Lifelong Learning for Lifelong Employment

SOMEONE ASKED ME recently, “How do we keep 40-year-old software developers employed?” At rst I was puzzled. I had little clue this was a problem. Isn’t there more demand than supply for software developers? However, imagine a software developer who graduates from a good engineering school and gets a good job in a large high-tech company. He marries and raises a family, is good at barbecue, runs in triathlons, doesn’t miss a single French movie in town, has a large collection of rock LPs, and so on. Then, after 20 years at his job, owing to a series of economic changes, restructurings, and acquisitions, he nds himself suddenly unemployed. He realizes that much of the technology he’s been working on for the past 15 years was valued in his company but is hardly sellable in today’s job market. Actually, none of the technologies he has mastered are in use in any of the companies he’s interviewing with. “What do I know about the MEAN stack? What ‘mean’ stack?” What can this developer do to improve his employment chances?