Will sharpening my sword eventually lead to it cutting my head off?

Question

Sharpening the sword: All I've read in the developer community suggests that I should keep learning and studying to become the best developer I can. This will make me better at my job and more valuable as an employee.

Cutting my head off: However there seems to be an influx of cheap programming labor constantly coming int to the market(college, foreign countries, etc.) I was part of that influx when I graduated.

So my question is, What is the likely outcome? Will there always be a job where a skilled-programmer(Grey-Beard) will have a place to work and contribute, or will he eventually price himself out of the market by having such great knowledge and skill?

Answer 1

There's an old adage - good people are hard to find. The field (especially now) is very wide, and smart, talented people are pretty much always in demand.

Whilst there will always be the influx of new, greener resources there is always the need for experienced hands to guide and architect projects and products. However, you may need to vary your salary or work conditions as the market dictates.

Edit: I'd also suggest that as part of your own professional development, you add user groups and conferences to the list. Networking within the community is a good way to keep your options open, and enable you to keep up with technology trends.

Answer 2

Well, a good programmer can be 10 times more useful than a fresh out of college programmer. Will the supply of good programmers exceed the demand? Maybe, but what is the alternative for you? Be stagnant and never grow? Hope that you can do the same thing and make the same pay for the rest of your career?

You can always fall back to a junior job if you get desperate. If you realize you wasted 20 years of your life and are obsolete because you didn't learn new skills... you are in a much worse boat.

Answer 3

Is software development just a job for you, or is it something you care about?

If you're concerned about getting paid without having to learn anything new, I recommend learning COBOL or some other archaic mainframe programming language. A lot of the operations and support guys for these technologies are getting old and approaching retirement, and not many younger people know, or care to know the technology. New people will be needed and will be in high demand, but then again there's no guarantee that organizations will refuse to replace this archaic backbone technology for the remainder of your working life.

If you want to stay current, be sure to keep up with the latest technologies -- even if you don't use them. Good developers will always be in demand, and you never know when some technology you're using will become obsolete, or when some new technology will come out and change the world. The only way you'll price yourself out of the market is if you demand more money than an organization feels you are worth. In any case, the chance to work on something exciting in your field should be a larger motivational factor than the amount of money you make (keep in mind though that you deserve to be paid fairly based on your skillset and experience). If money IS your key motivator, you should start brushing up on your COBOL.