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Genuine question, as someone who got exhausted and is out of the industry for the foreseeable future. How do you stay competitive or job hop when every post is

Genuine question, as someone who got exhausted and is out of the industry for the foreseeable future. How do you stay competitive or job hop when every post is looking for the latest web framework?

googlryas 3y ago
Stop looking for work in tech places. It may require you to take a pay cut and work in a place viewed as a cost center though.
- danielvaughn 3y ago
  I'm honestly thinking about just picking up c++ or something and turning my attention to embedded systems. I'm sure there's a wealth of old tech sitting around that needs to be maintained.
  - Shikadi 3y ago
    I'm in embedded, there's also cutting edge stuff to work on. The nice thing is you can be mostly detached from annoying web apis and frameworks and databases. The not so nice stuff is dealing with crappy vendors, using crappy tool chains, and spending a ton of time setting up automated builds. Sometimes I think about switching to true embedded (I do embedded Linux) but that tends to pay less
vijucat 3y ago
Don't choose hamster-wheel career tracks in the first place. Try to find Lindy paths [1], [2]. For example, SQL experts and DBAs. The rise and (mostly) demise of NoSQL actually cemented SQL's reputation as an irreplaceable technology. The latest Web framework is by definition non-Lindy: it's the new kid in town who think they know it all. grep is lindy, Unix is lindy, the qwerty keyboard is lindy, C++ is lindy, Computer Science is lindy, algorithms and data structures are lindy. Knowledge of the real world, whether it be finance or shipping, is lindy. Sorry, verbose reply, but I hope it helps. 1. https://luca-dellanna.com/lindy/ https://luca-dellanna.com/lindy/ 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect
- sph 3y ago
  Interestingly, I've been thinking it would be a good idea to brush up on my C skills, because while there are serious contestants to its throne, a gig based on Rust today often means being at the cutting edge of tech, and will probably come with a lot of buzzwords like GraphQL, React, Typescript, monorepo, AWS Lambda, daily standups — things giving me symptoms of burnout just writing down. Whereas a C gig today probably means embedded, or subsystem far away from the frontend churn. If I'm lucky they have unit tests. The Lindy path you were talking about.
- pleoxy 3y ago
  The demise of NoSQL is greatly exaggerated. It's past it's hype cycle, and that's fine. Many of us use it quietly, to do good work, and there is no need to crow to the world about what is happening under the hood.
  - Two4 3y ago
    My team was asked how we should store data that is variable in structure and depth. When I suggested using mongo and not trying stuff it into a SQL db, I was looked at like I had suggested blending my firstborn for margaritas. People seem to think that NoSQL is dead and was always a bad idea.
    - vijucat 3y ago
      The NoSQL movement was absolutely acrid towards SQL. The blowback is justified, IMHO. "blending my firstborn for margaritas" is very colorful language, woah :-)
7thaccount 3y ago
Plenty of IT jobs out there that have job security to last your entire career and don't shift to the new shiny every few years. Utilities are a good example. Lots of older tech and some newer stuff, but nothing experimental. Ex: Maintain some SQL queries, upgrade to a new database version without bricking everything, write some scripts that get fired off at a scheduled time, knowledge of the industry you're serving, update some configuration files for the company website which won't change for another decade, read some log files, create some visualization displays for operations staff, install software on certain machines, manage the company's VPN stuff, configure Linux, do the paperwork...etc All this stuff is more generic IT and less rockstar developer. It reliably pays the bills and isn't very flashy. There are plenty of people in IT that write code every day, some that rarely write code, and some that basically never write code, but just manage the business side of it all (there is a lot of beauracracy in large organizations).
ggregoire 3y ago
> How do you stay competitive or job hop when every post is looking for the latest web framework? Pretty sure you can get a job in frontend dev if you know React, which is 10 years old.
yowlingcat 3y ago
Map territory distinction -- what they are looking for (strong engineers regardless of stack) and what the role is (a description of what you'll be doing) are two different things. Find your way to doing and articulating impactful projects that use technology to measurably create leverage and value for the business, and you will be fine. Of course, that can be easier said than done.

Genuine question, as someone who got exhausted and is out of the industry for the foreseeable future. How do you stay competitive or job hop when every post is looking for the latest web framework?

googlryas 3y ago

Stop looking for work in tech places. It may require you to take a pay cut and work in a place viewed as a cost center though.

danielvaughn 3y ago
I'm honestly thinking about just picking up c++ or something and turning my attention to embedded systems. I'm sure there's a wealth of old tech sitting around that needs to be maintained.
- Shikadi 3y ago
  I'm in embedded, there's also cutting edge stuff to work on. The nice thing is you can be mostly detached from annoying web apis and frameworks and databases. The not so nice stuff is dealing with crappy vendors, using crappy tool chains, and spending a ton of time setting up automated builds. Sometimes I think about switching to true embedded (I do embedded Linux) but that tends to pay less

vijucat 3y ago

Don't choose hamster-wheel career tracks in the first place. Try to find Lindy paths [1], [2]. For example, SQL experts and DBAs. The rise and (mostly) demise of NoSQL actually cemented SQL's reputation as an irreplaceable technology. The latest Web framework is by definition non-Lindy: it's the new kid in town who think they know it all. grep is lindy, Unix is lindy, the qwerty keyboard is lindy, C++ is lindy, Computer Science is lindy, algorithms and data structures are lindy. Knowledge of the real world, whether it be finance or shipping, is lindy. Sorry, verbose reply, but I hope it helps. 1. https://luca-dellanna.com/lindy/ https://luca-dellanna.com/lindy/ 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

sph 3y ago
Interestingly, I've been thinking it would be a good idea to brush up on my C skills, because while there are serious contestants to its throne, a gig based on Rust today often means being at the cutting edge of tech, and will probably come with a lot of buzzwords like GraphQL, React, Typescript, monorepo, AWS Lambda, daily standups — things giving me symptoms of burnout just writing down. Whereas a C gig today probably means embedded, or subsystem far away from the frontend churn. If I'm lucky they have unit tests. The Lindy path you were talking about.
pleoxy 3y ago
The demise of NoSQL is greatly exaggerated. It's past it's hype cycle, and that's fine. Many of us use it quietly, to do good work, and there is no need to crow to the world about what is happening under the hood.
- Two4 3y ago
  My team was asked how we should store data that is variable in structure and depth. When I suggested using mongo and not trying stuff it into a SQL db, I was looked at like I had suggested blending my firstborn for margaritas. People seem to think that NoSQL is dead and was always a bad idea.
  - vijucat 3y ago
    The NoSQL movement was absolutely acrid towards SQL. The blowback is justified, IMHO. "blending my firstborn for margaritas" is very colorful language, woah :-)

7thaccount 3y ago

Plenty of IT jobs out there that have job security to last your entire career and don't shift to the new shiny every few years. Utilities are a good example. Lots of older tech and some newer stuff, but nothing experimental. Ex: Maintain some SQL queries, upgrade to a new database version without bricking everything, write some scripts that get fired off at a scheduled time, knowledge of the industry you're serving, update some configuration files for the company website which won't change for another decade, read some log files, create some visualization displays for operations staff, install software on certain machines, manage the company's VPN stuff, configure Linux, do the paperwork...etc All this stuff is more generic IT and less rockstar developer. It reliably pays the bills and isn't very flashy. There are plenty of people in IT that write code every day, some that rarely write code, and some that basically never write code, but just manage the business side of it all (there is a lot of beauracracy in large organizations).

ggregoire 3y ago

> How do you stay competitive or job hop when every post is looking for the latest web framework? Pretty sure you can get a job in frontend dev if you know React, which is 10 years old.

yowlingcat 3y ago

Map territory distinction -- what they are looking for (strong engineers regardless of stack) and what the role is (a description of what you'll be doing) are two different things. Find your way to doing and articulating impactful projects that use technology to measurably create leverage and value for the business, and you will be fine. Of course, that can be easier said than done.