What would be the best way to bring people back to ‘their first love’, i.e. programming, from other roles, e.g. sales, management, support, testing, etc.
This may become an issue given the current state of the economy.
I’m not talker about the CEO who last programmed ALGOL using punch cards, but someone who has more recently moved away from programming into a role that they realise is not for them.
When is it too long ‘away from programming’ for someone to make the switch back and make a useful contribution?
I don’t think the time away should be used to define whether a person is ready to come back. I was a dev for a long time, moved into management, and then into executive management, and finally decided I had to come back to development. The key to my ability to do it was that while I was ‘away’, I was still following the industry closely and I still did little side projects to keep my skills (and my lust for development) sharp.
So, I was away for almost ten years and I am back at it and having a blast.
HTH,
Colby Africa