Pace out your technology career - Why? and How?

People are getting into careers earlier than before.

Life expectancy is consistently increasing across the demography.

This means one has to work and sustain a professional career for a longer period than ever - to keep themselves busy, occupied and earn enough for the winter period of their life, i.e. the longer post-retirement period.

And to top it up, the pace of change in the industry is unprecedented. This means it needs faster learning, un-learning, and re-learning to stay relevant and able to create value and hence be valued and paid.

And millennials are an ambitious lot! They want to climb up the ladder faster and stay ahead of everyone.

Everyone loves to climb up high. But, it is extremely difficult for people to cope and accept the downward slide, and the rebound (if he can do it, at all).

Therefore, a bigger challenge, is the pacing of one's career, to ensure that

• It peaks at the right time.
• It can stay at an optimum level for most of the working years
• The professional has maturity and understanding to handle the fact that he is out of his prime, and he shall let the next wave of talents to peak

An early peaking, and then lack of sustainability at those levels, will lead to frustration, depression and even loss of income. This is mostly due to complacency, lack of investment in personal growth, lack of maturity, but is generally blamed on the external uncontrollable factors.

Just to illustrate the situation:

Earlier, a person used to join the workforce at 21 yrs and work through 56 yrs. He would generally peak his career between 40-45 yrs and stay there for a good 8-10 years.

This means, he usually retires at a high, or even if he is past his prime, he is well respected by his peers who want to draw from his experience, and he also develops the humility to bow out from the center-stage.

In the same place, nowadays one starts working officially or unofficially at a younger age in the form of internships, or part-time work, and will comfortably work through till 65 yrs. He generally peaks between 30-35 and stays there for approx 4-5 years, if he is lucky.

This means, most professionals in the technology business, get past their prime by 40. At this stage, they can take up managerial roles, but everyone is not suited in such roles. Also, in technology, where things change very fast, the experience can also become a liability. And, such a situation can give rise to a "mode of denial", leading to an unpleasant situation at a workplace, and a continuous state of anxiety.

There is no silver-bullet solution to it. However, few thoughts:

• Continuous learning, staying hands-on, staying grounded, staying out of one's comfort zone, getting coached by younger team members with humility (besides coaching them)
• Staying within limited means, as income will be unpredictable, and can change depending upon the demand for your tech skills unless you are among the minority who have managerial skills and have evolved into more strategic roles
• Gathering a multitude of experience and being on top 25% percentile in at least three skills, so that you can create massive value at the confluence of these skills
• Create solid foundations, grow slowly and steadily and build a great reputation for being an adaptive and reliable go-to-person.
• Do not rush and artificially pump up your value by jumping ships unnecessarily. Always critically ask the question - "Am I creating enough value to justify my earnings?"
• Treat people well, and do not burn the bridges - you will be meeting many people whom you met on your way up when you walk down.
• Focus on building your emotional quotient, which will be far more critical and difficult to replace.
• Stay curious, stay ahead of the curve, by educating yourself on the next wave, and adapting to it before it becomes mainstream.
• When you have peaked, and you are sliding downwards, accept the situation, and go back to the drawing board, muster your courage, to re-start from where you can. The journey in the modern age for tech professionals won't be an incline, a plateau and then a decline. It will be more erratic and unpredictable.

These are just some ideas. Some may work, some may not, depending upon the situation. The idea is to minimize or delay the inevitable downward slide as much as one can.

My best wishes to all - tech professional and tech entrepreneurs. I hope you tide over these obstacles and come out winning.

Do share your suggestions, experience and/or your observation. Kindly keep names of people and/or organizations anonymous.

This post is inspired by those hundreds of requests for placement/job-reference for some 15 to 20+ yrs experienced professionals, that hit my mailbox/WhatsApp every week. It shocks me and also makes me feel bad for each one of them.