[quote=paramount]Please join me in the real world!
“Do what you enjoy and it will all work out” – another load of s. If life were only that easy.
You do what pays the bills, and hopefully it happens to be something you enjoy. For most people, that’s the way things work.
Also, eclipxe, I wish I lived in your ideal world. IT is a moving target and skill requirements change and often rapidly – it often comes down to more than “GOOD” and “PRIDE” and all of that other BS your spouting – those subjective ideals alone will not guarantee that anyone is in demand.
As far as age discrimination is concerned, your comments have no value IMO as I suspect you don’t have a clue or have never been a victim of age discrimnation.
When you are 48 and get laid off from an IT job where you were making 6 figures then you might get the idea. Then maybe you won’t be so arrogant.
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Paramount – I apologize if I came off as arrogant. You are right that IT is a moving target and skills change rapidly. That is why you must consistently stay tuned with the industry and keep up skills outside of the workplace. For many that are in the industry this is a challenge because they lack passion (one of those pesky “subjective” ideals you deride so much). If you don’t have passion for what you do and are just doing it to pay the bills then why even live? You sound like you are definitely bitter and probably shouldn’t be in the industry.
Just FYI, your suspicions are wrong. I’ve been brushed aside and dismissed more than once because I was “too young”. The knife cuts both ways my friend – also try telling the 40 and 50 yr old senior engineers I work with that they are also facing discrimination. Based on the tone of your post I simply think the problem isn’t your age or skills but maybe your attitude?
But I do wish you the best – it is always tough to lose a job, especially with a family.
As far as skills that I’ve seen that are in demand – I screen resumes for new hires and we can’t find many decent engineers with experience in the following areas:
1. Embedded system design (ARM programming, device driver programming)
2. Advanced Perl skills – lots of legacy web applications need to be maintained and are written in Perl. extensive CPAN knowledge is a requirement
3. Healthcare knowledge (EMR, MPI and HL7 experts)
4. Emerging mobile platform skills – Android/J2ME and iPhone (these platforms are so new that developers are in very short supply with expert level skillsets)
5. OS X – Cocoa and Objective C experts. OS X is a growing market that we actively target and most good Cocoa developers are snatched up by Apple or work for a cushy ISV
6. Developers with Secret or TS clearance – there are several advanced government defense projects that need skilled developers with clearance. I’ve seen at least one company hiring for these projects in San Diego within the last week.
7. Linux/FOSS developers – a lot of healthcare initiatives are being proposed to the Obama administration and there is expected to be a large amount of funding available for a large national conversion to electronic medical records and IT healthcare systems. Almost every initiative that has passed through my desk has been based on open source technology and Linux. The largest healthcare IT project (VA VistA) is a model open-source development. One of the largest open source Vista software companies has just recently relocated to Carlsbad (from Aliso Viejo) and is actively hiring developers.
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There are 7 skillsets that I’ve tracked over the last year that either have openings locally (San Diego or Orange County) or I have actively tried to hire for. If you possessed those skills you’d have a 6 figure job instantly, despite your age.
