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Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

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Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#11

Post by bwh2 »

readonthegoapp wrote: post #2

I can't speak from the point of view, directly, as a current web dev, but I'm 100% confident that the landscape has completely changed -- from the point of view of someone who looks at, evaluates, prototypes in new stacks all the time, and product/project-managed modern web stacks. I complain here and everywhere about the insane complexity in modern-day web app dev. The truth is that, after you learn the 20 new tools…

Is ageism really that bad at the companies where you all work? Dang. Can't imagine working someplace where turning 26 puts you at risk of sounding old and washed up.

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#12

Post by kar5pt »

bwh2 wrote: post #11
readonthegoapp wrote: post #2

I can't speak from the point of view, directly, as a current web dev, but I'm 100% confident that the landscape has completely changed -- from the point of view of someone who looks at, evaluates, prototypes in new stacks all the time, and product/project-managed modern web stacks. I complain here and everywhere about the insane complexity in modern-day web app dev. The truth is that, after you learn the 20 new tools…

Is ageism really that bad at the companies where you all work? Dang. Can't imagine working someplace where turning 26 puts you at risk of sounding old and washed up.

I think he's exaggerating. The workplaces I've seen aren't nearly that bad (and definitely don't have 27 year old managers).

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#13

Post by kar5pt »

xondono wrote: post #9

One of my gripes with web development is that it looks like its primary driven by fads. A LOT of companies change the whole stack just to copy the latest gimmick they’ve seen somewhere else. Devs need to be constantly relearning how to do basic things, so you either chose some tech and hope it gets popular, or you get to know a lot of frameworks only superficially, which leaves a lot of the internet broken.

How do these companies survive? I can't imagine re-writing your code base on a whim translates to increased revenue.

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#14

Post by twox2 »

bwh2 wrote: post #11
readonthegoapp wrote: post #2

I can't speak from the point of view, directly, as a current web dev, but I'm 100% confident that the landscape has completely changed -- from the point of view of someone who looks at, evaluates, prototypes in new stacks all the time, and product/project-managed modern web stacks. I complain here and everywhere about the insane complexity in modern-day web app dev. The truth is that, after you learn the 20 new tools…

Is ageism really that bad at the companies where you all work? Dang. Can't imagine working someplace where turning 26 puts you at risk of sounding old and washed up.

Plenty of companies where it's not like this...

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#15

Post by lacoolj »

xondono wrote: post #9

One of my gripes with web development is that it looks like its primary driven by fads. A LOT of companies change the whole stack just to copy the latest gimmick they’ve seen somewhere else. Devs need to be constantly relearning how to do basic things, so you either chose some tech and hope it gets popular, or you get to know a lot of frameworks only superficially, which leaves a lot of the internet broken.

Don't think this is very accurate. If I'm wrong, please cite a real-world example.

My last two places would implement new stuff but in very isolated areas and certainly never "the whole stack".

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#16

Post by aranchelk »

The way it was put to me is the modern tech interview is to the job as the SAT is to college. They don’t require the same skills, and performance in one isn’t terribly predictive of success in the other.

Do not doubt yourself based on your interview performance. If it’s something you care about and you have the time, do your test prep properly: big O, tree traversals, etc. etc. etc.

I’ll add that as a primarily functional programmer who’s applied for multi-paradigm jobs, I’d say a lot of the answers I’ve been expected to give were quite absurd.

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#17

Post by cosmodisk »

bwh2 wrote: post #11
readonthegoapp wrote: post #2

I can't speak from the point of view, directly, as a current web dev, but I'm 100% confident that the landscape has completely changed -- from the point of view of someone who looks at, evaluates, prototypes in new stacks all the time, and product/project-managed modern web stacks. I complain here and everywhere about the insane complexity in modern-day web app dev. The truth is that, after you learn the 20 new tools…

Is ageism really that bad at the companies where you all work? Dang. Can't imagine working someplace where turning 26 puts you at risk of sounding old and washed up.

If a place has 27 year old managers floating around in turtlenecks and preaching everyone how their eco-friendly-furniture-plant-sharing-tech-corp will change the world, you probably realise it's not a good place to work anyways..

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#18

Post by slipwalker »

Clubber wrote: post #7

Tech interviews have been horribly broken for at least a decade now. They've been mostly broken for a couple decades. Fortunately I haven't had to talk to a recruiter for a job since 1998 and hopefully I never will again. Maybe call up some people you worked with before and see if their company is hiring. They most likely are. Anyway, C# is still very relevant, but it depends on location. In my city, it's huge, in ot…

  >In my city, it's huge, in others, not so much
do you mind telling us which is your city, and why it's huge on C# ?

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#19

Post by Trias11 »

Skew your resume toward you as a "solution builder" or "online business builder" vs. wordpress or PHP developer of which are dime a dozen.

Building successful solutions and helping to evolve a business is inherently more valuable skill to the guy who signs a checks.

If he is smart enough he is less care about technology you know at this given moment but more about you passion, inspiration and ability to help the business grow and learn new fad along the way if needed.

If you're facing overzealous interviewers nitpicking your coding skills or short cycled in forcing you to solve stupid puzzles in record short time - it is likely there is a disconnect within this organization on what is really important and you'll be wasting your valuable time agreeing to work there.

Re: Ask HN: Are my web dev skills still relevant?

#20

Post by carpedimebagjoe »

readonthegoapp wrote: post #2

I can't speak from the point of view, directly, as a current web dev, but I'm 100% confident that the landscape has completely changed -- from the point of view of someone who looks at, evaluates, prototypes in new stacks all the time, and product/project-managed modern web stacks. I complain here and everywhere about the insane complexity in modern-day web app dev. The truth is that, after you learn the 20 new tools…

> Get off my lawn

xD

I'm a 43 yo autodidact + BS EE/CS. Haven't had a problem except for resume gaps when doing side-hustles and unnamed startup consulting for too long, HR at shops raise their eyebrows. When it gets to in-person interviewing, I may have a leg over with ~10 years of neanimorphism, look somewhat between a neohippie artist and an idle trustfunder (definitely neither, LOL!), and (obnoxious bragging here) date college students which might help with youthful-seeming attitude.

Oh and worked on nuclear reactor simulators, infosec research, compilers, industrial mining embedded systems, HPC biomedical informatics, and just about every permutation of AWS/hybrid cloud startup scaling (Prod Eng/SRE). Rust, Haskell, C, Ruby, TS/Elm, and so on.

There's always learning, new approaches, and shifting standards to handle.

The more you know, the more you know that you don't.

Buying into one's own ego / being the office jerk are the biggest enemies in high-productivity tech. Relentlessly resourceful go-givers tend to win out in the long-term as the most valuable employees because the big name celebrity rockstar whatever tends to write checks their hubris can't cash.

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