| I can relate. I'm in my mid-thirties. I've been working as a web designer, which then became a web developer, then front-end developer and now front-end engineer - in the last 13 years. I've found the same issues as yourself. Things have become more complicated and yet I feel like my position is seen by a more "informed" upper-management as a kind of commodity. I once had a manager tell me, during a pay-rise request that developers where a dime a dozen. Fair enough, that's probably true. I've been thinking so much the last few years of how to transition into a field with less technological noise. I feel like most other people I work with, their only real skill is in communication - as in they don't have any strong hard skills like engineering. I'm in the same boat as you. Unable to get married or buy a house, or have a family due to living expenses. I mean the average price for a 1 bedroom in London is uppwards of 350k, I've been saving for 13 years and barely have a fraction of that - I dont know who is buying these houses...who can afford them? or are people willing to gamble with their savings and their future? Also, I feel like some technical managers dont do a great a job of protecting our field. As they are the ones primarily responsible for communicating with upper management. Often times, they are downplaying our abilities and our position - they dont realise that their accomplishment in terms of generating efficiency is often compromising our job security. Ultimately most managers dont care how hard it is to be a front end engineer or full stack dev or whatever, they just look at numbers, and in many cases they see us a financial burden or as a commodity. So, you as a technical manager need to bare that mind during your crusade to automate and optimise x,y and z. |