Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 81 posts

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

#71

Post by mindcrime »

bongodongobob wrote: post #46
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…

Lol "work 2 jobs". Great advice. My advice is work for a big company and put in your 40 and no more if possible. Ride that to retirement. Or grind your ass off for a decade with minimal returns and possible ruin.

My advice is work for a big company and put in your 40 and no more if possible. Ride that to retirement. Or grind your ass off for a decade with minimal returns and possible ruin.

Yes, those are the ONLY two possible outcomes.

Fallacy of the Excluded Middle much?

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

#72

Post by UncleOxidant »

r2_pilot wrote: post #62
UncleOxidant wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to switch careers (and it might not be a bad idea) why switch to something where there aren't a lot of jobs? I doubt there are a lot of outdoor recreation jobs - sure, there are going to be some, but it seems like a small niche and very geographically-specific. If I was still in my 30s or younger I'd probably look into becoming an electrician or a plumber - the pay is good, lots of demand as older gen…

The reason I didn't suggest those is because of the rapid advancements in AI and robotics, I think within about 5 years a good chunk of that could be automated or people with minimal training could use augmented reality to do it themselves. But hey, I've already taken my lumps here

I have a hard time believing that there's going to be a robot that will be able to do plumbing or electrical in an older home in the next 20 years, let alone the next 5. Will they maybe have something that helps run wire through a crawl-space? Sure, maybe. Maybe even something that could run PEX tubing under a house - maybe. But they're going to get into situations where they get hung up, stuck, etc. and require a lot of skilled help. They could be a labor saving device, but they're not going to completely replace the plumber/electrician for a long time (on existing construction - it's an easier problem with new construction because it can be designed in such a way as to accommodate robots. Still, there's a lot of existing construction and a shortage of both plumbers and electricians).

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

#73

Post by usgroup »

I'm not sure knowledge of technologies is ever more than a temporary distinguishing factor. I think engineers are distinguished more substantially by a depth of understand of the fundamentals. By definition, fundamentals do not change as much and are less subject to styles and fashions.

Perhaps you're asking "where will the low hanging fruit be in 5 years time"? I think that's always difficult to answer because software tech can go from obscurity to ubiquity and back again in a short cycle. I think it is roughly like picking winners on the stock market.

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

#74

Post by onetimeuse92304 »

There is no single solution this problem.

Look at the changes that happened in the past and ask yourself:

* which people have been successful regardless of changes that happened?

I think almost independently of whatever you do in life, if you are absolutely best at what you do, you are probably going to be fine. Even if what you do is house cleaning, if you are best at houscleaning you are going to be fine. There is always going to be a millionaire or a billionaire who will prefer to have a human sweep the floor rather than a roomba. Or maybe a lab will prefer to have humans to do the work just to not invite potentially dangerous electronics on the site.

There is always demand for top level talent in any area. There will always be demand for human reporters, human drivers, human writers, human programmers, human graphics designers, human managers, regardless of the changes that will happen.

But it is possible that the demand will only be for top of the top of the top of people in each those areas and 99.9% or even more will be replaced and automated.

Another thing that can help is rare specialisation that is not worth automating.

One of the easier ways to find those rare specialisation is at a cross of two largely orthogonal areas of study. I like to think a lot of useful things happen through people who connect different, sometimes distant areas of knowledge / ability.

Another thing that helps people survive change is being a free agent. Don't be an employee -- be an enterpreneur with a mindset to learn and ability to pivot on a moment to moment basis. Learn a lot about life and universe, economics, trends, etc. Learn basis of how enterpreneurship works, how to find new areas that can provide value to people.

---

So if you are a developer, you have some choices:

* become best damn developer while you still can. Spend considerable time honestly learning your craft. Just completing projects is no longer enough to be safe, but outstanding developers who can complete projects will always be needed.

* learn deeply something else that can be connected with development. I know finances and it seems there will always be a need for people who know well development as well as finances.

* you could learn management/leadership skills. The trouble is, there is plenty of technical managers/leaders, just becoming one will not guarantee job safety. You will have to work hard to keep being strong technically while you are also trying to become very competent manager/leader.

* build on your development skills to become an enterpreneur. This is probably the hardest / riskiest path.

Other choices? Please, let me know... I am myself interested in this whole topic.

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

#76

Post by pseudocomposer »

mindcrime wrote: post #70
pseudocomposer wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve actually built and AGPLed my side gig, which correlates pretty closely to what you described here: https://github.com/JonLatane/jonline Personal/Demo server (links to/includes data from the other two servers automatically): https://jonline.io Servers for Durham, NC and Raleigh, NC (link to each other only): https://bullcity.social and https://oakcity.social But um… how make money with it? I’m paying $60/mo for t…

No Chapel Hill? I feel excluded. :-(

I’m actually a UNC grad so it breaks my heart too :-(

It’s really because (1) it costs $14/mo to add an instance currently (though my aforementioned cost saving measure can bring it down to $1/mo), and (2) I’m not sure whether to register https://tarheel.social, https://chapelboro.social, or what really. Each has specific connotations and it’s a bit weird with a college town (while Raleigh and Durham are more diverse cities).

If you’d be interested in partnering and standing an instance up, it’s AGPLed for exactly this reason :-) Feel free to DM me on Insta (@jons_difficult_truths), contact me via my GitHub above, or just reply here with your preferred medium if you’d be interested in talking about it over coffee/drinks!

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

#77

Post by mindcrime »

pseudocomposer wrote: post #76
mindcrime wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No Chapel Hill? I feel excluded. :-(

I’m actually a UNC grad so it breaks my heart too :-( It’s really because (1) it costs $14/mo to add an instance currently (though my aforementioned cost saving measure can bring it down to $1/mo), and (2) I’m not sure whether to register https://tarheel.social , https://chapelboro.social , or what really. Each has specific connotations and it’s a bit weird with a college town (while Raleigh and Durham are more diver…

Awesome. I'll give you a shout.

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

#79

Post by misswaterfairy »

mindcrime wrote: post #28
misswaterfairy wrote: post #6

- The ability and want to learn. I offer the following advice to every firefighter I teach: the day you think or believe you know everything, is the day you quit. (I'm a software dev. by trade with fifteen-odd years experience as an operational firefighter (and still am to this day)). - Find a domain or two you have an interest (better yet, a passion) in, that isn't IT, and pair your IT skills to it. My day job is (m…

Firefighters now days are closer to problem-solvers than they are firefighters. We just happen to respond to emergency calls too. I often joke that if a UFO landed in the middle of I-40 outside of Raleigh, the first agency dispatched would be the Fire Department. We're[1] sort of the fallback "do it all" agency that goes to the crazy shit nobody else knows how to handle. Grass fire? Send the fire department. Car cras…

> "All hazards" really is the name of the game these days.

Absolutely! One of the more recent calls I attended was a 'residential [smoke] alarm sounding', with no further details. Call turned out to be a woman desperate to turn off the water to the house, after a hot water pipe had burst in the kitchen with no other way to turn it off. Not sure how dispatch got 'smoke alarm' from 'hot water pipe', though panicked people tend to do and say bizarre things under obtuse acute stress.

Some digging (the mains tap was burried under a decade's worth of pine needles) and one multi-tool later, we had the water turned off.

> I mostly gave up firefighting due to the demands of my day job, but I still consider myself a firefighter at heart and may well join up with a volunteer department again some day.

The 'job' is very much Hotel California.

Whilst I'm 'career' in my day job (which only turns operational in an incident management sense during the 'on' season), I still regularly volunteer with my local brigade when I can, which isn't much these days unfortunately. We've always said family and work come first, though even an hour or two here and there definitely help, even if its only with odd jobs around the station. It also helps keep one's skills sharp, as monotonous as maintaining BA sets can be, it helps keep the muscle memory exercised.

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

#80

Post by misswaterfairy »

dunham wrote: post #18
kylehotchkiss wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software developer and firefighter. I love it! I respect the work you do very much, thank you for your service.

In Seattle, a software developer / firefighter made this site: https://sfdlive.com/

A firie after my own heart!
Post reply on HN