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Ask Slashdot: How Do I Stay Employable?
illcar writes "Hi, I am a 40-year-old working as a senior developer for one of the biggest investment banks. I have always worked as a full time employee in my career; however the last 5-6 years have been very tough for me because of office politics, outsourcing, and economic conditions. The financial industry is not doing well, and we may be at the brink of another round of layoffs. My family is growing, my spouse does not work, and I still don't own a house. I am worried regarding my job security & career growth. Considering Medicare does not kick in till 65, I am still looking at 25 long years of career. I am wondering what the best way would be for me to stay employable in the coming years?"
illcar continues: "1. Should I stay technical, and be ready to work as consultant/contractor? How does medical insurance work in that case?
2. Should I capitalize on the domain knowledge, and move onto business/managerial side?
3. Will the MBA degree or alternate career help?
4. Any other suggestions?
Thanks."
2. Should I capitalize on the domain knowledge, and move onto business/managerial side?
3. Will the MBA degree or alternate career help?
4. Any other suggestions?
Thanks."
medicare kicks in from cradle to grave in canada, and with many other developed countries....
may your country develop your health care system to the level of those above..
I have to ask myself what happened to the pioneering entrepreneurial spirit that made America into the most prosperous country in the world. You've already done the employment thing. You need to ask yourself what you really want to do with your life, rather than what you can do to "keep employable". You're not getting any younger. Surely you have some unfullfilled childhood dream. There's more to life than the rat race.
If you really do want to stay in the industry, I have found it a lot easier to get my foot inside their door as a business owner with a solid value proposition than as yet another resume in the stack.
Get into some entrepreneurial education program, learn how to do a business plan and where to find investors, or put something up on kickstarter, or just be a middleman for random freelancers on the internet. That's something you can do from any laptop at any gorgeous beach in any country. I did that for a few years and it was great. But ultimately I realized that herding cats and hunting down contracts was not my type of thing. I'd really just rather sit in a corner and be left alone.
then apply for an H1B visa to work in the US. I've heard employers prefer to keep indentured servants around rather than their 'valued employees'.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
The only thing I've really gathered from this thread is that no one knows dick about what's going on and no one knows their ass from their head about what to do about it. It's simply amazing that there is no real guidance here and all views are diametrically opposing.
This tells me a few things:
1) No way's better than another, no method of thinking is better than someone elses; do your best.
2) Everyone is still fighting for the same slice of pie and it's only getting more random as to how that's done; competition is a bitch.
I am not in your specific field, but close. I am 36. My advice:
Stay hungry. Keep reading programming blogs. Work on hobby projects on weekends to keep your skills sharp. Write stupid games in languages you never use at work. Obsess over every little mistake in your code. Post ridiculous nuances of horrible PHP (fill in your language here) behavior.
When necessary, stay up till 4 AM writing code. Build a team of hungry programmers. Build a team of guys who code all day, and go home and code a little more when they're not playing Diablo or whatnot.
I hate to be an anus-hole, but your post sounds like the words of a tired burnt-out programmer. I wouldn't hire you. Medicare? Job Security and Office Politics? I didn't see anything in your post to indicate that you're still passionate about software development...And passion, IMHO, is the crux of staying employable in this field.
It can't be outsourced, and have you ever heard of an unemployed plumber?
It's meaningful work, too, work which has saved more lives over the centuries than doctors have.
(Even I can't tell if I'm serious about this).
Hey. That gives me an idea.
The guy's in the financial industry. He already knows tech. With a year's education (and his employer may well cover the cost), he could do a hell of a lot better job than most sell-side analysts do.
Half the barrier to entry to finance is jargon. (Kinda like how they see tech, LOL.)
Anyone with a 4-year degree in CompSci can handle any of the math required for a CFA Level 1 (even if, at age 40, you'll need to dust off some stuff you haven't used since college). It's basically a 4th-year-college/1st-year-of-postgrad course.
Whether he uses the acquired knowledge to be more useful to his employer (in that he'll be able to understand the needs of the people his code supports), or to switch careers at his current employer (downside: wearing a suit, upside: possibility of membership in the 1%), or to jump ship and work for another employer, or even if he just wants a skill that can pay the bills outside of work (you don't need a job to have a trading account, and if the markets ever shut down for more than a few weeks, everyone's out of a job except for the survivalists), is up to him.
...but let's face it, some of us have no interest in management, or consulting. That's why, after a 15-year career in software development, I turned to teaching. And if you're laughing because I'm advocating teaching as an alternative career, you miss my point: Sometimes getting out of the field is a viable option. I grew tired of lining the pockets of CEOs and PHBs and gutless business owners who simply ran their businesses into the ground, businesses built partially on my hard work. Sometimes you have to take a step back and ask yourself "What exactly have I done for society these past years?" Chances are, if you're a software developer at a "large investment bank," not a hell of a lot.
I assume the reason that you haven't purchased a house is because you can't afford it where you currently live. If that's the case, you really need to move somewhere that has affordable housing. There's lots of places with affordable housing that have developer jobs. I recently moved from New Jersey, which is mostly horribly expensive, to Cary, North Carolina, which is a small town between Raleigh and Durham. I bought my first home at age 41 for $215K. It's an older home, but it's 2000 sqft, on 1/2 acre, with an in-ground pool. My property taxes are $1600 a year. A similar home in NJ would easily cost over twice as much and the taxes would likely be 8K or more per year if I was lucky. Here in the Raleigh/Durham/Cary "Research Triangle" area, you could probably find a job with Deutsche Bank or Credit Suisse if you really want to stay on the Financial/Banking career path.
(1) Stay physically fit and active, and keep up your appearance. Nobody wants to hire a middle-aged slouch with a pot-belly, tattoos, and greasy hair. Your spouse will appreciate this too.
(2) Learn another human language. Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, etc.
(3) Participate actively and meaningfully in the open source projects of your choice, using your real name (not a goofy pseudonym) so that you will have examples of your work to show to potential employers.
(4) Participate in local charity and volunteer organizations. This will help improve your people skills.
(5) Turn off the TV and read books instead. Non-fiction is best, but even fiction is better than nothing. Keep improving your mind.
I am 40 years old right now. I used to be a senior developer, software architect, network admin of a bank and finally manager of "networks and hardware" department in that bank. I finally got fed up of the work pressure and office politics. I remember that at one point in time I became sure that I will 99% have a heart attack in the next 6 months. Then every day I would worry whether today is the day (just imagine a retail bank with hundreds of branches, thousands of users, shitty communications infrastructure of my country, many disconnected branches at any time and hundreds of angry customers waiting to do their job).
In order to save my life I resigned and returned to Academia and did a PhD hoping that teaching and working in Academia will be more peaceful. During the study my financial situation became weak, my wife of 10 years cheated and left with a very rich man (15 years older than me and 20 years older than her).
Now I am almost finished with the PhD, have no life and no job. I have a teaching job offer (pending PhD graduation). The pay for a PhD lecturer is around $2000 in the current country I stay and $1500 in my own country.
By your standard, I have no right to marry again (let alone have a kid) and you would perhaps suggest me to do software development (presumably open source for free). Have you ever thought marrying, having kids and a family are fundamental rights of a human (and even an animal)?
As a foreigner living in US for some years I got scared by the way our fellow americans live with Debt.
First thing is check your mortgage and check if it is possible to re-adjust or re-finance with lower interest and after check ways for you pay it in ADVANCE.
Being as employer and employee I can assure you:
The man who has freedom, real freedom (paid his house and has 'easy' cost of living) is in better way and better mindset to negotiate.
Anecdotal story:
I had to fill a position for medium level from several applicants I had 2 very distinct.
a) One was middle age (35) but has all his house paid, and he even took one year in Paris just 'for learn French'
b) Other was 45 and have 20 years of mortgage because he fall for the 'housing bubble'
The guy with the paid mortgage was very calm on interview, proactive and well mannered.
Other the mortgage guy was desperate and near a hear attack.
I had to choose the free mortgage guy because he was the best choice for the company. technically and MENTALLY
Please, I assure you I want the best for all the fellow man who live this country.
Can you 'downsize' your costs? move to a smaller but PAID(or lower month paymnt) apt? Bring MORE safety for your family but less 'luxury'.
I know the american dream is big spaces or house, but really. Do you really need that?
What about get downsized on costs and Later move on but more security?
Medicare and Social Security ONLY works if you had ALREADY paid your house.
I hope for your safety and best for your family
FWIW I had a check I deposited at an ATM "corrected" for /10 the amount.
I called the bank and they said they don't make that kind of errors.
I insisted. Finally they checked and wow, they were wrong!
All this was in one phone call of 10 min (not several spread over hours).
Within half an hour I was credited back the proper amount.
The difference between my experience and what you describe?
I'm with a Credit Union (NCUA, not FDIC). Seriously, there is no excuse to be with any NA (not BofA, not Chase, not Wells Fargo, no-one).
Go to a local credit union and you will never go back to a regular bank.
-nB
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"You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."
..which pill to choose.
I took the red pill 4 years ago. I was a senior tech drone at a university and could have easily spent another 25 years to retirement skating in the tech side of academia. I woke up one day at 43 years old, looked back, and realized my life had been stolen. I had spent 5/7th of my existence doing things I didnt give a shit about while waiting for the weekend to cram my life into.
I decided enough was enough and I walked away.
I took my savings and retirement and got rid of every debt I owed and bought some land. I started a small business and got my monthly living expenses under $1000. Im at about $600 right now and hope to go lower.
I built a house by hand..still working on it, but its all mine, every stinking stick of wood.
Ive got a ways to go as Im working towards doing the farm thing..but thats my path. Decide what yours is and follow it. Maybe it is to be an employee, maybe that fulfills you.. but I suspect deep down that no intelligent person really wants to work until they are old, used up. I suspect they are just doing it because they are afraid of the unknown and afraid of losing their security. The question is, is security worth looking back on your life to realize you never really lived?
No, its not easy. No, it is not fun. No it is not secure. But yes...yes it is freedom and hell yes it is living. At least for me.
Which pill
You are a Senior Developer for a Bank. By all accounts, you should have job security. Why? Because banks are notorious for having antiquated technology, particularly in-house code.
You are assuming that banks are rational when it comes to their key resources. I work at a bank, and let me tell you, it simply ain't so. IT workers are just some necessary evil for bankers - they still have to realize that banks are actually technology companies, and that their IT (and especially in-house development team) are key business drivers.
Round here, if a project comes to an end, the entire development team, except the management and support people, gets laid off (if they were not outsourced to start off with). Two months later, when a new project arrives, they run around like headless chickens trying to find the skills that are required to get a job done, and complain endlessly about the prohibitive licensing cost of software vendours (vendours that provide functionality that are often relatively easy to implement in-house) and external contracting houses. A new contracting team gets hired, and the whole development cycle starts afresh. Worst of all, they congratulate themselves about their "efficiency" and how they are able to implement projects in an "agile" fashion. Bonuses for the management team are often in order (and as bankers reason, the higher the development cost, the higher the associated bonus to the management team must be).
Now this may not be how all banks operate, but this is my employer's modus operandi. Every time a project a I work on comes to an end, I have to wait to see if I get booted or redeployed on some other project. Even new projects are reviewed every 3 months to decide whether they still add business value, so even if you are working you are never more than 3 months away from the boot. Job security simply does not exist here for the development team.
Several studies have shown that the peak years for sexual enjoyment in women is the range 36-44. I won't bore you with the details except to note that experience bears this out.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
RBS (a UK bank) were told by dozens of people that getting rid of the people who knew the batch processing system and moving their jobs to India was dumb. They did it anyway.
Week before last it all went bang. People weren't getting paid, at least 2 people were stuck in jail because they couldn't prove that they'd paid their bail due to RBS systems being down.
RBS won't change a thing after this.
There is no long term loyalty from any job.
Where did this myth come from? As a parent of young children, I found that for the most part, kids are not expensive. There's a marginal increase in food / medical / clothing costs, and saving a bit for college, but it's not bad; most of the big expenses (housing, bills, saving for retirement) stay the same.
The only thing expensive about having kids is day care / preschool, which is pricey. But if one parent doesn't work, then they can take care of the kids. If both parents work, then it's a two-income household, and most should be able to bear that cost. Single parents are truly screwed here.
-- 77IM
Student: Is it true that the foundation of the universe is paradox?
Master: Well, yes and no.
On the other hand, I was 42 when my first kid was born twelve years ago and I had 20+ years before that with few responsibilities. When you have kids late you can never claim, "you didn't get to do things in life" -- if you haven't gotten around to the sports cars, exotic vacations, or advanced degrees by the time you are 40, you are never going to get around to them and so can be content that you already did all the things you wanted to do by yourself. I'm not planning on becoming feeble and unable to keep up with the kids any time soon -- I look forward to when they can give me a good run or tennis match.