Hi, this is a great post, thank you for sharing your experience. I have a colleague who is in that company focused rut. He is a great bug fixer and such, but his confidence has been shattered because he knows he is in this rut and isn't sure how to get out of it.
I am rapidly approaching my 40's, and lately I am fearful of ending up in the same position. I was wondering, if I could ask you, what can I do to make sure I don't end up like that? I'm a full stack programmer with a great job, but we are very vendor locked.
I feel like I already made one step in the right direction, where I don't focus too much on frameworks, but more on the soft skills. For instance, instead of reading a book about d3.js, I started with a book about the underlying fundamentals of data visualization (Grammar of Graphics). Instead of focusing on tsql, I focus on database architecture and indexing fundamentals. Is there anything more I can do, though? I guess I should really explore finding another job.
Is there a tech community you can be involved in? There can be many good reasons to stay with one company, especially if you have medical, or other reasons to stay with that company. Or, need to build up confidence before interviewing somewhere.
If you go to a dev meetup reach out the organizers about how you can help them. This often gets you introductions to people you may not usually interact with. I have personally experienced this pattern:
* Go to meetup I like.
* Find I'm intimidated by the topic and personalities. The groups knows each other and there are what looks like a clique of speakers.
* Meetup ends and after some very brief smalltalk I go home. Opportunity missed.
I certainly learned a few things from the talks, but I missed out on opportunities to network. Many times it turns out there are some dynamics happening, and I only learned this from hearing a bit more from the organizer side:
* Group started out as a bunch of friends with an interest.
* Same people are giving talks over and over. Feedback from membership is that they want more variation, or beginner talks.
* The people who started the group were intermediate before they started the group, so for various reasons don't do beginner talks, or do them well.
* Organizers want other folks to step up and improve the beginner experience, but struggle to find people who actually understand it. I probably had a few stories to tell the group, but didn't.
There are many more things going on, but if you get in touch with the organizers they can likely help find something for you to contribute towards which isn't necessarily speaking.
You'll get into a circle of people you wouldn't normally be in, where you can initially lurk. You can pick something that will get you visibility with other group members (potentially hiring) or recruiters (if they allow them). Most importantly you'll develop some leadership skills which will be valuable to employers. Employers also like to have organizers on their staff because then they can host events and showcase their company (just be careful with how that comes off.)
Those are all really good points, it definitely gives me a few ideas. That is certainly a pro tip you got there, to ask about helping to organize, pretty brilliant way to break the ice and such. I really appreciate your response!
Thanks for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it! I was thinking about graphql and strengthening my mathematics. This AWS stuff looks interesting though, Ill check it out.
I am rapidly approaching my 40's, and lately I am fearful of ending up in the same position. I was wondering, if I could ask you, what can I do to make sure I don't end up like that? I'm a full stack programmer with a great job, but we are very vendor locked.
I feel like I already made one step in the right direction, where I don't focus too much on frameworks, but more on the soft skills. For instance, instead of reading a book about d3.js, I started with a book about the underlying fundamentals of data visualization (Grammar of Graphics). Instead of focusing on tsql, I focus on database architecture and indexing fundamentals. Is there anything more I can do, though? I guess I should really explore finding another job.