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This is basically the choice I finally had to make for myself over the last couple years.

It was just three years ago that my main responsibility was maintaining code on a black & yellow terminal for a VMS server. Another couple years and I could have easily have been one of those people pushed out of the industry with no easy way back in.

Although my company has provide an avenue for me to transition to doing things with the LAMP stack it is still in some sense legacy. It's a large website base that started over a decade ago.

I have made the choice that I'm done with being legacy and am doing whatever I can to learn current tech. I will even be willing sometime later this year to get a new job at a junior level just I can cut loose the legacy code crap I am tied to. At this point it feels mostly like a bunch of anchors holding me down. I want a new job where I can learn from the people around me and truly be focused on my direction.




When I was first breaking into the field I was also forced to work with legacy mainframe code. It was a nightmare. The code was horrible, the pay was low, and we had no respect. I spent a little over a year learning Ruby and JavaScript in my spare time, joined a startup, and have had a happy and successful career in the many years since.

I can only speak for myself, but the transition improved my life immeasurably. I can't even imagine how different things would be if I had stayed. Keep at it. If I can do it then you can too.




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