Ask HN: How hard will it be to find a job (dev) in 5 years from now?

#1

Post by bsvalley » Wed, Mar 29, 2017, 3:51 PM UTC

Looking at how tough it is for a software developer to land a job in today's market, I am wondering how hard it will be in 5 years from now?

Everyone is learning how to code and most of the students out there are into computer science. What are your thoughts?

Re: Ask HN: How hard will it be to find a job (dev) in 5 years from now?

#2

Post by embedded » Wed, Mar 29, 2017, 4:09 PM UTC

I don't know how hard it will be to land a tech job in general, but for any individuals I know it will be more difficult. It gets much harder in your thirties, and a damn near impossible to get a development job by the time you are fifty. You had better have made you millions and retired by then. I recently landed a job at a startup and couldn't be happier, but it was a helluva struggle to overcome pervasive cultural biases that favor less experienced coders right out of college.

Re: Ask HN: How hard will it be to find a job (dev) in 5 years from now?

#3

Post by bsvalley » Wed, Mar 29, 2017, 5:35 PM UTC

embedded wrote: post #2

I don't know how hard it will be to land a tech job in general, but for any individuals I know it will be more difficult. It gets much harder in your thirties, and a damn near impossible to get a development job by the time you are fifty. You had better have made you millions and retired by then. I recently landed a job at a startup and couldn't be happier, but it was a helluva struggle to overcome pervasive cultural…

That's exactly what I'm talking about. As a developer you're at your most marketable state from the age of 20 to 30. Anything pass 30 (not ALWAYS) is usually not good.

A natural path would be to go into management, etc. But when you look at the ratio management versus dev roles, it's pretty bad. Not everyone becomes a manager.

Re: Ask HN: How hard will it be to find a job (dev) in 5 years from now?

#4

Post by mattbgates » Thu, Mar 30, 2017, 2:59 AM UTC

bsvalley wrote: post #3

embedded wrote: post #2

I don't know how hard it will be to land a tech job in general, but for any individuals I know it will be more difficult. It gets much harder in your thirties, and a damn near impossible to get a development job by the time you are fifty. You had better have made you millions and retired by then. I recently landed a job at a startup and couldn't be happier, but it was a helluva struggle to overcome pervasive cultural…

That's exactly what I'm talking about. As a developer you're at your most marketable state from the age of 20 to 30. Anything pass 30 (not ALWAYS) is usually not good. A natural path would be to go into management, etc. But when you look at the ratio management versus dev roles, it's pretty bad. Not everyone becomes a manager.

I have been laid off enough to know that no job is safe, no matter what job you are in. The best thing you can do is work on things while you have a job that will set you up and secure your future. Get into that mindset and as long as you are working towards it, you have a better chance at future security.