[MDGeist]

Totally agree, but how often is the young coworker using the hip new language in their position because they were told learning it was the key to getting a job in a competitive market and it is what they have to fall back on?

Somewhat similarly, I feel like the boring/mature infra often gets ripped up in favor of something hip and new by a CIO who wants a career checkmark that they "modernized" everything. Then they move on to the next company and forget the consequences of breaking what was stable.

[whstl]

I have a lot of respect for anyone doing this, as someone who also had to work for a living.

Same as I have for people resisting it because they want stability.

It is the management’s job to handle this decision and any potential problem caused by it, period.

[szundi]

Lot of these management guys are smart enough to just move to an other job after the success and just before it turns into a slow death.

[steveBK123]

In Wall Street tech its pretty common to see someone with a string of 2 year leadership stints that is basically the above.

Promise the world, hire, build, fail to deliver, move on.

[whstl]

True! But once again, if they’re playing the game, all good.

Lots of respect for any worker, management or otherwise, who prioritizes their own welfare over someone else’s profits :)

All the company has to do is change the rules of the game!

The buck stops at the top of course, perhaps unless it’s something like government or a non-profit, but even then I’m not sure.

[II2II]

Modernization can mean replacing 50 year old technology with "20 year old" technology. I stuck in the quotes because something that is perceived to be that old is probably under active development, and modern while remaining boring.

[bluGill]

There are different 50 year old technologies. Fortran is older than that, but still going strong in some niches because for a few niches it works good enough. (for some numeric operations it compiles to the fastest code and that matters). COBOL is older than that too, but everyone is replacing it because nobody wants to know it - even those who do know it prefer something else (or so I'm told - I don't work here). C is more than 50 years old, but it works good enough for a lot of people and it is still getting better. C++ is nearly 50, and getting a lot of useful features. Rust is todays hotness, but it continue or just be another fad - ask me in 30 years.

I've seen many fads over my lifetime and I expect to see many more. Some fads I regret their death, while others I'm glad we saw the light and don't use that anymore.

[steveBK123]

Actually seen a ton of this from mid-career people who should know better but don't (or don't care). New grads aren't leading Greenfield multi-year projects.

[silverquiet]

Speaking as a mid-career who does know better, the thing is that I still have to compete in said competitive market along with everyone else and lots of recruiters/hiring managers/linkedin influencers/etc... don't seem to know better either.

[bluGill]

I still remember the day I saw a posting for a job that required 10 years of Java, 5 Years of C#. At the time Java was about 8 years old, and C# about 3. I'll bet they hired someone anyway and nobody clued them into how impossible their requirement was.

[marc_abonce]

Yeah, Resume-Driven Development is unfortunately such a common methodology and companies indirectly push for this by punishing candidates who admit to doing maintenance work and bug fixing instead of rearchitecting everything every year.

[steveBK123]

That is a false dichotomy. It is not "hot new cutting edge tech" vs "maintenance work".

You can build a brand new Greenfield project with Java. You can also due minor enhancements on a cutting edge tech project as well.

Interviewers care about the scope of work.