer. What can programmers do after that?

Thank you

yaustar · 03-18-2009, 03:37 AM

Whatever they want. Some go into management, some go into other disciplines others move into leads/senior positions. Some even exit the industry for a more 'traditional' software engineer career.

Protector one · 03-18-2009, 04:33 AM

And there are some who end up saving the human race by reprogramming killer cyborgs and Summer Glaus.
I can also imagine programmers just doing the same old thing over and over for the rest of their lives.

Claxon · 03-18-2009, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Protector one

I can also imagine programmers just doing the same old thing over and over for the rest of their lives.

Although a true Pro would write an app to do that for them!

further positions beyond senior and lead programmers include titles like "technical director".

DTR · 03-18-2009, 07:07 AM

And some head off to pursue their own kinky views and visions (not shared by the current company) by forming a new studio or some other wacky company.

Gshonk · 03-18-2009, 07:12 AM

Some move into CTO positions, Chief code architect, and as said before Technical directer. Some just keep moving around to find projects they like and also to get a better salary.

nef · 03-25-2009, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theone0621

Hi All,

I am a soon to be MS-CS graduate and I have been researching game programming as a career.
My question is that what happens to programmers after years of experience?
Many sites that I have researched only mention positions up to lead/senior engineer. What can programmers do after that?

Thank you

I can't answer your question, I'm still learning. But assuming I am alive 10+ years from now and programming is still a profession, I can only say that programming is obviously still important and that I offer a skill set that others cant. In other words your still programming

Take a look at John Carmack. This dude builds rockets for fun right? He is still programming. What he has basically done, is fallen into a very specialized field, graphics. He consults w/ NVIDIA on hardware decisions because he's that fucking awesome. Be awesome in the field you specialize and help it grow. That is your ultimate goal.

For me personally, I don't even see myself in games. I want to specialize in graphic techniques or security. I'm very fond of low level stuff. I really want to be the guy writing exploits for adware and selling to the russians, or working on preventing/finding/fixing them for microsoft.

It's up to you really. Do you wana be the guy working on the next revolutionary idea in AI? Do you want to standardize cross platform development? Think of what you really want to do, then realize what the professional equivalent is. Do you want to be an expert on graphics? Then you should be aiming to eventually be working w/ graphic hardware developers. You need to aim high, think about what it really is you want to do and succeeded.

Some people want to develop new programming languages, to enhance other developers. In this case you would jump into the groups that develop these languages. If you like to program, you have MANY choices to make in regards to what it is exactly about programming, you like so much. If you are interested in games, something about games probably peeks your field of interest.

I say field interest because i fucked up myself. I LOVE everything low level. But that doesn't have much place in games, unless I was writing game security or optimizing. I'm working on moving on myself right now, but regardless, that's the question you should ask yourself