I’ve had a few emails from people recently, based partly on comments from my webdevradio series as well as my recent NCDevCon presentation. The emails have all centered on job situations, finding work, freelancing, and similar topics, and I was able to get permission to reprint some of my email with one of my listeners (thanks Mike P!)
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I need to ask your advice if you would please indulge me for a minute.
I’m 44 YO and I am an Audio Visual Engineer for meetings and events. At my age I’m looking at the future and thinking do I want to be pushing cases around and working all hours of the night in 10 years. I’ve messed around with some basic static site building which I learned from Lynda.com. I seem to enjoy building sites and the whole process and am considering maybe a career change. But I am unsure if it would be worth my time to invest in the education of learning all the languages of dynamic development.
Back in the hay day I’m sure you could get a decent job with just the education, but in today’s enviroment I probably need 100 sites under my belt just to get an interview.
If you would be so kind, please give me some of your thoughts when you have some time.Thank you so much
I know what you mean about planning and thinking ahead. I’m in the same process and trying to decide what I want to be doing 10 years from now. I look back at 10 years ago and I’m mostly doing the same thing. It’s keeping food on the table, and I’ve had some good times, but I don’t want another 10 years of exactly the same thing. Hence, “lifestyle design”. Even if you don’t think of it like that, that’s what it is. You don’t want to me working nights in 10 years – that’s part of the lifestyle you want (or don’t want, as the case may be).
IMO, absolutely learn up on web development and pursue that if you enjoy it. I suspect, however, that given your age, that you might have a harder time landing a ‘traditional’ job in a web development shop (if indeed that’s what you’re looking for). You might find more success freelancing/consulting.
One of the keys to freelancing is being able to sell yourself (followed closely by networking in general). There’s a lot of work out there for people willing to be flexible with their time, rates and schedule, which makes me optimistic.
Granted, my perspective is one of someone who’s done this for 15 years, and it may seem easier to me (indeed, it might *be* easier for me) than for other people. I do know people who are freelancing and have only recently gotten in to web work though (as in, less than 2 years). They tend to be hustlers (in a good sense) – people who can make stuff happen when there’s no clear direction, and that’s part of what they’re selling to the clients – guidance, hand holding, answers, peace of mind. And they don’t tend to be experts at the languages. Today there’s loads of CMS and tools you can use to provide valuable services to clients with, and none of them necessitate learning huge amounts of development or coding. If you *like* to do that, you can, but it’s not a requirement like it may have been 10 years ago.
If this is something you seem to enjoy – move in that direction. Don’t give the age thing too much thought (I’m closing in on you, although not quite there!) with respect to learning new stuff. It is good that you’re thinking about what you *like* to do and what you *want* to be doing in the future though – that’s surprisingly rare. 
Write down some goals, and make a plan as to how to get there. Probably sounds trite, but it can help. I don’t meet all my goals all the time (or, I should say, haven’t yet), but I’m moving in the right direction.
