"It’s obvious the game has changed" - it's obvious you haven't been in tech all that long. ;) that was a joke answer - no offence intended :) But seriously, I've heard "the game has changed" many, many, many times over the last few decades. Its true. The game is constantly changing. :)
"what you all are focusing on to stay employed in tech". - Same answer as its always been. Be reliable, show up, get stories in the Done column. Be friendly, nice, help others when they're stuck, ask for help when you're stuck, do a mixture of work, some with new tech you wanna learn, some on old legacy stuff or things other people don't like so they're grateful you did so they didn't have to and want to hang onto you 'cos you know the codebase. Look after your boss :) People forget to do this. (not being a sycophant, just genuinely making their life easier and trying to be not too much of a PITA to manage). If a job ends up being stressful / non-fun, or you're locked into all old tech with no future, then ask for a change to the role, or move jobs internally or externally.
Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
61–70 of 96 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#62I'm creating a low-code platform using AI to automate my own work (to be more productive) and also trying to learn how to engage an audience on social media (around AI and software development) to use as leverage to get contracts, launch apps and make a profit. As a coder since 2002 (when I was 12 years old), I feel like I got into tech at the right time. Nowadays the new hacker is the people that can amass a big aud…
Which low code platfor do you use?
I'm creating it from zero, creating a framework using Lit (moving from React professionally), PWA technology and LLM integration (to generate code using the framework)
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#63Stop following the crowd. Where the crowd is, there are lots of people after your job, and if we're honest, probably better than you. I've had one job my entire career (31 years and counting.) It's very niche tech. I'm good at it. There are maybe 10 other people in the world who can do what I do. And they're all overworked. The real value and security in tech is in the edges, not the mainstream.
> The real value and security in tech is in the edges, not the mainstream. disagree. fewer jobs. less turnover. like yourself - 3 decades. better go for the next big thing. whether AI, VR or something. long as it has a barrier to entry. even just complexity.
> better go for the next big thing. whether AI, VR or something.
The people on the edge create the next big thing
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious how this works out financially though. Following the crowd got people into faang with 500k incomes. Working on something obscure I haven’t seen payoff the same.
It varies. Some specialist skills pay -really- well. You don't really hear about them because they're, well, niche. Equally, yes, some folk rose up through the ranks at fang (or better yet fintech) and make mountains of loot. For each success there's a fair pile of failures though. To rise up through those ranks, typically you need to make sacrifices. Long working hours, minimal time off, stand-by weekends, emails at…
You don’t really have to rise up the ranks to make 500k. That’s a competitive offer for a senior engineer or where a senior with a mediocre offer will end up with stack refreshers and stock appreciation in a couple of years withouts any promotion. It sounds wild but is true.
Also, many of the roles are just 40hr work weeks. Not that much more stress than a 150k a year job in my experience.
You are right that after a certain point more money doesn’t give you more utility in the present. However, it does buy you time in the future given the capital that you are bound to accumulate and compound.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#65It’s a trap to be scared and try to gamble on near future. By the time most of today’s wannabe AI gurus are good enough to get a decent job offer - AI would not be such a big deal (best case scenario imo). I didn’t notice any “obvious” changes in the game that weren’t there before. For instance I don’t see anything different in requirements and comments of HRs reaching me. JVM is still same jvm, bugs are still bugs,…
The obvious thing is gpt-6 (or even gpt-5) will be able to do your job better and faster than you. This will happen in 1-2 years. That doesn’t scare you?
Is there any evidence that supports this statement?
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
The obvious thing is gpt-6 (or even gpt-5) will be able to do your job better and faster than you. This will happen in 1-2 years. That doesn’t scare you?
Is there any evidence that supports this statement?
Progression GPT1-2-3-4 in last 5 years, with no indication of any slowdown in the near future.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would be really interested to hear about what you do. If you don't want to share it in public, you can email me at the address in my profile. I'm always looking for a niche, but I haven't found one that has stuck.
He won't tell you. Nobody would tell well-paying niche to avoid competition.
Competition never hurts :). Quite the opposite, I spend a lot of time training others in the field, and passing work in their direction.
I can't go into detail here though, as that would dox me, and I'd prefer my HN person not to mix with my IRL person.
The thing about niches is that you don't really "look for them" - you stumble over them as your skills develop. You -could- learn my job, of course, but it would take a lot of time and effort.
Part of what I'm saying I guess is that I am where i am because of a long career, amd I've accumulated a lot of experience, which is hard to pass on.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#68It’s a trap to be scared and try to gamble on near future. By the time most of today’s wannabe AI gurus are good enough to get a decent job offer - AI would not be such a big deal (best case scenario imo). I didn’t notice any “obvious” changes in the game that weren’t there before. For instance I don’t see anything different in requirements and comments of HRs reaching me. JVM is still same jvm, bugs are still bugs,…
The obvious thing is gpt-6 (or even gpt-5) will be able to do your job better and faster than you. This will happen in 1-2 years. That doesn’t scare you?
let's bet 1000USD that in 2 years there will not be even 2 confirmed real cases where any algorithm is doing a full time job of senior+ software engineer?
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any evidence that supports this statement?
Progression GPT1-2-3-4 in last 5 years, with no indication of any slowdown in the near future.
there are plenty of signs that it is slowing down
including current versions quality degradation, unprofitable business models (it's still too damn expensive to be covered by your average 19$/m subscription) etc.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any evidence that supports this statement?
Progression GPT1-2-3-4 in last 5 years, with no indication of any slowdown in the near future.
There's no indication that the pace of innovation for LLMs in the near future will be anywhere near what it has been in the past few years.