Old coders never die, they just become middle managers.

老程序员没有死，他们只是变成了中层管理者

作者：小昭，英国top10名校毕业，玩过音乐，在硅谷搞过互联网，目前回国创业中，本文来自作者投稿！来自：http://seekflare.com/post/53

Each year, 600 coders gather to talk shop at a conference in New York called PyGotham. The organizers know how male and white the tech industry is, so they make a special effort to recruit a diverse speaker lineup. They promote the event on mailing lists for women and people of color who code, and they run a workshop for women in tech to encourage them to submit talks. The organizers ask speakers to fill out a demographic survey so they can track the progress of the conference’s diversity.

每年，600名程序员聚集在纽约一个名为PyGotham的会议上谈论本行业内的话题。组织者了解科技行业的男性和白人，因此他们特别努力招募多元化的演讲者阵容。在他们发出去的会议推广邮件的名单里，他们会包含一些码代码的女码农和有色人种码农，并为科技行业中的女性举办研讨会，以此来鼓励她们向组委会提交话题。组织者要求发言人填写人口统计调查，以便他们跟踪会议多样性的进展情况。

I serve on the conference committee, and after PyGotham ended this year, I realized I had made no effort to reach one group in particular: older coders. Compared to the underrepresentation of women and minorities in tech, the scarcity of programmers in their forties and beyond has mostly escaped notice. There are no Meetups or mailing lists for them in New York, no prominent advocacy organizations devoted to them. Although I will seek older programmers to speak at PyGotham next year, I don’t yet know where to look.

我在会议委员会服务，在今年的PyGotham会议结束之后，我意识到我没有特别努力去组织这样一群人来参会：老年人。与女性和少数族裔在技术领域代表性不足的情况相比，四十多岁及以上程序员的缺失，大多都没有引起注意。在纽约，没有针对这群老程序员的聚会小组或邮件列表，也没有专门针对他们代表他们民意的倡导组织。虽然我会寻找年长的程序员明年在PyGotham发言，但我还不知道该往哪里找。

The software industry is overwhelmingly young. The median age of Google and Amazon employees is 30, whereas the median age of American workers is 42. A 2018 Stack Overflow survey of 100,000 programmers around the world found that three-quarters of them were under 35. Periodic posts on Hacker News ask, “What happens to older developers?” Anxious developers in their late thirties chime in and identify themselves as among the “older.”

软件行业非常年轻。谷歌和亚马逊员工的年龄中位数为30岁，而美国工人的年龄中位数为42岁。对全球100,000名程序员进行的2018年Stack Overflow（一个程序设计领域的问答网站）调查发现，他们其中四分之三的人未满35岁。Hacker News（“黑客新闻”一家网站）不定期会有帖子询问， “那些老年开发者是怎么了？”30大几的程序员就会插话，说自己就是那群“老程序员”。

I turned 40 this October, and I have worked seven years in the same job at a database company called MongoDB in New York City. Many programmers my age have gone back to school to switch careers or have become managers. I am committed to a lifetime as a programmer, but my career path for the decades to come is not well-marked. I know disturbingly few engineers older than me whose examples I can follow. Where have all the older coders gone, and what are the career prospects for those of us who remain?

我今年十月满40岁，在纽约一家名为MongoDB的数据库公司工作了七年。我这个年纪的许多程序员已经到学校回炉，想换其他专业，或者成为管理者。我想在编程上致力一生，但我未来几十年的职业道路并不十分明确。也没有几个我认识的年长的老工程师，他们的职业轨迹可以做为我遵循的榜样。那所有年长的码农都去了哪里，我们这些留下来的人，职业前景又会是如何呢？

In 2007, Mark Zuckerberg, then 22, said out loud what many in the software industry think: “Young people are just smarter.” Twelve years later, the lack of older programmers is still little studied compared to other dimensions of diversity. Google’s annual diversity report, for example, counts how many women or people of color it employs. Microsoft tallies its American Indian and Alaskan Native staff, and Apple is proud to hire veterans. It is commendable that these companies have revealed some measures of their diversity, but there is an omission: None report their age distribution.

2007年，当时22岁的马克·扎克伯格大声说出了许多软件行业人士的想法：“年轻人才更聪明。”十二年后，与其他员工多样性相比，缺乏老程序员的问题还是没有多少人注意到。例如，谷歌的年度多元化报告统计了它雇佣的女性或有色人种数量。微软记录了他雇佣的美国印第安人和阿拉斯加原住民员工的比例，苹果公司很自豪能雇用退伍军人。值得称赞的是，这些公司已经披露了一些多样性的衡量标准，但有一个遗漏：没有人报告他们公司的年龄分布。

Ari Rapkin Blenkhorn is a 47-year-old engineer who says she quit her last full-time job because the company, she says, wanted “a crowd of cheap youngsters. They didn’t want to support more senior people with established careers.” Her employer, which she requested not be named, valued her professional connections but did not invest in that network by sending her to conferences. “I believe they really didn’t understand why this was important or how my attending a research conference was different from junior developers attending technical training.”

Ari Rapkin Blenkhorn是一名47岁的工程师，她说她辞去了上一份全职工作，因为该公司想要“一群廉价的年轻人”。他们不想再支持更多有经验的资深人士。“ 她要求不要提到她雇主的名字，尽管这个雇主重视她多年积累的人脉关系，但还是没有想着去挖掘她拥有的资源，派她来参加这个会议，“我相信他们真的不明白这中间的重要性，或者我参加研究会议与初级工程师去参加技术培训会有什么不同。“

Blenkhorn says that once she was back on the job market, the ageism she experienced was compounded by sexism. Despite her profound technical achievements, she was dismissed by recruiters as irrelevant and dull, as a “mom.” She recently completed a PhD in computer science and hopes the education will improve her chances in the job market.

Blenkhorn说，一旦她回到就业市场，她所经历的年龄歧视就会因性别歧视而变得更加复杂。尽管她取得了深厚的技术成就，但作为一名“妈妈”，往往会被招聘人员忽视掉，因为她在招聘人员眼里就是一个无关紧要和沉闷的人。她最近获得了计算机科学博士学位，并希望教育能提高她在就业市场的机会。

Kevin Stevens, a 55-year-old programmer, faced a similar attitude when he applied for a position at Stack Exchange six years ago. He was interviewed by a younger engineer who told him, “I’m always surprised when older programmers keep up on technology.” Stevens was rejected for the job. He now works as a programmer at a hospitality company where he says his age is not an issue.

55岁的程序员凯文史蒂文斯六年前申请在Stack Exchange（一家程序设计问答网站）担任职务时，也面临着类似的态度。一个年轻工程师面试了他，并告诉他，“我总是感到惊讶老程序员是怎么跟上技术发展节奏的。”史蒂文斯因此而被拒绝。他现在是一家酒店公司的程序员，他说他的年龄在这家公司不是问题。

For other programmers, the outcomes can be far worse. A 2018 investigationby ProPublica’s Peter Gosselin and Ariana Tobin into age discrimination at IBM found that starting around 2014, the company attempted to reinvent itself by replacing older workers with younger ones. It laid off veteran employees by the thousands and strong-armed others into retiring. One 60-year-old systems engineer named Ed Kishkill was sent a layoff notice and told he had three months to find another job at IBM. Despite his decades of experience, he was rejected for all other positions. By the time of the ProPublica article’s publication, Kishkill was working as a Staples store clerk.

对于其他程序员来说，结果可能会更糟糕。 ProPublica公司的Peter Gosselin和Ariana Tobin在2018年对IBM的年龄歧视进行的调查，调查结果发现从2014年左右开始，该公司试图通过用年轻工人取代老年工人来重塑自我。它解雇了成千上万的有经验的非常资深的程序员，还有一些是强行让他们退休。一位名叫Ed Kishkill的60岁系统工程师收到了一份裁员通知，并告诉他有三个月的时间在IBM找到另一份工作。尽管他有数十年的经验，但他被其他所有职位拒绝。到ProPublica文章发表时，Kishkill正在担任Staples商店的职员。

Lifelong programmers must keep their skills up to date, but they are in a race against time in a constantly transforming industry. According to a 2018 research paper, skills change faster in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs than in other industries, and the headlong rate of change for programmers is especially severe. Kadeem L. Noray, one of the paper’s authors, says that “STEM is more skills-oriented that other fields,” valuing short-lived competencies over durable wisdom. For each skill a STEM professional learns, another becomes obsolete, leaving little chance for accumulating skills and increasing salary.

终身程序员必须保持他们的技能更新，他们在不断变革的行业中是在与时间赛跑。根据2018年的一篇研究论文，在科学，科技，工程和数学（简称STEM）工作领域，技能的更新换代比其他行业更快，而程序员的变化率尤为严重。该研究报告的作者之一Kadeem L. Noray表示，“STEM相比其他领域会更注重技能”，重视短期的能力而不是持久的智慧。从事STEM领域的专业人员每每去学习一项技能的时候，另一项技能就开始过时了，他们几乎没有机会积累技能和增加工资。

Although starting salaries in tech are famously high, their advantage compared to other fields is halved in the first decade of employment. “This is something most economists just don’t know,” Noray says. A 2017 report from Hired.com found that salary offers were actually lower for tech workers over 50 than for younger ones. Therefore, many STEM workers switch to professions that change more slowly in search of sustained salary growth. At the age of 24, 89 percent of STEM majors have STEM jobs, but at 35 years old, the number declines to 71 percent and continues to fall thereafter.

尽管技术领域的起薪很高，但他们的这种优势与其他领域从业者相比，在被雇佣的头十年将减少一半。 “这是大多数经济学家都不知道的事情，”Noray说。 Hired.com的2017年报告发现，50岁以上的技术工人的工资报价实际上低于年轻人。因此，许多STEM工作者为了寻求持续的薪资增长换了行业，因为这些行业变化会比较慢。在24岁时，89％的STEM专业人员会从事STEM相关的工作，但在35岁时，这个数字下降到71％并且此后继续下降。

2017年科技工作者的年龄与工资数据。由Hired.com提供

One way coders can get off the skills treadmill but stay in the industry is by becoming managers. A 54-year-old engineer in Massachusetts tells me, “My company has an obvious track for new people: They come in as developers and move up the chain into management.”

有一条路可以让编程人员可以从技能提升跑步机上脱离开，并且还可以留在这个行业，那就是成为一名管理者。马萨诸塞州一位54岁的工程师告诉我，“我的公司有一个明显的新人职业发展路径：他们作为开发人员加入公司，可以往上发展进入管理层。”

But management is not right for everyone. Sue LoVerso, a 54-year-old senior staff engineer at MongoDB, told me, “There are personality characteristics that managers need, but I’m an introvert, and solving technical problems is what interests me.” A 63-year-old Google engineer says his brief time as a manager was uncomfortable: “I knew I could rely on myself to do a job, but I couldn’t figure out how to rely on other people.”

但管理层并不适合所有人。 MongoDB的54岁高级工程师Sue LoVerso告诉我，“管理者需要具备个性特征，但我是一个内向的人，解决技术问题是我感兴趣的。”一位63岁的谷歌老工程师说他作为经理的短暂时间让人感到不舒服：“我知道我可以依靠自己来做一份工作，但我无法弄清楚如何依赖其他人来开展工作。”

As an alternative to the management track, Google, Microsoft, and other large companies define an “individual contributor (IC) track,” a ladder of job titles for senior engineers that rises in parallel to the management ladder. The IC track lets engineers climb a seniority ladder without forsaking the craft they love.

作为成为管理者的替代方案，谷歌，微软和其他大公司明确了一个“个人贡献者individual contributor（IC）路径”，这是进入高级工程师职位的阶梯，与管理阶梯平行。 IC路径让工程师可以在不放弃他们喜爱的技能的情况下，攀向高层阶梯。

But the IC track is flawed. The programmers I spoke with said that promotion is slower on the IC track, and the distinctions between titles are blurry. According to David Golden, a 45-year-old engineer at MongoDB, “In the development-only track, there’s a bigger hurdle for me to move to the next level. It’s not clear how you get from one to the other and whether it’s something you can actually do anything about.”

但IC赛道存在缺陷。我采访过的程序员说，IC轨道上的晋升速度较慢，而且职务之间的区别也很模糊。根据MongoDB的45岁工程师David Golden的说法，“中间发展阶段很难熬过去，有更大的障碍进入下一个级别。目前尚不清楚如何从一个阶段跳到另一个，以及为了进入下一个级别，你都需要做什么 。“

Based on interviews with a half-dozen programmers, it is clear to me that companies should create a qualitatively different role for their most senior individual contributors. Candidates for such roles would be judged by their past effectiveness, the same as managers are, not by a fast-churning checklist of skills. Greater clarity would mean engineers could climb the ladder faster, and the prestige and renewed intellectual challenge of each level would keep programmers motivated into their fifties and sixties.

根据对六位程序员的采访，我很清楚，公司应该为他们最资深的个人贡献者创造一个在质量上不同的角色。这些角色的候选人将根据他们过去工作的有效性来判断，就像管理者一样，而不是通过快速搅拌的技能清单来判断。大家对进级的流程和注意事项越清晰，意味着工程师可以更快地爬到上一级，每个级别的声望和新的智力挑战将激励程序员们在进入40岁和60岁的时候充满动力。

Proven engineers who occupy the most senior roles should be deployed to solve the hardest problems on the most critical projects. Their roles should emphasize technical leadership through writing, speaking, and mentoring.

应该让经过检验的高级角色工程师来解决最关键项目中最棘手的问题。应该通过把他们角色的重点放在写作、演讲和指导他人来强调他们的技术领导力。

Because of their deep knowledge and broad experience, older programmers are able to translate their knowledge into ordinary terms, which puts them in a position to act as ambassadors to the nonprogramming world. Ari Blenkhorn filled this role when she led a cloth simulation project at the special effects studio Industrial Light and Magic. “Yoda’s robe, Harry Potter’s Quidditch cloak, the Dementors’ robes—all of that was the software that I helped develop,” she says. “I needed to speak the language of both the physics simulation research team and the animation team. They don’t think about partial differential equations. They think about cloth that’s silky and stretchy and ripples in the wind.”

凭借深厚的知识和丰富的经验，年长的程序员能够将他们的知识转化为通俗易懂的术语，这使他们能够充当非编程世界的大使。Ari Blenkhorn在特效工作室Industrial Light and Magic（“工业光魔”工作室）管理布料模拟项目时就担任类似职位。 “尤达的长袍，哈利波特的魁地奇斗篷，摄魂怪的长袍 - 所有这些都是我帮助开发的软件，”她说。 “我需要说出物理模拟研究团队和动画团队的语言。他们没有考虑偏微分方程。他们认为布料是柔滑有弹性的，在风中涟漪。“

I am fortunate: My company responded to my midcareer ennui with empathy and has allowed me to embark on a journey of professional exploration. This year, I am rotating among three teams for a few months each to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

我是幸运的：我的公司对我的职业倦怠期表示同情，并让我开始了一次专业探索之旅。今年，我将在三个团队中轮流任职几个月，以决定我成长后到底想要做什么。

Other companies might not be so generous. I especially worry for older women and people of color in the industry, who are subject to combined biases. Companies must define meaningful levels for programmers advancing on the IC track. Meanwhile, programmers should be more proactive, organizing and pressuring companies to combat age bias. Unions can standardize salaries and protect senior employees from layoffs; doing so would also likely narrow racial and gender wage gaps.

其他公司可能就不会那么慷慨。我特别为这个行业中年龄较大的女性和有色人种担心，他们会受到共同的偏见。公司必须为在IC轨道上前进的程序员明确有意义的标准。与此同时，程序员应该更积极主动，组织起来向公司施加压力，以应对年龄歧视。工会可以规范工资并保护高级雇员免于裁员;这样做的同时，也可能会帮助缩小种族和性别上的工资差距。

Making the software industry more welcoming to coders past their thirties and creating roles suited for very experienced programmers will make companies more effective and more fair. These changes will also benefit the rest of us — in a society increasingly governed by software and algorithms, programmers must gain some wisdom to match their power. They must learn from recent incidents of hacking, biased algorithms, and online incitement of genocide. The only way to do that is for older coders to stay in the industry long enough to pass their knowledge to their successors. Cultivating lifelong coders will ensure that the lessons learned today are still remembered 50 years from now.

让软件行业对过了三十岁的程序员更加开放吧，创造适合这些有经验的程序员合适的岗位可以让公司更高效，也显得更公平。这些变化也将使我们其他人受益 - 在一个越来越受软件和算法支配的社会中，程序员必须获得一些智慧来匹配他们的力量。他们必须从最近的黑客行为、有偏见的算法和在线煽动种族灭绝的事件中吸取教训。这样做的唯一方法是让年龄较大的程序员留在行业中足够长的时间，以便将他们的知识传授给他们的继任者。培养终身编程人员，将确保从现在起50年后仍然可以记住今天的经验教训。

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