Slashdot Mirror
Re-Tooling Your Skills for the Future?
nojayuk asks: " Over the decades I've re-skilled myself several times, from mainframe FORTRAN through minicomputer PASCAL to microcomputer C. In between I've done microcontroller development and programming in Assembler, robotics, graphics design and 3-D animation for TV, PC build and repair, Website design etc. Currently I'm looking for work and I'm wondering what new skills do I need to stay in the computing biz. What OSes do I need to know, what technologies do I have to have under my belt for the employers to come hunting for me instead of me passing my obsolete CV around and being told to get lost? I'm looking for advice, not just for next week but for a few years down the line. What can I do to acquire these essential new skills?"
Perhaps IPv6 is something you should look into. How many IT people are experts in that field?
The university I go to doesnt even look at it, which is a shame because it's got to be rolled out sooner or later. I think most people are hoping for the later.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
Learn some solid OOP and modern languages like Java, C#, C++. It takes years of experience to write well designed OO code.
Computers (or more generally IT) is a broad playground these days. Its simply not possible to do everything anymore, much less to do it well. The answer is to specialise, even if only a little.
Your history suggests a good deal of experience with embedded systems. This is a good field to be in right now - there are plenty of opportunities, from special-purposes devices to cell phones and PDAs.
If you want to stay in mainstream development, you probably need to skill yourself up in C++, C# and/or Java. For the former you're going to have to be familiar with the operating system under which you are developing; for the latter two, you're going to have to be familiar with the language and the platform, especially when it comes to enterprise systems.
If you want to move away from development, you have at least three choices: networking, design and management.
Networking moves you in between development and users -- you use, but you still have the skill ;) These is a lot of opportunity in network security in the future.
Design is a step "above" development, in which you're going to have to learn about formal methodologies, OO and patterns; how to control a development team effectively; and how to manage customer requirements.
Management is, well, management. Enough said.
My advice would be to decide what you want to do, and then investigate further to determine what skills you need.
i-name =twylite [http://public.xdi.org/=twylite], see idcommons.net
About 6 months ago I left my System Admin / Level II support position at a local ISP and went into business for myself with another guy, our business is aimed at specialising in a key IT area that few local businesses do, that being UNIX consulting and specialist networking.
I think the only way to stay current and have something good on your Resume/CV is to diversify, not neccisarily specialise in a technology but be across many current technologies, read the literature - read mailinglist digests, visit as many free seminars as you can (visit some that you have to pay for if you think its worth while and you have the cash) if you know what the current products out there are, your better prepared than most people that are in the industry employed to work in one narrow area.
Just my 0.02cents
-- If at first you don't succeed, lie!
Not necessarily, there is something to be said for being a generalist. A specialist often will fall to the "everything looks like a nail" syndrome, because they only know how to solve problems one way.
For example, the submitter might think of a hardware solution that is better than a software one, when a specialized computer programmer would only think in terms of what software he had to write to address the problem.
The thing about being a generalist is that you need to find jobs where you are either semi-management, or have enough latitude and influence to be able to propose the solutions you want to implement. A generalist won't last long in a rigid top-down organization where the management wants to control every detail of implemention.
I don't know that this helps the original submitter much... Really my advice to him is to just not worry about learning new skills just because a bunch of people think they are hot... Just keep it to the basics of job hunting, personal networking, keep your eyes open... and learn whatever you are interested in. If you are interested in the field, then you will learn much more about it than if you are doing it just because you think it is a hot skill to have.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
As the guy you'd be seeing who does the interviewing, here are my five tips for a long and interesting career:
.NET, etc), read the other 500 posts. As you already know, they mean nothing in 5-10 years. My tips will last a lifetime.
1. Do whatever YOU like, but do it well.
2. Only work for employers that you want to get up in the mornings for.
3. Dedicate at least 10% of your "work" time to professional development, even if you have to pay for it. Go stale = out of job
4. If you're not having fun, leave. Life is too short to put up with crap.
5. Don't choose the boring staid job unless you want to retire. Be different. Work for Microsoft*.
If you're after buzzword compliance (j2ee,
Andrew
* by this, I actually mean for *you* to pick the most interesting job you can find. A friend of mine interviewed for a job in Antarica, for instance. Think about it.
Andrew van der Stock
Just find an employer who understands that your vast experience should be enough to master any new interresting field. IMHO you just need to run into the right employer, not the right additional skills.
Five years ago, that would have been good advice. The problem is that now employers don't have to train folks. I have a fairly diverse background including everything from EE type jobs in the embedded sector to MIS jobs with few technical requirements and everything in between. Many employers went through a downsizing in the last two years, and now they are loathed to pick up "General talent." Despite my wide range of experience and obvious skill inventory, I was passed up for people who had 5 straight years of development experience with a single technology because the employers I talked to couldn't justify hiring general talent anymore. If they were going to make the expenditure to hire someone it had to fill an immediate need.
All that said, hang in there. There are employers out there who still see the value of the "engineer brain." Just dont hold your breath waiting for them to find you. Also, unless you have a major objection to it, focus your energy on smaller companies. Companies with 5 or 6 people can much more readily see the benefits of having a swissarmy knife instead of a T40 Torx wrench, whereas a big company sees that it has a bunch of Torx bolts to unscrew.
For waht its worth I was unemployed for a year before finding my current job. If you have a job now you may want to consider trying to find a way to be happy in it rather than moving on.
This too shall pass.
The mindless automatons in H.R. need to see the right words and letters on the resume before they will forward it to a hiring manager.
Sometimes it isn't even a human doing the processing these days - OCR for the few that still snail mail their resumes (a red flag in itself), coupled with full text indexing and data mining determine which resumes are deleted and which are forwarded.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Whenever I'm recruiting, I'd much rather interview someone who has a solid technical mind with a splash of creativity and self-motivation. This will go a lot further than someone with a bunch of paper qualifications but no true passion for the subject.
Those who have self-motivation and a passion for technology, whether this is networking, MS Windows, Unix, whatever, will generally pick up whatever technology you throw at them. i.e. a solid investment for the future.
Contribute to the online videogame encyclopedia: GamerWiki
Unfortunately that isn't true. Employers want cheep young expendable labor. If you are 50ish and speek fluent English as well as C you are, by default, to expensive and over qualified. Duh! We need to eat too. Last summer I walked past a DEC/Compaq/HP department picknic - no one there was over 40 and no one there spoke English as a native language. I am bidding on jobs I could do in my sleep at rates I was paid in the early 1980's and I still can't get good jobs. I have been reduced to teaching MS Office at a local junior college. You want bugs with that?
Your running in a rat race... Get skills which will be almost timeless. Like Managerial skills...
If you already have a bachelors, it will only take 2 years.
Or start your own business...
Free Web based FTP
You sound like you have been around the block, more than once. If you are getting on in life (say, mid-fifties or older) you may find that it is more and more difficult to keep up with all the changes in technology nowadays. And learning a new skill is getting harder and harder also.
Neverfear, it is just Mother Nature kicking in.
The solution? Move up to (technical) management. There really *IS* a need for technically competent managers to guide the young hotshots. Your experience counts, even if you don't understand the latest and the greatest (have your hotshots explain it to you in their own words).
Yeah, management can be a drag, stuck in the middle between the upper-level and the people who actually get things done; and good technical people don't necessarily equate to good managers; but it is worth looking into. Even if you wanted just to be a techie-nerd for the rest of your life.
Of course, you could always become an instructor (assuming you have some communications skills) and pass your experiences and techniques on to the next generation.
Just some thoughts...
(From a fifty-ish longtime technical instructor)
Your "obsolete CV" might serve you better than you think. With all of the skills you listed, there is an implied skill that you left out, that will serve you and your future employers better than any stack of certifications will.
That is the skill of learning new skills. Flexibility and adaptability will always be in demand. Sell yourself on that.
True, a lot of employers put together a laundry list of skills for each new position. But they rarely find people who are a perfect fit for those kinds of lists.
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
With your background across different systems you sound like a good candidate for getting into the security game. As you might expect, this is becoming big business at the moment.
Security is a process, so you wouldn't really have to learn much new technology. There's a lot of value in talking to someone rich in experience when it comes to security, especially if you're trying to secure legacy platforms.
If that doesn't sound like fun and you want to stick with programming, I'd suggest picking up either Java, C#/.NET, or Obj-C/Cocoa. Learning these technologies will certainly keep you relevant and will probably be fun too!
(Since you already know C, Obj-C/Cocoa would be really straight forward, and we can't have too many Mac developers you know.)
I'd recommend that you either go into systems engineering (that includes architecture and can include business-process re-engineering) if you want to stay technical or go for an MBA if you want to plunge into the business end.
What wonderful logic. Truely insightful. And, tragically, completely useless in today's IT job market.
Companies looking for temp workers (heaven forbid they think about actually hiring someone) have a long and detailed laundry list of "buzz words" that they think are job requirements/necessary skill sets. If your resume doesn't hit in the word matching then out it goes.
The best "buzz word" to have these days is probably Web Services. The good thing is that successfully implementing real Web Services actually requires a generalist.
So, tack a little XML knowledge onto the old resume and slap in a few words about B2B and EAI. This could actually lead to something interesting.
Good luck.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Not necessarily, there is something to be said for being a generalist. A specialist often will fall to the "everything looks like a nail" syndrome, because they only know how to solve problems one way.
True.
As you progress up the chain in MIS you get to a level where you are expected to understand business. Not just that you know that you need to bring in more than you spend but REALLY understand business. Take an accounting course or two, a couple business management courses etc... Of all the hammers I own this one did the most for my income.
The next big thing will probably be mobile application for PDA's and Phones and anything else, so I'd learn Mobile Java next.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Perhaps why this approach works for me is because I am an exicted engineering student w/ a lot of projects. (how many other people have their own linux based MAME in their basement and a music server in their car?) This approach works for you because you don't have a wife and three kids who desire some of that time for them to get attention and affection. I bet many of us here that attempt some semblance of pet projects do this in lieu of home improvement-type work and have to balance their self-learning with their family. And it is a balance; you love them and should expect that they want to spend non-geek time with you.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
Well speaking for some of the "West". We have NO problem competing with India on codeing, however we pay 60% of our income in taxes. Those taxes go to pay for stuff here in the west. Those coders over in India don't pay anything! So much like cars that are taxed on import, code should also be taxed. Will this happen? No. Will Unions happen? Yes.
The real problem is greed. Do coders over here deserve 70+k a year? Most don't. However, does top management of companies over here deserve >100k/year? Very few do.
That management wants to protect their jobs and salary so they see an easy solution. Farm out all development to slave labor err I mean India.
Now if that development out of the country was taxed at around 100-160%, then both sides would win. The Indians would still get some jobs, the "West" could comete and still pay taxes over here for schools and hospitals etc.
The more I learn about science, the more my faith in God increases.
Those that really can, teach. You have a wide variety of experience and knowledge, why not pass it on the to next generation.
You will stay cutting edge and help a few young folk to not make the same mistakes you once did. You will learn the newest technology from them, too.
I'm amazed how much I've learned from students. It is sometimes a challenge to keep up with their knowledge, if sometimes misdirected. Above all stay openminded.
This thread is interesting, and shows the dichotemy between "what should be" and "what is." I would say that the underyling problem is not the questioner's skills, but (as some have alluded to in the HR-filter for keywords comments) is the mindset of businesses.
What most fail to realize is that 5 years in a single tech is probably a bad sign. A "better" programmer would probably have gotten bored and moved on, or moved on because it's highly unlikely that a single technology remains the best solution for that long a period of time.
My advice would thus be this: if you're good, don't worry about it. It takes a few days to pick up 98% of any language/tech., a few hours to learn 98% of the commands and interfaces for an OS etc. (unless you're administering the thing, which takes us back into the few days bit). So, just skim a Java reference, a Linux book, etc. and throw them all on your resume.
If you're not that good, you can hang yourself with this, but, then again, most companies don't know what they're doing with tech anyway (even the experts within the company), so you can get away with just being mediocre.
And, if you find a company that thinks the right way about technology, they'll understand it's a fluid thing and they'll be looking for smart people, not people who've memorized wasted their time memorizing reference books that are available for $20 or online for free.
Networking. Not computers. People.
I was recently laid off, and I just got a new job yesterday. Out of the dozens of places I applied at, only one even bothered to send a rejection letter. (plus another one sent a rejection email).
Where did I eventually get a job?
A place where a friend works, and pulled some strings for me - they looked at my resume and created a position for me.
Yes, I realize that I am very, very lucky - but it just goes to show; that if you aren't exactly what someone's already looking for, and if you aren't exactly the strongest candidate, your chances of actually getting a job, whether you have all the skills you need, or whether you're so technically good that you can pick up new skills in a trivially short time, are exactly zero.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
...richie - It is a good day to code.