In a perfect world, software developers would work only on interesting projects in great teams. But in a real life, people try to find a balance between interesting and well paid jobs. In my experience, the best paid jobs are the least interesting. I can recollect only one exception to this rule in my career.
The job I enjoy the most is teaching software languages. People say, I do it well, and I really like these moments when initially blank eyes of students (say, when I start explaining Java multi-threading) become again shiny and understanding.
Beside teaching, another appealing to me profession is Java Evangelist. It’s somewhat similar to working as a trainer, and these people also travel a lot explaining why “Java does you body good “.
Wikipedia states the following: “For many groups, a church planter is called an evangelist. Sometimes, the regular minister of a church is called an evangelist in a way that other groups would typically use the term “.
While a pastor (or a rabbi) explains the Bible (or Torah), and address daily issues of their followers, Java evangelists explain JLS, demo and recommend new and existing Java-related technologies (often performing evangelistic preaching of the products of their employers).
I “d be happy to evangelize Java , but can this be a long lasting career? Java is already 10 years old and has more that 4 millions of followers. Do we need more? What “s an average “lifespan ” of any software evangelist?
If you tried this type of career, I “d appreciate your input.