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If you're comfortable financially where you are, go with the flow, relax, buy a Miata, do what is interesting for you. Maybe think about some larger impact you

If you're comfortable financially where you are, go with the flow, relax, buy a Miata, do what is interesting for you. Maybe think about some larger impact you can have in the world other than work that will be discarded in 12 months or less. I did the "hyper-focus-on-one-tech" thing for ~15 years. Talk about burn out.

tuyguntn 2y ago
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Reason I started worrying is because market for Golang CRUD/API engineers seems to be down a lot, not many opportunities, if I lose this job need quite some time to pivot to another stack or start as a middle engineer again (currently, staff engineer)
- dudul 2y ago
  Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, but saying that changing stack would lower you from staff to middle engineer is idiotic. A staff engineer is meant to be more removed from the code than an intermediate engineer, they're supposed to bring massive multiplier effect instead of cranking code all day. I don't think you should focus so much on the stack.
  - tuyguntn 2y ago
    You're absolutely right in terms of what is expected from Staff eng, but try to get a job in companies with primarily Java or .NET stack (I am talking mostly about Western Europe). First barrier is an interview, from my experience people expect you to know nitty-gritty details of their stack if you want to lead other engineers and be a force multiplier. How do you even do a code review without properly understanding the trade-offs in that stack or widely accepted best practices in the community, which you accumulate over a long period of time. You can of course fallback to another archetype of staff eng, and become a voice of leadership to translate high level business objectives to technical solutions, but companies I know still expect you to write a lot of code
    - nequo 2y ago
      If you are interested in developing your career in that direction, would it have a higher reward in terms of job security and compensation to focus on your soft skills instead of hard skills? If you're already a staff engineer, your leadership skills could be more important to your future than becoming fluent in Java or .NET. Aim for getting promoted, not for avoiding getting demoted?
- randmeerkat 2y ago
  > Reason I started worrying… “I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” - Mark Twain
- nullindividual 2y ago
  Many of us are worried. Hell, I was publicly recognized for the depth I went into around the product you likely know and may even hate. I wrote books on it. I dove into and debugged it's closed source code. Etc. I don't want to touch it again. In fact, I'd rather go into environmental science so I can contribute something to the greater world. But that would require schooling and that doesn't seem to be desirable in your 40s. Not that it can't be done, but it would be an enormous pay cut plus student loans. Anyway, find something that makes you happy. Don't chase the tech. Like other's have said, blockchain was "hot", crypto was "hot", data science may be reaching the tail end of it's "hotness". I expect AI in today's form to fizzle out, as well (can't speak for it's future states). CEOs/CIOs/CTOs rah-rah this shit and time and time again we're back to doing generalists work - Azure/AWS/GCP web services, some API middle layer, some database layer. And that's okay!
Xenoamorphous 2y ago
Ugh, not OP but I'm kinda in a similar position as him/her. I want a Miata too.
- michaelrpeskin 2y ago
  That’s what they always say Miata Is Always The Answer Though, if I could afford an old air cooled 911, that’s what I’d do.
  - dver 2y ago
    Old guy 911's, gotta love it. 61 here. Had a Miata myself, have shifted to SLK's same fun, slightly bigger, some with very large horsepower.
lukevp 2y ago
Can confirm. 35 year old engineer with a Miata (and another car). Excellent recommendation. Don’t believe the NC hate, a PRHT NC Miata is an incredible cruising car. The ND is a retractable fastback and doesn’t fully go down (aka not a real convertible) and NCs are super cheap. If you must go with a new car, NDs are fine too, just don’t discount the NC!

tuyguntn 2y ago

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Reason I started worrying is because market for Golang CRUD/API engineers seems to be down a lot, not many opportunities, if I lose this job need quite some time to pivot to another stack or start as a middle engineer again (currently, staff engineer)

dudul 2y ago
Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, but saying that changing stack would lower you from staff to middle engineer is idiotic. A staff engineer is meant to be more removed from the code than an intermediate engineer, they're supposed to bring massive multiplier effect instead of cranking code all day. I don't think you should focus so much on the stack.
- tuyguntn 2y ago
  You're absolutely right in terms of what is expected from Staff eng, but try to get a job in companies with primarily Java or .NET stack (I am talking mostly about Western Europe). First barrier is an interview, from my experience people expect you to know nitty-gritty details of their stack if you want to lead other engineers and be a force multiplier. How do you even do a code review without properly understanding the trade-offs in that stack or widely accepted best practices in the community, which you accumulate over a long period of time. You can of course fallback to another archetype of staff eng, and become a voice of leadership to translate high level business objectives to technical solutions, but companies I know still expect you to write a lot of code
  - nequo 2y ago
    If you are interested in developing your career in that direction, would it have a higher reward in terms of job security and compensation to focus on your soft skills instead of hard skills? If you're already a staff engineer, your leadership skills could be more important to your future than becoming fluent in Java or .NET. Aim for getting promoted, not for avoiding getting demoted?
randmeerkat 2y ago
> Reason I started worrying… “I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” - Mark Twain
nullindividual 2y ago
Many of us are worried. Hell, I was publicly recognized for the depth I went into around the product you likely know and may even hate. I wrote books on it. I dove into and debugged it's closed source code. Etc. I don't want to touch it again. In fact, I'd rather go into environmental science so I can contribute something to the greater world. But that would require schooling and that doesn't seem to be desirable in your 40s. Not that it can't be done, but it would be an enormous pay cut plus student loans. Anyway, find something that makes you happy. Don't chase the tech. Like other's have said, blockchain was "hot", crypto was "hot", data science may be reaching the tail end of it's "hotness". I expect AI in today's form to fizzle out, as well (can't speak for it's future states). CEOs/CIOs/CTOs rah-rah this shit and time and time again we're back to doing generalists work - Azure/AWS/GCP web services, some API middle layer, some database layer. And that's okay!

Xenoamorphous 2y ago

Ugh, not OP but I'm kinda in a similar position as him/her. I want a Miata too.

michaelrpeskin 2y ago
That’s what they always say Miata Is Always The Answer Though, if I could afford an old air cooled 911, that’s what I’d do.
- dver 2y ago
  Old guy 911's, gotta love it. 61 here. Had a Miata myself, have shifted to SLK's same fun, slightly bigger, some with very large horsepower.

lukevp 2y ago

Can confirm. 35 year old engineer with a Miata (and another car). Excellent recommendation. Don’t believe the NC hate, a PRHT NC Miata is an incredible cruising car. The ND is a retractable fastback and doesn’t fully go down (aka not a real convertible) and NCs are super cheap. If you must go with a new car, NDs are fine too, just don’t discount the NC!