How do tech folks feel about their children choosing the same career path? To all the software engineers/developers/techies out there, what are your honest thoughts about your children following in your footsteps and choosing a career in software engineering? With your experience and hindsight, would you encourage this path for them? |
As such, I think it's more valuable to think about the problems one might be wanting to solve in the future, and while computers are likely to be inevitable tools, one should consider their use and programming as an additional thing.
I encourage my kids (3 and 6) to explore computers without the internet: an Ubuntu laptop has an entirely different appeal from a browser and internet. I regret a bit for not putting them at the terminal first, but there's always an opportunity if they develop a deeper interest in the future.
Interestingly, even my dad, an astronomer making heavy use of computers and programming to achieve his goals from late 70s, tried to push me in the direction of other fundamental sciences. But I simply stuck with pure software engineering because it was so exciting in the 90s.
It's not "learn blender" for itself i'm aiming to push, its "broaden your experience and capabilities with the tools that are used to make art." Because she has some passion for the art, which may not last but is what's there now.
If she then gets fascinated by hacking blender tools or something, I'll encourage that. but I don't think that's likely.
I think the age of "tech" as a specialty is long past, and we've got "tech" elements in everything. "web people" are layout geeks who don't have light tables and graded opacity markers anymore. The people who ran printing presses now manage database instances. They're not ignorant of what's happening over there at the layout office, they're just usually not interested in anything but the plate that comes out the be put on the roller.
In the sense of "tell your kids to do $X it will guarantee they make a lot of money" i don't think there's any $X worth promoting that way. I'd rather my child find a livable life than chase some goal not in her heart because its perceived popular.
I'll teach my daughter some of the skills because i don't think there are many careers where programming has zero value, but my kid is a theater kid through and through. It's very tragic for my financial dreams for her, but I'm getting a little more heartened as she and I explore and I talk to people about the domain. I'm hoping it'll be like when I learned that technical writing existed, so a writer kid was not doomed to starve.
I also wonder time to time about other fields that often improve with experience – the more you practice, the better you become. In contrast, software engineering requires constant adaptation to new technologies, making past experience with older technologies less relevant. Staying current in this field is a continuous challenge and not always straightforward.
Encourage kids to pick up "blue collar" jobs where most others are scared of getting their hands dirty. Less competition for jobs and the pay is great. The work is also rewarding on its own.