I turn 50 today.
The reason I mention this is because I have seen a lot of people — mostly on LinkedIn — making dire prognostications that anyone over that age will never work in IT again if they're not currently in work, and that gave me pause for thought.
It's been 11 years since I last wrote about a potential mid-life crisis and career change, and as I'm now a mere month away from my 50th birthday it seemed like a good topic to revisit!
I have been thinking a lot about AI recently — probably because every other post on LinkedIn is some kind of regurgitated AI think-piece, and every unsolicited email at work seems to revolve around AI strategy — and what it means for our current working practices.
Or, are my diamond shoes just a bit too tight?
I found myself having a bit of an existential debate (with myself) this weekend — perhaps it’s just the shadow of my impending 39th birthday, but something got me thinking about what it is that I do each day, and whether it’s actually what I want to be doing.
There was a time when every developer job vacancy posted online seemed to be looking for “Rockstar” developers — fortunately it seems to have subsided a little now, but it’s still definitely a “thing” and it needs to be stamped out.
I went to a university reunion recently - ostensibly to celebrate the 50th aniversary of the founding of York University, but mostly to catch up with the old York RAG crowd with whom I spent most of my 3 years as an undergraduate.
Since I was a kid my only real career aspiration has been to become a Bond-style villain and hold the world to ransom. Is that so much to ask?