>> What that means 20-30 years from now when the seniors of today retire.
I fear that many won't retire and instead completely leave the industry which is already happening. Its anecdotal, but when I first started as a junior dev, I was working with many intermediate devs who had a few years on me.
I kept ties with a group of about two dozen devs. We all went through a lot of the same stuff. Last year I attended two local conferences. Out of the 24 or so, who were all seasoned senior devs now? Only 3 of us remained in the industry. Granted, I'm in accessibility and another moved more into a UI/UX design role but we were all that's left.
The majority of a discussion at lunch was about why they left and it was pretty universal. They were seeing AI creeping into everything they did and just walked away. The list was long of what they disliked about it and really didn't see the huge upsides that the industry was pushing. They had money, they had other opportunities they choose to pursue far and away from the tech industry.
It was pretty eye opening to say the least. We always imagined sitting around a table in our 60's recounting our experiences in tech and now we're not even into our 40's and the industry is losing amazing talent every year that IMHO cannot be replaced by an LLM prompt.
I don't have a good feeling about where this is headed.
A few went into the trades. Welding, carpentry and one started their own painting company. Another started a landscaping company. One moved out into BFE Montana, got a 125 acre hobby ranch and trains horses for equestrian riders.
The one theme is not only just get out of tech, but trying to be completely removed from it.
I know one of the guys moved out to Western ND to start a farm growing wheat and sunflower - only to find out most of the work is either automated or relies heavy on technology like the majority of John Deere tractors and other tools they need. He said he's still happier than he was working in Silicon Valley. lol
Thanks for sharing. Maybe I'm just hanging out with a lot of young devs (we're in our 30s and senior leaning) but we're all cautiously optimistic about AI. That being said we also don't have FU money so we're kinda forced to deal with it.
Maybe CS is one of those industries that just ends up cannibalizing itself with its success.
I fear that many won't retire and instead completely leave the industry which is already happening. Its anecdotal, but when I first started as a junior dev, I was working with many intermediate devs who had a few years on me.
I kept ties with a group of about two dozen devs. We all went through a lot of the same stuff. Last year I attended two local conferences. Out of the 24 or so, who were all seasoned senior devs now? Only 3 of us remained in the industry. Granted, I'm in accessibility and another moved more into a UI/UX design role but we were all that's left.
The majority of a discussion at lunch was about why they left and it was pretty universal. They were seeing AI creeping into everything they did and just walked away. The list was long of what they disliked about it and really didn't see the huge upsides that the industry was pushing. They had money, they had other opportunities they choose to pursue far and away from the tech industry.
It was pretty eye opening to say the least. We always imagined sitting around a table in our 60's recounting our experiences in tech and now we're not even into our 40's and the industry is losing amazing talent every year that IMHO cannot be replaced by an LLM prompt.
I don't have a good feeling about where this is headed.