
What could a geek in his forties learn in 1000 hours for a more exciting career? - miriadis
This is my particular case, but I think this thread could be very valuable for a lot of people:<p>I'm a 42 year old computer engineer,  with a lovely family, a nice mortgage, a stable but boring job,...a common guy... but I've been presented a unique opportunity: I could take a paid break for some months, one thousand available hours I've calculated, so I've decided to do something really impactful for my professional career: I'm going to try to learn in deep a valuable technical skill I could use for a further job, as a freelancer or running a new exciting startup.<p>I'm really fascinated with everything about Internet, the startups world,  new technologies and I would like to re-think my professional future. But I feel like the ugliest model in a beauty contest, a computer engineer with +15 years of experience whose career has been gradually and inevitably oriented towards managing and planning competences instead of technical skills. I have some Java, SAP and PHP background, but nothing with an in deep knowledge.  I'm fully convinced that the world is for doers!, people able to make things instead of tie wearing planners.<p>In my spare time  I've been doing some experiments, even I have two little websites running: a subscription based form builder and a little social network for creatives, both using LAMP  but I don't fancy these technologies, I think there are already a lot of Java / Javascript / PHP / Python ... developers out there! and I think that amaizing new technologies help to build amaizing new things.<p>In my list there are things like:<p>- Learn a functional language like Erlang, Haskell, Scala... for the  highly-concurrent future world<p>- Learn a technology stack targeting towards  Big Data: Scala+Hadoop i.e.<p>- Learn Node.js<p>...<p>What should you do in my case? Are you in a similar situation?<p>Thank you in advance to this amazing community.<p>(Sorry for my English, I am not a native English speaker)
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hcho
If I were you, I would focus on business side of things. You are fast
approaching to a point where ageism will start to bite. A purely technical
skill set can be very limiting when it does.

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southbaybob
The truth is that you can learn everything covered by the new buzz words out
there. However, unless you have a real use case for them or serious about
finding ways to use them. You will just be wasting your time. Might as well
spend more time with family and just enjoy life.

You can go ahead and learn something new. However, you need to set your
expectations right. Unless you are a genius (which you may be. i just have
never met you or know anything about you), the new language for you will just
be a hobby. Making a career out of a hobby and compete with others who have
being doing it for a while is hard unless you are dedicated. Or it could be
that you just want to learn it and have fun. No one knows yourself better than
other people. So you will know what your realistic expectations are and
whether you are okay with it.

That being said, my approach would actually not be trying to start with
picking a new language. Each language is good at certain contexts. For
example, you use node if you want to do long polling because it's unreasonably
low memory usage per connection. Each nosql database has its pros and cons
towards what you are trying to do.

My advice will be try to build something and pick languages and backends based
on what you are trying to build. You already have 2 side projects. Maybe start
with a mobile project this time? Try to look into your day to day life and see
if there some little and fun tasks you can solve using new technologies? I
think you will learn in a much more relevant context this way.

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bdfh42
Some great suggestions on what would be interesting to study have already been
made but - I suspect that this is about something more - it is about
redirecting a career. Looking for some rigour and a new purpose.

If miriadis wants to stay in a management type role - what skills and
experience should he be gaining to re-energise himself and make his future
contribution in that role something special.

Perhaps miriadis wants to shift towards a developer role - if so - in what
sort of company and thus what sort of skills should be acquired?

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miriadis
That is!

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andrewdubinsky
I think the question you might ask is a little different. Do you want to
improve at your current job or do you want a better job (with the same
generous employer)?

If you want a better job, you need to learn soft skills. Focus on marketing,
managing & finance. I'd also get your english skills to 100%, even if that's
not your homeland. Lots of companies place a higher value on bilingual
employees.

If you want to focus on improving the skill set you currently use, I'd look
for resume buzzwords. Find a current trend technology & make an impact in a
open source project. E.g. Node.js (or one of the frameworks), Go, Hadoop,
etc...Hit it hard and mean make an impact. Ask people involved in those areas
what needs work. Find a weak spot and tackle it. Publish your work on Github.

I know that sounds cheap and dirty. However, nobody will notice that you read
Kernigan & Richie or Code Complete. Anyhow, you'll get more from the
fundamentals when you see it in practice.

Plus if you help an open source project, you will get to meet all kinds of
smart people who will help you because that's how it works. And you might even
get to help someone less far along than you.

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drharris
I'm 30, and just entering the Planner phase of my career. I can see where a
few years down the road I'd be in a similar position. My percentage of time
coding has dropped to 5% or lower, and I'm already itching to learn something
new. Looking ahead, I think I'd focus on functional languages, asynch
patterns, scaleable architecture, i8n patterns, and hardware. I'd stay away
from the "Web app" and desktop spaces; I think we've reached peak web app.

In fact, the hardware category makes me feel the best, what with the "Internet
of things" coming in vogue. If I were in your shoes, I'd get a 3-d printer and
some raspberry pis and come up with weird, creative things that may or may not
serve a realistic purpose. It's never been easier to get involved in the maker
culture, but I already feel like I don't have the time and expertise to
capitalize on it properly. This is probably where I'd spend my time.

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miriadis
"The internet of things" is one of my areas of interest and a clear candidate
to become a new "Next Big Thing"... interesting suggestion.

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codegeek
I am 32 so it might be easy for me to give advice to you as a 42 year old but
here it goes. You seem to have a good personal life and a decent professional
life even though "boring" as you put it. It seems like the boredom and the
desire to do something new/exciting has hit you which has already hit me by
the way :). The real question is: Have you considered the risk factor ? You
may not realize but you have a lot to lose if you do take the risk and try
something new.I am in no way suggesting that you should not do it. I just want
you to assess the following:

How bad do you want this ? Are you just bored and want to try something new
for a change OR do you actually want to pursue a whole new career
path/entrepreneurship etc. Big difference b/w the 2. A lot more at risk if you
go for the second one but hopefully a lot more reward as well.

P.S: Your English seems pretty good to me.

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miriadis
A very reasonable insight, but I'm not thinking of giving up my job and throw
me into the unknown. A new position always has its risks but I think this can
be calibrated. Thank you for your comment about my English.

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dear
If you are a computer engineer and have prior knowledge of programming, you
should be able to pick up any new language or technology in a very short time.
With 1000 hours (that is 5 months of 5 day weeks) you have more than enough
time to: find an interesting startup idea, learn the necessary technologies,
build it, test it, launch it and validate with potential customers. If it
doesn't work you just go back to your old day job. There is nothing to lose.

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salahxanadu
Could you go to a conference to add in some social events that are
programming-related? Perhaps having self-imposed deadlines and social support
would be helpful.

Do you know any programmers that could be a bit of a mentor?

I went through a career pivot going from mostly web development to mobile
programming. The big thing for me was to release your own apps and to create
good tech demos.

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boothead
Haskell. I'm still on the journey but it's changed the way I think about
programming already (always worthwhile!). You might also consider clojure for
the same kind of effect but likely more real world utility if you come from
Java land.

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miriadis
I'm being seduced by Erlang. "High concurrency" seems to be a great space to
dive in.

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mattquiros
Great topics. How about algorithms, networks, and design patterns? There's
also a lot of in-depth computer science stuff you can learn from Coursera.

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miriadis
Any suggestion about a promising technology stack to be mainstream in five
years?

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miriadis
Thanks for all the comments. This is really a great community.

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saluki
I would develop a SaaS app idea over your time away from your day job.

Choosing a language or skill that's going to be the next big thing is tough.

Ruby on Rails would be a good choice to use to develop your app and Rails
developers are in demand if it works out you go to work for someone as a
developer in the future or freelance on projects.

Since you're around 40 I would work toward having your own business rather
than programming for someone else with a new skill.

Check out <http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/>.

They have a lot of good information on their podcast.

