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Have you considered moving to a better area of tech? Some of the new things being done with AI, Learning and Automation are pretty cool and might provide more e
by jitix 10y ago
Have you considered moving to a better area of tech? Some of the new things being done with AI, Learning and Automation are pretty cool and might provide more excitement that your current job (since you didnt specify I assumed that you're in general product/solution development field)
- scandox 10y agoQ the b
- timr 10y agoI have been programming for longer than the OP, I have an advanced degree, and I can assure you: unless you have research-level skills in these areas, they will fall out of fashion and you will be stranded in a niche. Even if you do have PhD-level training, you'll still be in that niche...you just might be able to survive when the pond dries up again. I know it doesn't seem like it to folks who haven't been around for long, but AI and ML is a fad, currently at Peak Hype. There will continue to be AI researchers in a decade, but they will be the people who are in it for the long term. The magpies who are currently swarming into the field will flitter away when the Next Big Thing comes along. I point this out only because the OP specifically mentions how the treadmill of constant learning leaves you in place in this industry...and this is a great example of how it happens. If you spend your life chasing every five-year fad cycle in tech, hoping for continued relevance, you'll burn out. Moreover, you'll always be at a competitive disadvantage to the 20-something new grad who knows the new shiny as well as you do, and works for praise and pizza. If you want to specialize, then really specialize. But be prepared to devote a big chunk of your life to it.
- gaius 10y agoAI Winter is coming https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter
- kevindeasis 10y agoI've been looking for someone with this perspective. Do you think it is just AI and ML? Do you feel the same way about data scientists, data analyst (not actuary,statisticians,mathematicians, etc)? What other domains do you recommend instead?
- timr 10y agoIf you are new, I recommend that you pick a discipline with long-term proven value, and go as deep as you can into it. If you have a bit more experience, pick a second discipline, and define yourself as the specialist in X-meets-Y. Just don't be a magpie: make a choice, and stick to it. This is the hard part, because it will be excruciatingly tempting to follow all of the other magpies to the new field when they leave. As for your other question: no, it isn't just AI. Right now, the "javascript engineer", "mobile developer" and "data scientist" are all magical creatures of the Unicorn Land. I can't predict what comes next, but I can confidently predict that none of these things will be as hot in a decade, because they're all just the latest variations on broader themes. That said, there are often actual disciplines beneath these trends. For example, "data science" is practically the definition of a magpie fad: science has always depended upon data, so putting "data" in front of the term is an indication of (fairly thoughtless) trend-chasing. But actuaries, analysts, scientists and statisticians have been around for decades, and will continue to exist long after the last 20-something "senior data scientist" has closed his Jupyter notebook for good. Specialize in those things, instead, and call yourself whatever goofy thing you need to say on a resume to get hired. Any reasonably intelligent kid can pick up a data analysis tool in months, but it still takes decades for that kid to become an expert statistician. Prefer the latter.
- uola 10y agoWhile they might not realized, many programmers will already specialized in software development. Meaning their career will take them to technical lead, project manager, software architect etc. and not "number crunching".