Tl;dr - anyone have stories on how you made your skill set more diverse, & made yourself more valuable? I'm looking to stay ahead of the curve. Programmer here, I see the writing on the wall, there's only so long i can be "just a coder and that's all i know" before ageism starts to take place when i switch jobs. I started late, currently 30 with 3 years exp. I've got knowledge in a few languages, and in sql/sybase. I've already had 3 different gigs... the first two were complete hell, this one's ok, i could stay here for a bit. The work isn't too interesting, and there's sometimes gaps where i don't have projects. I've got a udemy company subscription so i could take courses. I don't have much interest in the standard management progression. I'm not a people person, so team lead seems like a very stressful route, though it could be rewarding with a cool enough project. How have you gone about diversifying yourself, how did you know which direction to head in?
Retire in 4 years. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
Way ahead of you, love this guy and other blogs like him. Retiring early is definitely part of the plan 😎 I'd like to diversify to get a higher income then gtfo of the rat race
Happy to hear that. You can also learn Spanish and teach math overseas. If you give the class in English it pays better. Learning Spanish is just the skill to enjoy your time in South America a lot more! We will never have a shortage of Math teachers.
ML and data science is picking up in a big way.
GTFO of software development if you're not a "people person" your career will be severely limit d if you cannot lead teams and work with people (even leading in a technical/ic role). Maybe try trading stocks or some other career that doesn't require social interaction
there's a difference between not being a people person, and just hating humanity. I am the former, not the latter. I love interacting with my team, but i would not want the huge responsibility and large volume of interactions involved with leadership.
Anyone else have stories or perspectives on how they made their skills appear more valuable / diversified their skill set?
Read "The Passionate Programmer", the whole book addresses how to stay relevant in the industry and how to continuously improve. One thing that I personally do: look at job listings for the types of positions that I'm interested in, and try to learn some of the listed skills since they are in popular demand.
Awesome idea, thank you so much. I will check out that book, great recommendations.