Ask Slashdot: What Should I Study?

A fellow Slashdot reader is seeking advice on a new field of study: After many years at the same company, I'm now thinking of a change. At my current place of work, I have worked on many different projects, from server side development, to UI development, and most recently, a lot of data science work. If I were to rate myself, I consider myself to be a good developer, thorough, conscientious and always willing to learn new things. Even my recent foray into data science (though not entirely new, since my graduate studies specialized in machine learning) has had reasonable success, and ideally, I'd really like to continue working in this space.

But, I'm starting to feel in a rut and I'm looking for a change. And looking outside my company, I'm not sure how to begin. Should I hit the books again? Should I focus on any specific technologies? I haven't particularly kept up with new technology -- after working for so long, I tend to think of that as something I can learn, when I need to. Any advice on how I should go about preparing for interviews? I'm quite willing to put in a few months of work into prep, so all suggestions are welcome!

Comments

Clarification from the original poster

[Anonymous Coward]

Original AC here. I should clarify - I don't want to entirely change my field of work. I still want to stay in programming, and possibly data science. I'm just really nervous about interviewing after a *very* long time, and I'm wondering how to go about it. I also have a very varied set of experiences, not specializing in any one thing - just really a matter of doing what was needed, when it was needed. I'm not sure how this will go down in interviews, and how to best portray it.

There are only 2 real answers:

[UnknownSoldier]

* Do what interests you, and/or
* Do what pays.

Next question.

Re:FP

[Hognoxious]

That's a totally unfair comparison.

A major in Art History could land you a job as a museum guide.