現在轉行工程師會太老嗎？

Hello everyone, I'm Terry. Many of you have sent me messages and comments under my videos asking me if I can still be a software engineer after 30, 40, or even 50 years old. I think this is a good question and too many people have asked me about it. So today I'm going to make a video to share my own opinion and opinions. Plus, there are a lot of people on the internet who are saying that software engineers' career is over after they reach 35.

今天就來跟大家分享一下我自己的想法跟看法。 Oh, by the way,如果你沒有看過我今天的影片的話,我的名字叫Terry。 我是一個自學的軟體工程師,大學的時候讀的是管理工程。 在上學的時候就對寫扣產生了興趣,然後通過自學,然後實習的機會慢慢的把自己轉型成為一名軟體工程師。 目前是在矽谷的一家蠻大的創新公司工作。

Many people think that age is like a bar. It can disturb you from doing a lot of things. But in my opinion, that's because most people don't think about the real problem. So they use age as an excuse. Just like many people will say I'm old, so I don't want to cross the comfort zone. Or I'm too young, I don't need to know how to manage my finances. Of course, there are indeed many jobs. For example, like an athlete. When your body is 30 or 40 years old, you are really not as good as young people. And when a professional athlete is very competitive, you really have to compete with others in body quality. Often it's a thousand miles to choose.

But the software engineering technology industry is completely different. A country may need a few Olympic athletes. But with the current technology industry, especially the Internet industry, the world is leading. Basically, all major industries are slowly transforming. All lack of engineers. The demand will only increase. In a short time, I can't see the demand decreasing.

For example, I graduated from college in 2015. This is the fifth company I've worked with since I graduated. These companies were looking for me or their external leaders contacted me. I basically didn't have any resume. At that time, Google contacted me for a while before I went to interview.

So today I'm going to talk about it with you I think if you are 30 or 40 years old, which is relatively You think it's a high-level situation If you want to switch to being a software engineer, what do you need to consider? Those who are only in their 20s will ask me this question I won't talk about it You have absolutely nothing to lose Let's divide this question into two parts to see The first one is what I think is the so-called hard index Is the fact that it can no longer be changed For example, your height, your appearance, your physical strength, age or length For example, if you are an actor today

There are certain requirements for the appearance, height and age. These are facts that you can't change. You can't find a 50-year-old to act in a youth love drama. For the software engineering profession, it does not have these hard indicators. You just need to prove that you know the technology when you interview. Then you have the ability to solve problems. As long as you have the value of production for the company, why doesn't he consider you to discriminate against your age?

If I were to talk about a hard indicator, I think it's probably physical strength. It's really bad for the neck to sit on a chair for a long time. Easy to die. But many companies are willing to buy a bunch of super expensive office supplies. For example, Apple's office, their one chair costs $1200. And if you work at home, you can buy some, for example, lift chairs. It can let you stand for a while, so that your neck won't be so tired.

Many people ask me if I work very long and often work overtime, which is the legendary 996. I think this is not the same as the culture of each region. Maybe it has nothing to do with software engineering. I think it's more about the company's own culture. I haven't encountered such a situation in North America. In addition to occasional on-calls, basically working hours are quite reasonable. Occasionally self-employed overtime is quite normal. Isn't it like this in the responsibility system? Next is your head. Why do I think this is not a positive indicator?

I think people in their 30s and 40s will have better learning ability than people in their 20s But I don't think it's too bad for you to learn new knowledge When you enter this field, the things you get to know and discuss with your colleagues will keep your brain in shape Your brain basically has unlimited scalability and learning ability is also very, very strong It's just whether you want to train it

As you grow older, your neuroplasticity will decrease, but it will never stop. These are all hard indicators. As for soft indicators, you can achieve them through hard work. I think these are the questions you really need to consider. The first is whether you can change your current thinking mode. In the Internet industry, knowledge and technology may have passed a year or two ago. You need to have the ability to constantly accept new ideas and ways of thinking to be able to survive in this field.

Many engineers have been doing the same technology for five years If you work in the same company, maybe this is okay But relatively speaking, this may reduce the overall value in the market In this field of technology, many ways and attitudes to handle things are different from traditional industries In traditional industries, you may be able to do one thing very well for a lifetime But in the technology industry, you may need to jump the gun more regularly or learn how to force your company to talk about salary

These are all different ways of thinking that you need to change and accept. Next, do you have time to step into a new field again? Spend thousands of hours learning new knowledge, maybe something you haven't touched in most of your life. Then continue to update these knowledge, because the technology changes too fast. At first, it may be very boring and boring. Can you accept these? When it comes to time, consider the cost of opportunity. How high is your cost of opportunity when you step into a new field?

In fact, this is not just a technology industry. No matter which industry you switch to, it is the same. You can think of the action of this transition today. It's actually an investment. Any investment has a cost of opportunity. Maybe you want to give up a familiar working environment that you have been doing for five or ten years. The cost of jumping off the comfort zone. You may encounter the bottleneck of finding a job from the beginning. From a stable income to an uncertain future.

You may have a family and children to raise in your life, which may be full of some regular schedules, such as eating with friends, singing, partying, going on holidays with your girlfriend, etc. At the same time, you can spend thousands or even tens of thousands of hours to learn these things. The most important thing is that you have this passion. Many people have this pure idea at the beginning of the industry, which is that I want to make more money. It seems that this industry is very profitable.

Or you can see how good the benefits of Google and Facebook companies are to employees I also want to be part of it Yes, that's right. In Google and Facebook companies The starting salary of you is probably $200,000 to $250,000 a year It seems to be very profitable But in fact, you have to enter these top-tier technology companies It's not that simple

These all require you to work hard for a long time Have a certain enthusiasm to drive you to continue making you want to go on Otherwise, it will be very difficult for you to persist If you see the codes one by one Or how you operate this app behind it Really have no interest in any of them Then you will be easily lost

I know some people are naturally interested in writing code and computer science. Their hobby is to sit in front of the computer and type code and write a program to solve problems. Maybe writing some open source software in front of the computer is their way of leisure. Like me before, I talked to a colleague who came to our company from Google. I asked him why he wanted to come to a new company. He said he was very interested in computers since he was a child. He likes to do a lot of interesting projects by himself. He thinks he is too boring in the Google era.

Money is not that important to him. He cares more about his own ideas in a new company. It doesn't mean you have to be as passionate as he is. But I think if you started out with the goal of making money, I think you'd better spend time learning how to make money and how to start a business. This way, you'll make more money and it's easier to get rid of it. If you've asked yourself these questions, you're honest about answering these questions. You think, okay, no problem. Will this society discriminate against your age?

In fact, this society itself is full of all kinds of discrimination. It's the same in all industries. I don't think there's a way to avoid it. Gender discrimination, appearance discrimination, height discrimination, these are everywhere. As long as you are in the workplace, you will encounter these problems. From the company's point of view, he is very short of talent. If you can bring the company's value is equal

Why would he discriminate against your age? A person who just graduated from college at the age of 20 may be anxious and waste the company's resources He may not do anything and not want to learn In fact, people who are younger have their benefits for the company Maybe your life is already very stable You have a family and children and you are willing to stay longer in the company Compared to a young man in his twenties, he may often jump into trouble like me. In terms of long-term investment value, your investment return may be higher Let's summarize what we talked about today

The technology industry is getting more and more in demand, which is also a relatively high and stable job. And the threshold is getting lower and lower. Many people in college are not studying this, and in the undergraduate program are not studying computers. They can work in top technology companies like Facebook and Google. There are also more and more people who are turning jobs. Instead of asking whether you are 30, 40 or even 50 years old now, can you turn to be a software engineer? I think you should ask yourself if you have a real passion for this field, or if you are mentally prepared.

Make a commitment. Make a commitment.

Very good support you can do it with me first Write some codes and do some projects to see if you are really interested in this Then if you are sure this is what you want to do, I suggest you not to resign immediately If time allows you to consider learning part-time for a while online class or do some projects yourself When you really find a job, you can take the current job away so you can reduce the risk to the minimum All right, I hope what I said today will be helpful to you

Catch you later.