The struggle of working in technology

The BBQ Pit
1

This is more of a rant than a pit, but hopefully some will be able to relate. I’m doing preliminary job searching because it’s time to move on from my current dysfunctional employer and it’s reminding me of something that has always made me grind my teeth. Somehow, starting from early on and continuing to today, I’ve never been able to get experience with modern technical tools. This keeps me out of most jobs, and now that I’m over 50 it’s really hard to fall back into an entry level job in order to get experience with those tools. Even if I was willing to take the >50% cut in pay, few employers are willing to place an “old person” into a job that they see as the domain of recent graduates.

Specifically:

When I was a young computer programmer in the mid-90’s things slowly got out of hand as the companies I worked for didn’t believe in spending money on modern tools. So I was there coding by hand in editors instead of an integrated development environment (IDE). I was stuck merging code changes manually because they didn’t understand the value or purpose of code management systems (CMS). Later in my career I got really deft at doing data analysis by looking at raw data, so I never had the opportunity to learn how to use data modelling tools. I LOVE doing data analysis but I’m stuck now because no employer is impressed with someone who works with raw data. (Also you simply can’t work with the huge volumes of data available in modern databases, so not being able to use data modelling tools is a real handicap.) In recent years my SQL has gotten beyond rusty because I’ve been in a company that doesn’t believe business analysts should touch anything more technical than Excel.

My career is shit because somehow I have a pattern of getting into companies that don’t use the proper tools for things. And yes, there have been many times when I’ve gotten free versions of various tools and used them at home in order to learn them. But you know what? Employers aren’t impressed with using tools for hobby projects. They want 3 solid years of experience using the tools in a paid job. I started my career with a BSCS degree, off to a good start and over the decades it’s degraded to a patchwork quilt of skills and knowledge. It’s hard not to feel disgusted with myself when job hunting just shines a clear light on how obsolete I am.

2

I’ve never found an IDE that didn’t drive me completely nuts. I was working on a project and wanted to try reorganizing the code a bit, so I copied a couple files (and renamed them), removed the old ones from the project and added the new ones. When I went to use the originals again, they were gone. Apparently removing a file from a project tells the IDE to go ahead and delete the file from the disk as well.

3

Reading between the lines, it sounds like your issue is with job searching strategy.

Might I suggest prioritizing and targeting big successful companies, rather than small-medium run-of-the-mill companies. In my experience, the big successful companies tend to have the money and resources to keep up to date with tech.

In addition, consider working as an independent contractor as a way to get in the door. Often the bigs bring in a lot of ICs rather than hire directly. And I’ve observed that it’s easier to get in as an IC with a less than stellar background, vs. hiring a permanent employee is a much more rigorous process.

These are just general suggestions to think about. Of course, I understand if you are looking for a job you a limited by numerous constraints, such as what is available around you.

4

I’m sorry Icarus but I did one decade at one of the major defense contractors (my company was purchased by them soon after I was hired), and it wasn’t actually any better. What I’ve seen in big companies is that each division and department has their own business practices. Corporate issues their mandates, sure. But the medium-low level managers completely disregard them. It was at this major contractor where my boss (and his boss) thumbed their noses at the requirements to use formal QA and project management. The main reason I left was because I sensed that I was viewed by other department managers as “one of those legacy programmers who aren’t interested in learning anything new” simply because I worked on “that” team.

5

Well, defense contractors are their own special breed. I’ve seen the best work at pure commercial operations.