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Not the OP, but this is incredibly common. I will say that if you wish to continue working as a programmer for your entire career it is a mistake to specialise

Not the OP, but this is incredibly common. I will say that if you wish to continue working as a programmer for your entire career it is a mistake to specialise in a particular technology. It doesn't matter what technology that is. The more you specialise, the less versatile you appear to employers. It just doesn't matter what you are working on. It could be a website, or it could be a computer vision system. You use a handful of languages, frameworks, techniques, etc and 10 years later these are no longer in vogue. I think the most important thing to keep reminding yourself is that your career will hopefully last 40-45 years! The pace change of technology is increasing, rather than decreasing. If you think the flavour of the month JS frameworks are hard to keep track of now, wait 10 years when there are 4 to 5 times as many programmers working and what's hot changes practically every day. You are not "safe" with any technology. Even ML techniques will change completely an absurd number of times in the 45 years of your career. Your only hope of staying employed as a programmer for the entire time is to build yourself as someone who can pick up and work on anything at the drop of a hat. Similarly, you need a "story" that explains why you are worth more money than a person with 2-3 years of experience that has specifically trained for the flavour of the month that the company is using now. They will happily chew up and spit out those young programmers and pick up new ones when they go with the new technology. Why would they spend a premium on you? You need an answer (and a good answer) for that question. (I was going to try to answer that question for you, but it's probably better for you to figure it out for yourself... Plus any answer I give is undoubtedly piss off a bunch of people who will identify overmuch with the group I'm marketing myself as "better than" ;-) )

streetcat1 7y ago
Not so true. If any, technology only got less innovative, which is evidence that the field is stagnating. For example: 1) docker / container - an OS process (circa 1960). Basic OS design (os/360) did not change in 50 years. 2) Computer architecture (Von Numan) did not change in 50 years. 3) Basic DS and alg (not ML), did not change in 50 years. 4) Programming lang (C based). 5) Database/SQL (50 years) The only things changing today are (as you mentioned): 1) JS frameworks. but not so much as react won (probably vue js) 2) ML. Here again, most of the work is abstract by pytorch/tensorflow. 3) cloud-native app design. This is a major shift. However, in parallel, there was a massive productivity boost due to free tools / cloud / open source. So today's programmer should be equal to a team of 10 , 10 years ago, and a team of 20 , 20 years ago.
- NotSammyHagar 7y ago
  Sure, core concepts like vms are still around but the practicality and common usage and comfort and ability to understand how they can be applied (like containers) does change, and does affect your ability to get jobs, or at least interview well. I'm also older, over 50, and I'm frustrated at all these people who are similarly experienced and complain that companies don't recognize their abilities. You have to update your skills and be able to talk about the current stuff. You are foolish if you don't practice before an interview. Before I switch jobs, I take it seriously and do something like 1 hour practice every day for a month. I look at current software engineering topics (I'm usually wasting time on hackernews so I'm up to date on the latest gossip). You have to try, people!
  - streetcat1 7y ago
    Amen to that!
- mikekchar 7y ago
  25 years ago, if you knew C++ and were and expert in MFC you could write your own ticket. Now I know a lot of unemployable MFC experts. When I first started I was encouraged to learn Cobol, APL and DB2 because that's where all the money was. These days I meet people who think that they Ruby on Rails with a bit of React thrown in is going to last them a lifetime. My point is that becoming an expert in a particular language, framework or technology and expecting it to pay you for your whole career is a recipe for unemployment eventually.

streetcat1 7y ago

Not so true. If any, technology only got less innovative, which is evidence that the field is stagnating. For example: 1) docker / container - an OS process (circa 1960). Basic OS design (os/360) did not change in 50 years. 2) Computer architecture (Von Numan) did not change in 50 years. 3) Basic DS and alg (not ML), did not change in 50 years. 4) Programming lang (C based). 5) Database/SQL (50 years) The only things changing today are (as you mentioned): 1) JS frameworks. but not so much as react won (probably vue js) 2) ML. Here again, most of the work is abstract by pytorch/tensorflow. 3) cloud-native app design. This is a major shift. However, in parallel, there was a massive productivity boost due to free tools / cloud / open source. So today's programmer should be equal to a team of 10 , 10 years ago, and a team of 20 , 20 years ago.

NotSammyHagar 7y ago
Sure, core concepts like vms are still around but the practicality and common usage and comfort and ability to understand how they can be applied (like containers) does change, and does affect your ability to get jobs, or at least interview well. I'm also older, over 50, and I'm frustrated at all these people who are similarly experienced and complain that companies don't recognize their abilities. You have to update your skills and be able to talk about the current stuff. You are foolish if you don't practice before an interview. Before I switch jobs, I take it seriously and do something like 1 hour practice every day for a month. I look at current software engineering topics (I'm usually wasting time on hackernews so I'm up to date on the latest gossip). You have to try, people!
- streetcat1 7y ago
  Amen to that!
mikekchar 7y ago
25 years ago, if you knew C++ and were and expert in MFC you could write your own ticket. Now I know a lot of unemployable MFC experts. When I first started I was encouraged to learn Cobol, APL and DB2 because that's where all the money was. These days I meet people who think that they Ruby on Rails with a bit of React thrown in is going to last them a lifetime. My point is that becoming an expert in a particular language, framework or technology and expecting it to pay you for your whole career is a recipe for unemployment eventually.