Obselete

[mxt0133]

As a software developer I know first hand the necessity to keep up with new technology.  I have always taken pride in being able to pick up new technology or skills pretty quickly.  And even if it doesn't come easily to me I have always had the fortitude to keep at it until it made sense. 

There has been a pretty big shift in the industry toward mobile and cloud.  I jumped at the opportunity to work in a team that is the forefront of this change and there is a lot riding on our ability to deliver.  However there are certain aspects that I have a lot to catch up on, particularly the UI side of things.  I am on loan at the moment on a new team to learn the technology and bring back the knowledge to my team.  After a few weeks with the new team and working with the existing team members, my lack of experience in the area is definitely in the spot light.  A team member today actually ask me if I was "just out of school or new to my company", I have 10+ years experience and have been with the company 3 years, when I told him neither they kind of just brushed it off and I just laughed it off, initially.

I have no doubt that I'll eventually become proficient and start to be "productive".  But I have to admit it's not as easy as it used to be.  Also I don't put in as much work to learn as I used to, I used to spend nights reading tech blogs, watching videos, and hacking together experiments.  This was on top of attending graduate school, twice.  Nowadays I spend more time with family and read up on a broader spectrum of topics.  The motivation to keep up with programming technologies has definitely gone down the priority list.

I my early years of my career I always thought I had a short shelf life so to speak.  I would have to either move up into middle management or really be a rock star programmer, the former doesn't appeal to me and latter is just not going to happen.  My position is either going to be outsourced or someone with more motivation will just make me redundant.  This is why I have been very interested in FIRE at an early age.  It is comforting to know that I wouldn't be totally screwed if I were to get fired tomorrow.  I know i can still get a job at another company on the more "classical" technologies.  But it really does drive home the point of being FI.  I have always thought about being not able to work due to health issues or seismic shifts in my industry, like self writing programs, but I have never really thought about not having the motivation to continually learning new technologies to stay competitive.

Now I can relate more to all the people who's work has been displaced by new technology.  I know I certainly have displaced a few people with the software I've written.

[gooki]

From my perspective as a UI designer. Your knowledge of the underlying system, and solutions to past challenges is what will ensure your value. Your openness to change will keep you relevant.

New kids bring in shit loads of bugs. Sure they might turn out code quicker, but how often does it have to be fixed? Same goes to outsourced development.

An experienced management team will be well aware of this.

PS I know what you mean about focusing more on your family than learning everything there is that's remotely close to your career.

[hedge]

To me as a developer this is the best time to be alive and if you're smart enough to be here then you're probably in the top 10% of thinkers and problem solvers. The market is starved for people like us. So celebrate, stop worrying, save, and chill out. :-)

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

[Mr. Frugalwoods]

I feel you.  I manage a team of software developers (one option) and I am always hiring so I get to see a lot of fellow developer's career arcs.

Assuming you aren't a savant, and knowing that you don't want to spend a ton of time outside work learning the latest trendy languages and frameworks, I see there being three choices for software developer careers:

• Go into management. This can be really hard because the skills that make a great developer often don't translate well into being a manager.  I find people a lot harder to understand than systems.  But it is a financially rewarding path.
• Become an intense expert in a framework and language that is being used in the enterprise.  As I'm sure you know, the enterprise market makes changes so slowly that there will always be work maintaining and extending these legacy systems.  I know COBOL programmers today that make a great living.  As the job market for your skill dies off, people will start fighting over you.
• Become a domain expert in the business portion of the software you are working on.  These types of folks may not be up on the latest node.js but they know all the pitfalls that are common in building point of sale software (for example).  This is edging into PM territory, but still can make up a great part of an engineering team.

At the end of the day you are very correct: planning for FI is great insurance for becoming obsolete.

[Jamesqf]

What Gooki and Mr. Frugalwoods said.  You need to realize that the UIs and so on are in a sense mostly fluff that's floating on a sea of hard code.  Maybe 90% of what I do is that hard code: algorithms coded in C, and highly optimized for performance ('cause a typical real problem may involve days of run time on a sizeable cluster), with the UI being a matter of reading some files and writing others.

There is, at least as far as I can tell, a lasting market for this sort of thing. and it's pretty well divorced from the quickly-changing UI fluff.  Worst case, you make a decent API, and hand UI development off to a new hire.

[Daisy]

I have no doubt that I'll eventually become proficient and start to be "productive".  But I have to admit it's not as easy as it used to be.  Also I don't put in as much work to learn as I used to, I used to spend nights reading tech blogs, watching videos, and hacking together experiments.  This was on top of attending graduate school, twice.  Nowadays I spend more time with family and read up on a broader spectrum of topics.  The motivation to keep up with programming technologies has definitely gone down the priority list.

I my early years of my career I always thought I had a short shelf life so to speak.  I would have to either move up into middle management or really be a rock star programmer, the former doesn't appeal to me and latter is just not going to happen.  My position is either going to be outsourced or someone with more motivation will just make me redundant.  This is why I have been very interested in FIRE at an early age.  It is comforting to know that I wouldn't be totally screwed if I were to get fired tomorrow.  I know i can still get a job at another company on the more "classical" technologies.  But it really does drive home the point of being FI.  I have always thought about being not able to work due to health issues or seismic shifts in my industry, like self writing programs, but I have never really thought about not having the motivation to continually learning new technologies to stay competitive.

I can totally relate. I also work in software, but have drifted away from writing code. I work mostly on requirements and architecture. During a brief stint in unemployment a few years ago, I definitely felt the sting of this phenomenon. It seemed to me that companies were more interested in hiring fresh-outs straight from college that knew the latest programming languages, etc. And fresh-outs are more malleable to persuade to work the longer hours. If your resume didn't match the exact language/OS being used, you were just not that interesting to them. I think being able to learn new things and solve problems is more important than knowing the intricacies of a language.

Is it wrong of me to think that once you hit your 40s, you become obsolete in this field? There are many exceptions, of course, but you really have to stay on top of your game to stand out in an interview.

Technology-obsoletion is one of the top reasons I am pursuing FIRE. I never had a passion for writing software. I always enjoyed and excelled in the more "engineering" part of my work (designing systems, understanding protocols) vs. the actual software writing.

[mxt0133]

@hedge - I agree it definitely is a great time to be a developer. 

@Mr. Frugalwoods - regarding Enterprise software moving at glacial speed was one of the reasons that I left my first job out of college. 

Re-reading my original post it does sound pretty gloomy.  I have to admit my ego was a little dinged more than I cared to admit.  I know my current market value as I interview a few time a year to see how much salary I can command and to also get a feel for the market and skill sets that are in demand.  So I don't have immediate concerns about my employability.

[Jamesqf]

It seemed to me that companies were more interested in hiring fresh-outs straight from college that knew the latest programming languages, etc.

One approach to this is to go back and get an advanced degree, so to someone hiring, you look like a 'fresh-out'.  I got the MS about 15 years after the BS, and (if I ever finish the damned dissertation) the PhD will be at least a decade after that.

Another side effect of this is that all the interesting jobs I've had in the last 15-20 years have been spin-offs from the academic world.

[Daisy]

One approach to this is to go back and get an advanced degree, so to someone hiring, you look like a 'fresh-out'.  I got the MS about 15 years after the BS, and (if I ever finish the damned dissertation) the PhD will be at least a decade after that.

Another side effect of this is that all the interesting jobs I've had in the last 15-20 years have been spin-offs from the academic world.

Eh...that sure is good advice for someone that is motivated. And someone that is not close to FI. I was agreeing with the OP on this:

But I have to admit it's not as easy as it used to be.  <stuff deleted> The motivation to keep up with programming technologies has definitely gone down the priority list.

<stuff deleted> My position is either going to be outsourced or someone with more motivation will just make me redundant. <stuff deleted> I have always thought about being not able to work due to health issues or seismic shifts in my industry, like self writing programs, but I have never really thought about not having the motivation to continually learning new technologies to stay competitive.

If I am outsourced/downsized/made redundant I would see it as an opportunity to get on with Life Version 2.0 and pursue other interests outside of the field.