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>why would people starting their programming careers 15+ years later than most people need to pick different tools? It makes no sense at all. *One low barries

>why would people starting their programming careers 15+ years later than most people need to pick different tools? It makes no sense at all. *One low barries to entry* Companies like Vanguard are desperate for Cobol engineers. They'll train just about anyone. I know quite a few financial analysts of all ages that made the leap to maintain their legacy systems and are doing quite well for themselves. There is little competition for this sort of job *It might work out well for everyone* Not everyone is looking to do the latest, most marketable work. Imagine someone that is 57 and plans to retire in 5-10 years. This works out great for both them and the employer. The employer gets coverage on their legacy systems, springs free folks earlier in their career to build that sexy, next gen replacement, the employee gets a nice, cushy ride into the sunset. If its planned well the replacement system arrives right around retirement time. Migrate and move to Florida *Some folks are not looking to ride the dragon* Some folks love the idea of a system that is completely understood and battle tested. Some of these legacy systems benefit from 30-40 years of hardening. Adding enhancements and such have clear, uniform processes honed over decades with very little in the way of surprises. For many folks the idea of come in at 9 and leave at 5 with little volatility is very appealing. To each their own.

mywittyname 4y ago
> There is little competition for this sort of job On both sides of the market. There's like 75 times as many javascript job listing as there are cobol ones on popular job boards. You can get all of those things without leaning on a tech stack with such a small job pool. Most development jobs, especially at large companies, are maintenance-oriented development. Java is the ecosystem to learn if the three points you listed are important to someone. There are gobs of Java jobs out there, many are battle-tested systems built long ago running in established companies. Another benefit is that there's an actual job market for Java developers, which should be a huge consideration for everyone, because having a stable job isn't the same as having a stable job feel good going to every day.

mywittyname 4y ago

> There is little competition for this sort of job On both sides of the market. There's like 75 times as many javascript job listing as there are cobol ones on popular job boards. You can get all of those things without leaning on a tech stack with such a small job pool. Most development jobs, especially at large companies, are maintenance-oriented development. Java is the ecosystem to learn if the three points you listed are important to someone. There are gobs of Java jobs out there, many are battle-tested systems built long ago running in established companies. Another benefit is that there's an actual job market for Java developers, which should be a huge consideration for everyone, because having a stable job isn't the same as having a stable job feel good going to every day.