I've worked with people who wrote Perl/Script/PHP all their lives. But somewhere along the way, he needed to get ahead, due to the need to start a family. So what did he do? After 20+ years of development, he became a business analyst. It wasn't easy. It took at least a few dozen interviews to get an offer better than what he had.
I've also worked with hardware/firmware people who wrote hardware assembly all career long. They would stick to 2-3 platforms and intend to stay there all life long.
Unfortunately, the market is not so lax. His company went under and he had to use his rusty knowledge of C to get good fast at STM boards and find a job. So he ended up getting a big pay cut down to more junior positions.
On the other hand, there are eco-systems that change more slowly over time. Enterprise backend Java and Oracle products for any kind of transactions are complex enough to provide significant legal and technical barriers to entry and change, as well as clearly-marked career paths. Changes here tend to be rather gradual.
A mentor once cautioned me on this, "Always be learning the next big thing. You never know when the wave will sweep you off to your next position. It is better to move than be moved."
No comments:
Post a Comment