source | Jack Cui
author | Jack Cui
Let's talk today about whether programmers are eating "youth rice".

To give two extreme examples, if an industry is completely measured by age :
with youth as the highest priority: New blood entering the industry who is familiar with the rules can immediately replace the elderly middle-aged people, then this The industry must thrive on youth. If you enter the industry, do you feel worried and unstable at work?
puts age and seniority as the highest priority: is an industry that is very stable, no matter how talented you are, or whatever, if you don’t work for 10 or 20 years, don’t expect to make a name for yourself, just be a junior for 10 years first, and then you’ll be just The mediocre people who have fallen into the trap and are waiting to die have been suppressed for decades. As a young and energetic person, will you feel despair?
Of course, the world is diverse and complex, and no industry is absolutely dependent on age.
The programmer industry, in my opinion, is one of the few industries that requires continuous learning after graduating from college.
Because there are often new things, new papers, new algorithms, new frameworks, and improvements in business indicators, and we still count on these new things. The upside down salary of
programmers reflects the problem to a certain extent.
Every year, the salary of newcomers will be higher than that of a group of old people. This is a fact.
The old man can only keep running forward, not to fall behind, and use his own first-mover advantage to build his own barriers, either to become what others call a "technical master" or to become a "manager."
However, those who can grow up are destined to be a minority. In many cases, it depends not only on ability, but also on opportunities. Mediocrity is the majority.
Despite this, even if you are a mediocre programmer, it is definitely not a problem to make a living.
The programmer industry is much better than many industries, at least the salary is very considerable.
In fact, the so-called "youth rice" on the Internet is sometimes a kind of self-deprecation by insiders and a way to resolve embarrassment.
Others are just like you. They all graduated from a certain prestigious university, but their majors are different. Your monthly salary is 20,000, while others' monthly salary is 5,000.
Other people said: "Wow, your monthly salary is so high."
What can you reply? Could it be said: "Yes, I am very successful, am I awesome?" At this time,
said appropriately: "Hey, we actually just earned our hard-earned money by working overtime, and we are just young people."
Let Wouldn't it be great if both parties could end a conversation in a harmonious atmosphere?
Programmers work overtime and are under great pressure every day. They are earning hard-earned money. This is true.
But there are many, many jobs that are harder, more tiring, and with lower wages.
Of course, there are many professions that are a hundred times more profitable than programmers. Those industries that focus on origin, connections, and relationships are simply inaccessible to those outside the industry.
In my opinion, the Internet industry is based on elimination.
Every age group should be promoted to the corresponding rank. If you're half a beat slower, you're likely to be eliminated. Of course,
does not mean that he will be eliminated immediately, but that his rank will no longer be promoted.
As people get older and older, in the eyes of managers, the price becomes lower and lower.
Because the Internet always has new blood, there are many capable young people who want to get high salaries and come to compete.
So this has led to many programmers' "thirty-five-year-old rule" remarks.
This shows that the competitive pressure in the programmer industry is not ordinary.
Some industries seem to be stable and there is no crisis at the age of 35. That is because there is little competition pressure.
is not very profitable, and there are not many young people to compete, so the boss does not need to do any personnel optimization.
programmers are just low-level workers. If they don't advance, they will retreat. Each rank also has its own "anxiety".
The Internet industry has long passed its dividend period, and it will be difficult to have the "myth of freedom of wealth" in the future.
The salary is relatively high, and it is enough to make ends meet.
If you want to make a lot of money, you might as well look at some localized industries, such as IC.
But no one can say when it will be launched and how many years of accumulation it will take.
A person must play two different roles on the stage of his life: young and middle-aged.
So whether it is a "youth rice" industry or not a "youth rice" industry, we are all the same, and we occupy both ends.
To put it bluntly:
Being mediocre without knowing it and not working hard at all is what we should be afraid of, not age.