Switching Roles, Embracing Change, and Staying Relevant | TechWell

Switching Roles, Embracing Change, and Staying Relevant

Recently my regular barber was out, and the replacement was making small talk while cutting my hair. He asked about my job, wife, kids … grandkids?

What is going on? I’m not old; I’m only thirty-nine—which is just about … old enough … to have grandkids.

Earlier this week I wrote about ageism in the tech industry. Most people think of that as a problem—that you’ll be judged by how you look, not your values. The thing is, to some extent, those cues about your station in life are natural.

Now, don’t look at me like that. I am not advocating illegal discrimination. I am, however, saying that people a little more established in their lives simply have less disposable time. We’ve got kids to get to soccer and ballet, a porch that needs to be painted and a lawn that needs to be mowed, and civic duties. We’re less likely to move for work because we have roots, less likely to take a travel assignment, and more likely to miss out from it. Our very place in society is different than what it was when we started our careers.

My reasonably brief career has seen at least four major technologies: client/server, web, mobile, and now responsive design. Every three to six years there is a sea change in the popular skills for the popular jobs that require significant life investment to stay current in. Employees can either continue their education at night, keep the same job, or hope to work for an employer that will give them time to learn—and employers like those seem to be a dying breed.

Recent graduates and college students are the ones with the disposable time to shift paradigms. Most established professionals are not willing to make those sacrifices, so they become architects, analysts, managers, and other less technical workers.

Those roles don’t have much place in Extreme Programming or Scrum, which leads to the secret that agile’s worst enemy is the people who fear becoming obsolete.

If you’re one of those people, well, think of it like I did when I was asked if I’m a grandparent. Sure, I could eat better and lose some weight and try to look younger. Or I could recognize that my role in the community is changing and look for ways to add genuine value.

My resume no longer says I write code, test, or even consult. It says I build engineering communities. I still do a little of those things here and there when needed, but I rarely compete based on them—just as my role as a parent shifted from making sure the kids don’t fall down the stairs to making sure they don’t fall into other traps.

Too many people spend too much time protecting their position when they could focus on how to serve others. I know that in some companies, that isn’t rewarded. Then go find other companies! It won’t be long before my hair stops being gray and starts to fall out.

Let’s all strive to make the most of the time we have.

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