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An Old Programmer Loses His Job

5 points by msolujic 5y ago

ecpottinger 5y ago
1) I wished over the last thirty years I had saved a little more money for now. It would not have taken much, just $50-100 a pay check saved up would have come out to a lot even without other investments that would pay better. 2) The people who let him go better hope that he does not know some vital piece of info that will bit them the following year for example. They may have to pay him big bucks to come back. Remember they already go rid of the other older programmers already.
MattGaiser 5y ago
I hear stories like this and become ever more convinced that you want career security, i.e. the ability to move to an equivalent role easily and that should be prioritized over your current employer.
boznz 5y ago
Trained in C and Pascal in 1982 and in the mid 90's added SQL, I still only use these and can still compile some of the code I wrote back then. I sort of assumed Pascal would die first but Its now more than half my business in the form of Delphi. I started working for myself 15 years ago after a long career in electronics and IT management, now I only work for small industries without programming departments so dont get any push in to specific technologies. Cant believe the guy cant get a job especially with the SQL knowledge, nobody questions my age.
gregjor 5y ago
I’m almost the same age as the author, programming for 40 years. Languages don’t make much difference, it’s not that hard to keep up. The main advantage of starting out so long ago comes from adding skills incrementally. I learned internet/web technologies as they dribbled out. I sometimes wonder how someone coming at web development today, fresh out of school, could get a handle on all of it. But it wasn’t always so complicated. Learning a little SQL may be handy, but learning everything about relational databases is good job security. I’ve survived multiple waves of layoffs because I was the only “database person” in the place. My Unix skills (my career slightly predates Unix) translated perfectly to Linux and modern cloud deployments. If you want to survive as a programmer you have to learn new things and expand domain expertise. You want to be in the position of selling yourself as a problem solver, not with a grab-bag CV of languages and tools.

5 points by msolujic 5y ago

1) I wished over the last thirty years I had saved a little more money for now. It would not have taken much, just $50-100 a pay check saved up would have come out to a lot even without other investments that would pay better. 2) The people who let him go better hope that he does not know some vital piece of info that will bit them the following year for example. They may have to pay him big bucks to come back. Remember they already go rid of the other older programmers already.

MattGaiser 5y ago

I hear stories like this and become ever more convinced that you want career security, i.e. the ability to move to an equivalent role easily and that should be prioritized over your current employer.

boznz 5y ago

Trained in C and Pascal in 1982 and in the mid 90's added SQL, I still only use these and can still compile some of the code I wrote back then. I sort of assumed Pascal would die first but Its now more than half my business in the form of Delphi. I started working for myself 15 years ago after a long career in electronics and IT management, now I only work for small industries without programming departments so dont get any push in to specific technologies. Cant believe the guy cant get a job especially with the SQL knowledge, nobody questions my age.

gregjor 5y ago

I’m almost the same age as the author, programming for 40 years. Languages don’t make much difference, it’s not that hard to keep up. The main advantage of starting out so long ago comes from adding skills incrementally. I learned internet/web technologies as they dribbled out. I sometimes wonder how someone coming at web development today, fresh out of school, could get a handle on all of it. But it wasn’t always so complicated. Learning a little SQL may be handy, but learning everything about relational databases is good job security. I’ve survived multiple waves of layoffs because I was the only “database person” in the place. My Unix skills (my career slightly predates Unix) translated perfectly to Linux and modern cloud deployments. If you want to survive as a programmer you have to learn new things and expand domain expertise. You want to be in the position of selling yourself as a problem solver, not with a grab-bag CV of languages and tools.