Hi,

I'd like to ask for some career advice from you people. Is there a viable job/career that can be done in programming/IT for the long term? Right now, I am thinking about website (PHP?) developer path.

My background: I have a degree in computer science and have been a programmer/system analyst for almost 10 years. Lately I took a big break from programming and studied for a B.arch. degree (yes architecture), only to discover that architecture offers zero (0) jobs where I'm from, for 3 years already (and no, I am not going to move and the grass in not greener in other places).

I have never been particularly interested in programming, in fact I was bored by it. But I was always quite good at both programming and system analysis, and very valued by practically all my employers. On the other hand, I have never been valued or offered a good job in any other field (although I can do many things, like design, architecture, translations, documentation, teaching, etc etc.) I guess the human component has been always more important for me in programming jobs - I value all the good people I worked with, but not projects. However, I have about zero skills or desire to be a project manager. I also have close to zero skills for selling myself.

I like it best when I can do "my thing", have my niche, have an ownership of some project. Right now my career perspective is to do part time programming and to part time teach yoga. I have already started the yoga teaching part. Do you think that part time programming is viable? And what niche works best for that? I have considered web development, QA, or software development in a company like I did before. However, my fear is that when you do programming part-time, you get the most boring coding work, only to see your colleagues move to more interesting projects and up their respective career ladders. I also fear that part-timers are not especially needed either. And, since I don't share much enthusiasm at programming, I'd rather not be around young programmers boiling with geeky enthusiasm about coding, but rather QA mindset with people from different backgrounds and life paths might work better for me.

Thanks for any advice, --Rider