I am 71, started programming when I was 13 (my Dad got me access to a Basic time sharing system, using a teletype terminal).
I am just now starting to feel like I can no longer be competitive as a professional developer. The younger people I work with just seem to get more work done. I feel like I understand aspects of business, software complexity, and practical aspects of development better than most people I work with and have worked with, but those are also becoming more common skills. I very much enjoy writing and working on my own open source projects, which is what I plan on doing, but I will profoundly miss social interactions around developing large systems as a part of a team.
If you are 30 and enjoy programming and you can get paid adequately, then I don’t think you have any problems with your career choice.
I am just now starting to feel like I can no longer be competitive as a professional developer. The younger people I work with just seem to get more work done. I feel like I understand aspects of business, software complexity, and practical aspects of development better than most people I work with and have worked with, but those are also becoming more common skills. I very much enjoy writing and working on my own open source projects, which is what I plan on doing, but I will profoundly miss social interactions around developing large systems as a part of a team.
If you are 30 and enjoy programming and you can get paid adequately, then I don’t think you have any problems with your career choice.