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Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?

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Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?

#91

Post by j7ake »

nickd2001 wrote: post #61

"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 D…

Sounds like great specific actionable advice under the general advice of “be worth more than the money they pay you”.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?

#92

Post by bruce511 »

em-bee wrote: post #80
bruce511 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

i know what you mean with not going into detail. i only need to list all my favorite programming languages for someone to be able to identify me. but, if i may ask, is that work that can be done 100% remote? would it make sense for an older software developer to pick that up? i am a generalist with lots of experience and i'd love to train up in a niche field to help me find work. if you think that makes sense id appr…

Depends on uour definition of "older". In this niche, no, being an older worker would be detrimental. The root underlying problem (in any niche really) are people aging out the system, leaving a lot more work to be done by fewer people. 40 would be OK. 60 would be too old.

Clearly you -could- learn it now, but the effort would be immense. In the same way that you could learn to be a doctor, but at some point it becomes too much like hard work.

Also, unfortunately, there's a cost to entry. It's proprietary software, and you'd need around $5000 to get kitted out. Plus a lot of time.

On the other hand, yes it can be done remotely.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?

#93

Post by nickd2001 »

sirspacey wrote: post #88
nickd2001 wrote: post #61

"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 D…

You’ve written an entire book’s worth of advice in a paragraph. Everyone who works in tech or aspires to should read it.

Ha ha thanks for the kind comment. :) Well I ought to know some things, been in the industry that long. BTW, despite the above tactics I haven't become financially rich from Tech - probably could have done if that was a priority, but , that's my other piece of advice to people, prioritise happiness, fulfilment and relationships with others especially family and friends, over money, 'cos "You can't take it when you go" , and people matter more. The wonderful luxury of working in tech is, salaries being what they are, you can take the middle path, balance life and work, while no-one's gonna starve. :)

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?

#94

Post by badpun »

p1esk wrote: post #84
badpun wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is there an indication it won't be?

We simply don't know what it will be. Growth in nature does not continue at the same pace forever, and eventually the speed of innovation will taper off.

It's a common phenomena, described with an S-curve: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmoid_function). We can't know if LLMs are already there, or not yet, we'll only know after the fact.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?

#95

Post by p1esk »

badpun wrote: post #94
p1esk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an indication it won't be?

We simply don't know what it will be. Growth in nature does not continue at the same pace forever, and eventually the speed of innovation will taper off. It's a common phenomena, described with an S-curve: ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmoid_function ). We can't know if LLMs are already there, or not yet, we'll only know after the fact.

OK, so it is reasonable to assume that the chance the progress will continue in the next two years is about 50%, would you agree? If so, why are people in this thread dismiss my concerns as unreasonable?

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to stay employable in tech in the next 1-5 years?

#96

Post by ulfw »

AznHisoka wrote: post #58
ulfw wrote: post #29

Stay employable? I have been unemployed for 1.5 years. Absolutely NOBODY needs a product management leader anymore. If anything only entry level and I am overqualified to do that (not saying it arrogantly, but companies don't ever consider me stepping 3-4 levels back). Tech is in a slow death spiral.

They don’t need product management leaders. They need product managers.

Exactly this. Entry level yes, higher level hell no.
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