[_diyu]

I'm only 32 but that's kind of where I'm at right now too.

Mastered Objective-C and Mac & iOS development 10 years ago, now it's all Swift and nobody's really hiring for iOS devs in my area (Chicago suburbs), and nobody's hiring for native Mac developers anywhere, period. And all the best practices in iOS have changed drastically since then, too, in terms of both coding and UX.

Learned Ruby on Rails 8 years ago, but it changed so fast that most of what I knew about it has become irrelevant, and I never was very good at Rails in the first place.

All the best practices I've learned in HTML/CSS/JS/jQuery/Less/Sass are becoming outdated pretty quickly.

Spent 5 years mastering Clojure but it's obviously very niche and I don't have any experience with big data or anything else Clojure is usually used for, only traditional web apps.

It feels like there's no way to keep up with the industry while staying relevant and employable.

[Liuser]

When you get into technology, you should go under the assumption that you will be a student for the rest of your life. Otherwise you will get left behind. My Dad is in tech (I followed his footsteps). For as long as I can remember growing up he always had a book with him in his free time. He started with punchcards.

[_diyu]

I don't mind learning, definitely. I got into this field because I'm passionate about software and I enjoy programming a lot. But while I have a full time job and a large-ish family to support, it's hard to fit "3 years of professional React.js experience" into my spare time to put on my resume, so that when nobody's hiring iOS developers anymore, I can still get a job. That's what I'm talking about. A lot of the skills are very transferrable, but I've already been turned down for a few jobs simply because I just don't have the in-production experience with the exact technology they're hiring for, even though I could pick it up pretty quickly.

[6a68]

Want to get some production experience with react? Tons of webdev projects are using it at Mozilla. Come on over and find yourself a good first bug :-)

[hodl]

"But while I have a full time job and a large-ish family to support, it's hard to fit "3 years of professional React.js experience" into my spare time ..."

I'm sure your got the bugs, but the gp ain't got the time

[matte_black]

I was in your position, been working with iOS since the beginning until I decided to just get the fuck out of iOS and start doing some useful things.

Went all in with building single page applications in JavaScript and Node, front end, back end, and database administration, and haven’t looked back.

Fuck iOS now, native mobile development benefited from a craze where everyone thought mobile apps were the new web apps, but the truth is, most mobile apps only make sense in the context of a larger application ecosystem, usually supporting a web app.

[crimsonalucard]

Node and javascript? Those technologies change and move faster than anything else in the industry. What you're doing now will likely be obsolete within a couple years.

[matte_black]

So what? You’re not never going to find one thing to learn for all time. Things change. The point is to get started and then follow the industry.

Who cares if what I do today is obsolete in a few years, by then I’ll be doing something different.

[crimsonalucard]

Don't learn the language. Learn the fundamentals. The fundamentals remain constant.

[matte_black]

Tough to get hired on fundamentals these days.

[crimsonalucard]

A lot of jobs out there only test you on fundamentals. Hackerrank questions allow you to pick whatever language you like.

[_sdegutis]

I'm willing to bet that Node/JS devs actually have an easier time staying current, since their workplace actually has a need to change technologies, so they're getting paid to keep rewriting their web app in $the_latest_framework, which they can then put on their resume.

[mod]

Sort of. The difference I guess is that you can still put javascript on your resume and it'll do something for you.

[nerfhammer]

<snark>don't worry, all the people making apps and new javascript/css frameworks have moved on to cryptocurrencies now</snark>

[marnett]

I think you mean zk-SNARK

[Declanomous]

I know a few iOS devs in Chicago. I've definitely heard about the trials and tribulations of switching from Objective C to Swift, but I'm surprised there aren't more jobs out there. Is the commute to Chicago too long for you?

The iOS devs I know are either in marketing or work freelance though. So I'm not sure how much like "a normal job" it is for them.

[blitz_skull]

Is there a private message feature here? I may have an opportunity you'd be interested in.

[tmnvix]

HN doesn't have any private message functionality but many people (including the poster you replied to) have a means of contact in their profile - just click on the user's name.