I have loved computers since childhood when I saw people typing computers on TV. However, I only started learning programming in 2000, from high school. The computer became my life from that. I wanted to know what is the career paths, the career levels for a programmer like me to try, but I can’t find it.

After many years working as a coder, solution, owner of a development company, with many roles in the web/application development process, I’d like to organize it to 20 levels and share it below:

• Level 1: Studied logic & programming knowledge.
• Level 2: Practiced programming practices and problems.
• Level 3: Trained in a real development company.
• Level 4: Solved normal tasks dependently.
• Level 5: Solved whole normal tasks independently.
• Level 6: Solved complex tasks/functions dependently.
• Level 7: Solved whole complex tasks/functions independently.
• Level 8: Understood several technical skills from different resources to understand how they solve different parts of a small project.
• Level 9: Understood all technical skills from different resources to understand how to complete a small project.
• Level 10: Completed the small projects as technical responsible dependently.
• Level 11: Completed the whole small projects as technical responsible independently.
• Level 12: Understood the performance problems and solutions at theory level.
• Level 13: Completed many (should be over 30 to 50) real projects to understand deeply about user requirements and technical solutions for any pieces of a web/application.
• Level 14: Can understand a user's business quickly, can convert it to technical solutions, can consult clients the whole/completed/a-z solutions, can make it done with any development resources for a small project.
• Level 15: Completed a few real projects as the role of point 14.
• Level 16: Can convert from user’s business to technical solutions, can consult clients a-z solutions, can make it done with any development resources for complicated-but-not-big projects.
• Level 17: Completed a few real projects as the role of point 16.
• Level 18: Can consult clients a-z solutions and can make it done for the big or complex projects.
• Level 19: Completed a few real projects as the role of point 18.
• Level 20: Master of development who can convert any real live business to a software system.

This is just my own experiences and thoughts, hopefully I can receive more experiences from yours.