[spearingthehead]

I'll have to work my experience to my advantage, then. Squeeze out every last drop I can get, even if it's not much. Or go for one of those bootcamps.

I have to show that I'm still better than less experienced bootcamp grads, because I have not been able to accept that I wasted many years of my life.

[scarface74]

If you haven’t kept up with technology, you probably have.

That’s harsh. But it’s not meant to be judgmental. I’ve told the story plenty of times how I became an “expert beginner” by the time I was 35 (I’m 48 now). I was still doing VB6 in 2008 when it was discontinued in 2001. It was until 2016 (at 42) that I had any type of “lead position”.

All you can do now is upskill and get current. I couldn’t spell AWS or “cloud” until 2018 (at 44) when I first logged into the console.

My first job at any company you have ever heard of was 2 years ago.

[spearingthehead]

Also, the landscape changed a lot since the time you started pivoting at 2008. That's just one year after the time I started my career, competition was less fierce.

Now I'm curious it it's become more difficult in the present day for an expert beginner to rebound, when there's far more beginner competition and boot camps are springing up everywhere today.

On the other hand, there are also a lot more learning resources online since the late 2000s. Still trying to weigh both things in my head and estimating whether a 2022 expert beginner would be at a net advantage today compared to 14 years ago.