I’ve been in the job market since 1996. While it didn’t pay the astronomical salaries that it does now, it consistently has paid a nice wage. What trends do you see that would lessen the need for software development in the next 20 years?

I see a trend thats pushing away older experienced programmers just to replace them with young ones.

I’m 45. I haven’t seen it. I’m getting just as many offers and doors open now as I have since 1996. I’m very focused on keeping a network warm and keeping my resume buzzword compliant.

Im happy for you. I personally lost my patience to keep up with the buzz-world, I update my knowledge on a need basis, but never pursue shiny stuff. This is a reason for which being 40 and knowledgable of a mixed bag of technologies but a lot of it older makes me quite unattractive to many companies. When I was in my 20s I was always keeping up but lately I don’t care as much. My family’s more important and it suits me more to have some tech-unrelated hobbies.

Then its a really good reason to teach them Racket! It comes with batteries included, has a lot of learning libraries and is extremely easy to program.