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Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

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Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#51

Post by hmapple »

The replies to this make it pretty clear that no “single” hard skill or really even set of hard skills will remain defensible indefinitely

Adding my own anecdote as an employer, I mainly hire engineers based on their demonstrated ability to efficiently identify practical solutions to problems, and to self manage the translation of those solutions into maintainable, production systems (tldr, ship shit that works and that others can work on with you, all in a reasonable timeframe)

That being said, I can tell you it is extremely hard to find an experienced cryptographer, and I expect that need to grow over the next several years (though it’s very niche and your options will certainly be limited, if lucrative)

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#52

Post by svachalek »

mariogintili wrote: post #11

Sadly I don't think software engineering is one of the skillsets that will keep you employable, I think it's gone forever

People have been saying this every few years for decades. First it was RAD, project managers are going to take your job. Then it was outsourcing, India is going to take your job. Then it was wfh, some slacker anywhere in the world can take your job. Now it's AI, ChatGPT wants your job.

There's always a kernel of truth to things -- if you are counting on some bare minimum tech skill like knowing enough HTML to make a small biz web site, or coding carefully specified mocks into JavaScript, you're going to be vulnerable to these kinds of disruptions. But real software engineering is a lot more than that -- you need to be the bridge between people and problems and the technology that can solve them. When AI can do that on its own, we'll be out of a job but so will everyone else.

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#53

Post by oreally »

svachalek wrote: post #38
p1esk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any evidence to support your statement?

I am a manager/engineer for one of the largest tech companies. Skills I am often asked to interview for are often in the direction of teamwork and relationship building. Promotion criteria are also strongly aligned in this direction. The ability of someone to get anything significant done sitting alone with their headphones on at a scale like this is practically nil. I think with generative AI things will continue to…

That's an anecdote. From the perspective of lean employers I suspect that when it comes down to it soft skills will lose out to productivity/cost.

Also call me cynical but this probably means more meetings, many of which can turn out to be a big waste of time for the individual.

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#54

Post by oidar »

lantry wrote: post #33
thepasswordis wrote: post #29

Don’t learn frameworks, learn languages. If you are a good C, python, or JavaScript[1] developer you will have work for the rest of time. [1]: it is hazardously easy to end up as a framework programmer in JavaScript. If you are working in JavaScript I would strongly encourage you to learn one of the other two if you want to stay relevant for more than a few years.

Don't learn frameworks or languages, learn computer science and software engineering! languages are an implementation detail. What's really important is critical thinking, problem solving, and knowing how computers work.

Don't learn frameworks, languages, or even computer science! The real secret is to become a tech influencer on social media. Just post photos of yourself with the latest MacBook in trendy coffee shops, drop buzzwords like "blockchain", "AI", "Web3", and "disruptive innovation", and watch the job offers roll in.

Who needs to grind LeetCode or understand algorithms when you have 100k followers? Companies will throw money at you just to look cool by association.

Of course, this strategy may only work until the VC funding runs out and they realize you can't actually code your way out of a paper bag... But hey, by then you'll have cashed out and moved on to your next "passion project"!

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#55

Post by sharadov »

sgarland wrote: post #48

Databases. SQL isn’t going anywhere, and neither is Postgres. Plus the various NoSQL offerings. DBA has been reinvented as DBRE. It’s essentially still the same job, except you also have to know how to wrestle YAML, HA/DR, and create meaningful SLIs / SLOs. But if you like getting your hands dirty with the internals of DBs, hoo boy are there jobs. My last interview run, I had a 50% callback rate (n=10), plus some ext…

Most companies have managed dbs, and they don't hire a DBRE/DBOps person until it's too late. But I agree there are jobs and not many people with the skills.

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#56

Post by emseetech »

giantg2 wrote: post #39
emseetech wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a generalist is best for minimizing downtime between jobs. Being a specialist is best for maximizing salary and job security on a job.

I'm not sure this is true. It seems that places just want specialists. Im struggling to keep my current job because im inconsistent (fast as some things and slow at others) but I have a diverse working experience and im a genralist. If I need to find a new job, I'm most likely going to looking at low skill/requirement positions like a trash collector.

This must be location dependent.

In the US, generalists are still high in demand. You might end up writing Wordpress plugins or some other unsexy tech, but there's work available for a decent salary.

Or if you are in the US and you're thinking about tech purely in terms of startup/vc/faaang terms, then you're more right, but wrt tech more broadly that's just not the case.

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#57

Post by voisin »

amw-zero wrote: post #44
talkingtab wrote: post #25

Your question is wrong. Your goal should not to be employable, 'get gigs'. We live in a time where the job market is shrinking, jobs are fewer, more applicants, lower wages, etc. If you rely on employers for your livelihood you are buying a lottery ticket where the payout is smaller and less frequent. If you are a "follower" you have no choice. But if you can think your way out of a paper bag use that skill and start…

Laughably bad advice. What's the failure rate of startups - 90%? This is less risky than a slightly crowded job market where there's still millions of jobs?

OP’s advice could equally apply to consulting.

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#58

Post by giantg2 »

emseetech wrote: post #56
giantg2 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is true. It seems that places just want specialists. Im struggling to keep my current job because im inconsistent (fast as some things and slow at others) but I have a diverse working experience and im a genralist. If I need to find a new job, I'm most likely going to looking at low skill/requirement positions like a trash collector.

This must be location dependent. In the US, generalists are still high in demand. You might end up writing Wordpress plugins or some other unsexy tech, but there's work available for a decent salary. Or if you are in the US and you're thinking about tech purely in terms of startup/vc/faaang terms, then you're more right, but wrt tech more broadly that's just not the case.

I'm in the US. The job market for tech seems terrible for my background and in the Philly region in general. There aren't even many unsexy jobs. Seems like most of the job postings are related to about a dozen big companies, and they are either saturated with applicants or they're just evergreen postings with little desire to actually hire someone.

Re: Ask HN: What skillsets/stacks will keep me employable over the next 5-10 years?

#59

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

I've been a developer for 40+ years, and the trend (other than off-shoring and loss of jobs) seems to be towards systems integration rather than from-scratch development. The other modern trend is of course the rise of AI/ML, a lot of which is also going to be used just as a component.

I'd guess that the bulk of software jobs going forwards are going to be of this nature, including "full-stack" type jobs where an employer wants someone with a current skill set who can rapidly assemble a solution out of various off-the-shelf technologies, with AL/ML increasingly part of the mix. This is also what employers want to see on resumes - an emphasis on having delivered useful solutions rather than just a laundry list of tech skills.

If you're a gig worker rather than looking for full-time jobs, then that may change things a bit - more towards the hired gun coming in with a specialized skill to do a specific job as opposed to an employee with a full stack of skills of general relevance to the type of work a given team is doing.

5-10 years is a relatively long time. I'm not sure how long any specific recommendations of what's in hot demand right now will last, but being able to automate things using off-the-shelf & fine-tuned LLMs/AI is presumably going to be an area that will continue to grow in demand over that time frame.

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