Doubts About Keeping a Job with Hard Skills

Post Reply New Topic

I read this book review on this site about people with A.S. getting and keeping jobs. I take issue with the whole idea of getting hard skills that are hard to replace.

Speaking in context of programming and information technology.... Managers steer towards technologies that are popular in most cases. That way they can replace a person more easily should one developer leave. Consequentially, the "quirky" in I.T. can be let go of a lot more easily. The survivors tend to have more in the way of "soft skills".

Occasionally, hard-to-find skills to pick up might provide such a hard skills anchor point. Legacy technologies are good for that. In retrospect, maybe I could have saved my last job by learning RPG. Then again, I'm not sure how I would have found anyone to train me on it. Not sure if this reflects bitterness or realism.