[7thaccount]

It's the same reason why I opted to spend only minimum time with the dying tech in my old role and find something more broadly applicable. You're super important until you're not, so general tech that is useful in many areas is a lot safer.

Cobol ain't going away anytime soon, but it certainly might limit what jobs you can get other places depending on the hiring algorithm.

[guestbest]

Even important people aren’t compensated based on their importance but their marketability. Also, pay is usually just enough to prevent employees from leaving to a competing jobs. Too much institutional knowledge can ironically leave an employee uncompetitive in the market.

[7thaccount]

Agree. Institutional knowledge is vastly underrated. A lot of jobs exist where the knowledge IS the employee value and not just some crank-turning process that can be taught to someone in a few months. It can take years to adequately understand an organization's tools, software architecture, customers, what works and what doesn't...etc.