I see many programmers leaving their career as programmers to start a career as project managers. At certain age, they leave his work as programmers to start another stage on their career, but I think that most of them do not get bored of programming, I think that they just leave the programming career because the salary is not the same as project managers. So, along the time and reaching the higher point of a programmer salary, they decide to leave all programming activities. So, you have skilled programmers not doing good programming because their career seems to be truncated by the market driven salary.
How many times did you hear the words «I cannot pay you more because this is the market salary». Then you start looking other job positions, and you want to leave the programming career because it requires effort, you must think all day, and usually you must do overtime because you must solve requirements which are not managed properly — handled by mediocre project managers that allows the customer to request changes in the last hour — and are allowed to be handled as urgent requirements always because they want a cheaper development.
Usually those companies are requesting low profile programmers too. People that cannot handle complex programming problems. They are cheaper. So, you must not expect smart people working for those companies, and even you will not be able to say «show me the code», because they do not have a real interest on programming. Usually those companies are a trampoline to reach a higher positions as project manager, software architect and department manager, so there is no real interest on doing software. There is a big difference between someone that enjoys programming and someone that does not program, and usually those programmers that are seeking a higher position are falling in the same game, and allowing those «last minute super requirement that will change the world» to be implemented.
And you slowly are getting bored of programming because your environment, or maybe your company is not as good as it is described in newspapers, and it seems that you feel as slave. But it is natural, because your company is selling cheaper development and is not capable to sell good development, so the economics of your company is not driven by good managers. Optimization is not the approach of your company, they are using maximizations, delivering projects in less time that it is really required, making your work a daily torture programming overtime and meeting milestones with less time that a software piece really needs. So, there are two options, your project manager is a really bad project manager because he cannot manage requirements, or your company is a bad company because they cannot manage requirements.
If every project is urgent and should be solved as soon as possible, the fact that your milestones and schedule have the wrong estimation is real as the fact that your project managers are only thinking on the bank check at the end of the month.
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