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yes there are a few COBOL 'jobs' scattered throughout the country, but that really doesnt matter. a person can stick with learning one language and hoping it r

by autokad 13y ago

yes there are a few COBOL 'jobs' scattered throughout the country, but that really doesnt matter. a person can stick with learning one language and hoping it remains relevant for their 40-50 year career, but outliers do not make a rule. theres lots of people doing really well playing the lottery. making a web page today in 'html' is NOTHING like it was 5 years ago, let alone 10. you're simplifying it way too much. if you were a web designer, and just stuck with what you taught yourself back in 2005, you would be out of a job. you constantly have to learn new libraries, new languages because no software operates on an island. yes, every field must adapt and add changes, but none so much as like with tech. all of this is COMPLETELY irreverent anyways. IF you want to be a programmer, and not look ahead to your future to find out what you will need to grow into, BY ALL MEANS. And if you think people will still find your skills valuable even though you don't plan on updating them constantly, good luck. the point is, if you read the article and dont want to gamble with your future, a programmer is a dead end job in the sense that if you are not moving into some sort of managerial position, there is no where to go.

smsm42 13y ago
Nobody says "don't learn anything for 10 years". That would get you in trouble in almost any profession but maybe burger flipping. What I am saying that what you learned in 2005 about HTML is still useful, you just add stuff to it bit by bit, becoming more experienced - and your value actually raises, not declines. Nobody says "do not update your skills". What I am saying is "don't discount the skills you already have". This is additive, not zero-sum - if you know both COBOL and Ruby, it's better than just one of them, and your expertise should cost more even if you don't write COBOL on current project - because you have wider experience and thus probably can see solutions or aspects somebody with narrower experience can not. That's why I think "unhireable by 40" is a nonsense that is long gone from any shop that is interested in hiring actually good programmers and not cheapest coders to generate KLOCs for some contracts where it won't work anyway but it's OK because it means more contracts. >>> IF you want to be a programmer, and not look ahead to your future to find out what you will need to grow into, BY ALL MEANS. This is a false dichotomy. I want to be a programmer AND look into my future, and I do, thankyouverymuch. I do not want to be a CEO, it's not a job for me, I'd suck at it. But I don't suck at programming, and that's what I want to do. And I think there are lots of opportunities around to earn your bread and butter on it. >>> that if you are not moving into some sort of managerial position, there is no where to go. That's plain wrong - there's everywhere to go, and you confirm it yourself by noticing new things appearing all the time. That's where you go - doing new things! You don't have to have a 'C' in your title to live a fulfilling professional (or personal) life. Of course, if your goal is to have that 'C', go ahead - but there could be many more goals than that.

by autokad 13y ago

smsm42 13y ago

Nobody says "don't learn anything for 10 years". That would get you in trouble in almost any profession but maybe burger flipping. What I am saying that what you learned in 2005 about HTML is still useful, you just add stuff to it bit by bit, becoming more experienced - and your value actually raises, not declines. Nobody says "do not update your skills". What I am saying is "don't discount the skills you already have". This is additive, not zero-sum - if you know both COBOL and Ruby, it's better than just one of them, and your expertise should cost more even if you don't write COBOL on current project - because you have wider experience and thus probably can see solutions or aspects somebody with narrower experience can not. That's why I think "unhireable by 40" is a nonsense that is long gone from any shop that is interested in hiring actually good programmers and not cheapest coders to generate KLOCs for some contracts where it won't work anyway but it's OK because it means more contracts. >>> IF you want to be a programmer, and not look ahead to your future to find out what you will need to grow into, BY ALL MEANS. This is a false dichotomy. I want to be a programmer AND look into my future, and I do, thankyouverymuch. I do not want to be a CEO, it's not a job for me, I'd suck at it. But I don't suck at programming, and that's what I want to do. And I think there are lots of opportunities around to earn your bread and butter on it. >>> that if you are not moving into some sort of managerial position, there is no where to go. That's plain wrong - there's everywhere to go, and you confirm it yourself by noticing new things appearing all the time. That's where you go - doing new things! You don't have to have a 'C' in your title to live a fulfilling professional (or personal) life. Of course, if your goal is to have that 'C', go ahead - but there could be many more goals than that.