Based on their experiences I think the best advice is to stay current in your skills, find ways to apply those skills at work so you can get those lines on your resume, and choose to be a generalist rather than specializing. Don’t be loyal to your language or framework, demand for skills in software is more a function of whats fashionable than anything else. Look at where Perl is, many Perl coders were loyal to Perl instead of learning Python.
Most importantly, take a look at the ages of your coworkers. Is it really smart to be loyal to a company where there’s few people over 40 working your job? My Dad stayed at a company for 10 years and only got a raise once. Be smart, at some places you’re just a line item.
There's a whole subset of folks looking at 'tech' as 'startup', and the goal of those companies is often to get acquired, so, the company won't necessarily be around in 8 years, let alone 20.
I've resigned myself to the notion that I'll never get a '20 year anniversary' at a company at this stage of my life. I don't mind, but it was one of those things when you're younger that does seem achievable. Most of the companies I've worked at in the past 25+ years aren't even in business any longer, except for 1, which was already 15+ years old when I started, and that was 15 years ago - had I stayed, that might have been the one chance to hit a '20 year' mark someplace (and I have one colleague who started with me and stayed there, so he might make it).
I won't either. But I was at one company about 13 years, another about 8, and just over 10 at my current one.
> What did you work on during those years?
Line-of-business apps. VB.NET maybe? Or Java/J2EE type stuff. Probably jobs involving mainframes as core legacy systems? Things where "design" was more a function of where your WYSIWYG editor placed controls than conscious decisions.
> Did you keep up with the industry?
Enough to read HN, but not enough to keep learning new technologies and not languish at the same company for a decade writing the applications mentioned above.
Please don't, you have no relevant information so your speculation isn't helpful.
And let's not ignore the fact that if you removed speculative comments with no relevant information from HN we'd lose about 2/3 of the userbase.
Turns out that it really is hard to get a job when you don't already have one.
What did you work on during those years? Did you keep up with the industry?
I am asking out of interest for both you and me. For you, I want to help you regain confidence that is rightfully yours, because someone with your experience should not need to feel desperate. For me, I want to know if there are objectively speaking potential career missteps one should avoid.