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A comment on The Programming Steamroller Waits For No One (2013).

Re:The Programming Steamroller Waits For No One (2013) by alkonaut on Sunday February 09, 2014 @10:14AM (#7205747)
The field has widened, but that just means you have to choose between being an expert and being a jack-of-all-trades. You can't be an expert at everything.

It takes a decade to learn something inside and out, and then you can't spend all day learning which JS mvc framework has gone out of style over the weekend. If your technology lasted long enough for you to become an expert, you can probably make a living on it even if it goes out of style like COBOL. And if you are a skilled developer you have no problem applying your knowledge to a new platform/language.

Those who get steamrolled are those who work but don't develop their skils. After 10 years with COBOL you will be steamrolled unless you have actually become an expert at software development, not just an expert at your job.

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Re:The Programming Steamroller Waits For No One (2013) by ClayFerguson on Sunday February 09, 2014 @11:36AM (#7205976)
But the problem is if somebody has 10 years of COBOL, the only job they will be able to get is a COBOL programming job. That's the real problem here: Employability. If you let your resume get too stagnant, you're in trouble. On the other hand if you move from job to job too much (to stay current) than that's a sort of 'ding' in your record also.
[ Parent | on HN ]