Software developer in danger of being laid off...

July 9, 2020 10:42 AM

If you are an IT professional who is facing the real possibility of layoffs due to COVID, what skills or training would you work on? Would preparing to work on a cyber security diploma be a smart move?

For additional info, I'm a 7-year java developer in a large corporation. We just laid off 70 people, I think 14 in IT. I want to be ready should the axe fall on me next round.

posted by kitcat to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Infosec has been a very hot industry but it's also likely to start having problems as the economy (most likely) gets bad. Security is always a cost center, never a profit maker, so it's an easy thing for most companies to reduce spending on when they have to tighten their belts.

If you wanted to look at security, I'd recommend looking into DevSecOps - things like integrating various types of application security testing tools into the CI pipeline and automating them, as it would benefit from your experience with software development. If your work happens to have touched on cloud or IAM stuff, those are both hot areas as well.

Getting up to speed with other parts of the industry would take some time if you're starting from zero. There's an unfortunately glut of people that think that attending a three months class that's an overview of the field and then passing a regurgitation exam makes them ready to earn six figures.
posted by Candleman at 10:56 AM on July 9, 2020

Java development skills remain in high demand and many places are still hiring. I would work on strengthening your general development skills and making sure you're solid on the fundamentals of data-structures, algorithms, and distributed systems. If you have that, if you can talk about how to build and run a service, you shouldn't have a problem. In other words, I would recommend investing in honing your core stills rather than touching on additional ones. Your core skills are already highly valuable.
posted by lucasks at 11:27 AM on July 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

If you're a pure developer, the trick about getting into DevOps is that you really should have some of the "ops" skills -- so consider learning about networking and the underlying OS where your code runs (probably Linux), and some security stuff. Familiarity with running cloud platforms would be good, too.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:05 PM on July 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'd start interviewing. Whether or not you intend to take a given job you interview for if not laid off, it'll be good practice, and get you a headstart on the process (and options!) should the axe fall. In the direct spirit of the question: the best training you can do for interviewing is err... doing lots of it.

There are lots of companies actively ramping up hiring, for as many as are going into freezes/layoffs.
posted by so fucking future at 12:06 PM on July 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've been working in the IBM mainframe world for 45 years and pretty much all my skills have come on the job. My only "rare" skill I possess is COBOL and allied systems. But in my current company there are many Java programmers developing client front end and automation. Some folks are working on RESTful APIs, microservices and JSON. I believe database skills are always necessary.

DevOps is also heating up a lot. One coworker is young, very sharp and seems to have soaked up DevOps like a sponge. Specifically the allied tools, cloud infrastructure, Linux, versioning/release management, scripting, Linux, firewalls, etc.

So, I agree with lucasks and wenestvedt that you will probably be better served at fleshing out your existing skills than jumping into a new arena. I also agree with Candleman that you want to be in a profit center not a cost center (line not staff).

As for interviewing I have always approached interviews with the idea that it's an exploration not an examination. The question is do my skills match their problem set or needs, and/or is their location/benefits/compensation in line. Except right out of college I don't recall being nervous because I don't want to work where I'm not valued or can't succeed. I know I may just have been lucky, bad economic times might have changed my views.
posted by forthright at 2:02 PM on July 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Don’t lie in your resume but it might help to change the focus to what’s hot right now: microservices, cloud and for some reason “API based” all of which I’ve done but my resume was more focused on technologies and search terms recruiters don’t want. Also if you’re a good developer picking up a modern language isn’t hard. For example I was afraid to put Python on my resume since I didn’t know the in and outs of how it gets compiled down or every library like I did with other languages. The key is to get really in the door and past the hiring manager.

Case in point: I worked with a company that highly customized Kubernetes and I honestly didn’t know some of the things the doctoral level engineers were doing because some of proving it worked involved advanced, well doctoral level math. So I was worried I’d get a job and end up doing set theory. In reality most people just wanted someone who knew what Kubernetes did. I think the term is graduate student syndrome.
posted by geoff. at 2:07 PM on July 10, 2020