RE: I can attest to this. And at my age, I am competing with much younger guys for even the jobs doing what I was doing 10 years ago. The wages are seriously down as well.
Well my friend, let’s face it... once you decide on a career in technology, you are DOOMED ( for want of a better word ) to a life of perpetual study and catching up.
What you knew a year ago would eventually become obsolete this year and if you are an expert at one aspect of technology, there is no guarantee that your expertise will be in demand today.
I know of a lot of very skilled software developers who are out of work today because their skillset ( e.g. development in the TANDEM COMPUTER platform, development on the OpenVMS platform, etc.) are now OBSOLETE.
Even if you hitch your career on a competitive company like Microsoft or Oracle, you have to continue upgrading your knowledge of their product or your old knowledge will be obsolete before you know it. Who wants someone who knows Oracle 9.0 for instance, when people now want Oracle 11.0 ?
Technology is a field that continues to evolve and just because you have 25 years experience does not mean you will be more valuable than the college graduate you happens to be at the cutting edge of what companies want.
That’s just the reality of things.
H1-Bs are total BS and they get their klans/tribes in companies and Americans are blocked from being hired.
However - if you are doing Open VMS programming and think it is going to survive then these guys are lazy or stupid. If you are a programmer you have to stay on top of the current crap being pushed. Java or whatever. Yeah it sucks.
And, then...
I really would not call those doing OpenVMS programming lazy or stupid. I know of many companies thathave HUGE legacy systems that need to be maintained (OpenVMS and Tandem being a few of them).
So, which is it???????????
What I meant was I can’t even get a call back on a desktop job much less management, which is where I was at in my last job.
LOL, I wouldn’t say “doomed” - I’d say blessed. It’s always changing, and that’s what makes it interestings. If you can’t/won’t learn new things don’t go into software/tech. I’d suggest finance. The basics of that haven’t changed for quite some time. :)