Tech Is Dead

Many thousands of software engineers have been laid off over the past few years. It’s a market like I’ve never seen — and I’m 60 years old. Brilliant, experienced engineers have difficulty even getting an interview. What if the market stays this way? What if you never again get a software engineering job?

I myself have largely given up on software engineering as a career. I work on small projects that come my way through friends and family, and once in a while (rarely now) I make a tutorial-type video and publish on YouTube — but that’s it.

Now, I should stipulate that in college I majored in English. I took the initial classes for the computer science major at Cal — which included flipping the switches on a PDP-8/L to learn about interrupts, using Unix on a VAX-11/780, Pascal, machine language programming…. Fond memories. But the required math classes were so hard for me, while English literature came so naturally. I thought I’d become an academic: an English professor. But then by the time I got my MA I was sick to death of constantly needing to read great literature. Imagine if you had to overstuff yourself on gourmet food day after day. It would become repugnant. And then the lifestyle: never having enough time to really digest (to persist with the metaphor) before trying to write something clever.

Long story short: while working in marketing — desktop publishing, writing articles for industry publications, etc. — the web came along. I was able to leverage my aptitude for computer programming with some creative skills. I worked on my own, I worked for companies. I stumbled along in my self-taught way.

I don’t know whether that’s enough for the AI world. I think not. Whoever it is that companies need, those companies don’t seem to need a lot of them. Or the companies are getting the work done by less expensive labor outside the US. Beats me.

I do sometimes have the fantasy that — in a year or two — companies will find themselves burdened with inscrutable, unmaintainable code generated by AI and copy-pasted by cheap labor. They’ll come begging —begging! — laid off programmers like me to come back and fix everything.

Not going to happen.

So, what do you do if tech is off the table and you need to pay your bills — or you just need to work to maintain your sanity? I tried driving for Lyft and Uber. Not for me. I couldn’t make it pay enough to make it worthwhile.

Then, last year, I started substitute teaching. In California, all you need is a college degree and a clean criminal background to get a 30-Day Emergency Credential. This allows you to sub in all school districts.

I signed up with a company called ESS. Districts here and there in the US contract with it to provide substitute teachers. But not all districts use it. Some districts hire subs directly. Thus, I applied and was hired by Alameda Unified. There’s also a company called Swing Education. They hire you and then you can use their app to find sub assignments. If you want to fill your schedule and have a good array of choices — grade levels, schools, etc. — you might have to cobble together a solution like that.

Subbing doesn’t pay enough to justify a long commute. You might make $250 a day. San Francisco pays $300. Swing pays by the hour, and the rates vary.

What is it like to sub? It varies. If you want a really, really easy day, work at a high school in an affluent district like Alameda. I’m writing this in an 11th grade physiology classroom of 30 perfectly quiet students. On the other hand, if you want a daunting challenge you can work at a middle school in San Lorenzo Unified. You will be tested. Your patience, your intelligence, your very humanity will be tested. And then there are the little ones. It takes some special skills to manage 30 little kids, who know how to charm you into allowing them to do something they’re not supposed to do, and they know that you don’t know they’re not allowed to do it.

Special ed classes have been some of my most rewarding. They always (in my experience) have 4 adults in the room, so I’m always just helping out and don’t need to know what to do. Those kids are fascinating, and because there are usually fewer than 10, you get to observe and know them a bit.

Now, here’s something you might want to consider if you decide tech is dead or at least comatose: the CTE credential. CTE stands for career technical education. In California you can get this credential based on experience in select industries — like information technology. It’s the fastest way to a regular teaching credential.

I myself am trying to get a CTE. Alameda County has a CTE program you can enter if you have a job offer. I was offered a job by the Pacifica School District but when I considered the low starting salary (less than $60,000) and the terrible commute I would have, I passed on the offer. I might still go the CTE route but frankly it’s more suitable for a younger person who has the time (and desire) to work at a low salary while working up the salary scale of a school district.

Here’s my last possibility for today: deputy sheriff.

What does a deputy sheriff do? Guard “offenders,” mostly — that is, work in jails, transport offenders. They also serve as security guards. That sort of thing. I only became aware of the possibility because there was a recruitment booth for the SF Sheriff’s Department at this year’s Gay Pride event. No age limit — so even an old guy like me is eligible. Best of all, the starting salary is good and the benefits are great. Now, the salary is almost certainly less than you were earning as a software engineer but… sometimes in life you just have to choose from what’s on the menu.

The qualifications for being a deputy sheriff vary by county. In San Francisco there are written, physical agility and oral tests. The written test is a test of judgment. Presented with various scenarios — things that occur in a jail, choose the answer that’s most appropriate. The physical agility test (PAT) isn’t very hard but I failed it. I managed the running part (500 yards in 2 minutes) but the 99-yard obstacle course literally tripped me up. There’s a sawhorse and you’re supposed to vault over it by grabbing it with your hands and swinging your legs over. It’s not very high (34 inches) but my feet hit the bar. I didn’t get a chance to try dragging the 165-pound dummy.

Tomorrow I’ll retake the deputy sheriff PAT. I don’t want to be a deputy sheriff. I don’t want to spend my time with offenders. I also don’t want to work for ICE, though they’re desperately hiring. If they checked my social media postings or asked my opinions they wouldn’t accept me anyway.

Substitute teaching is pretty boring. It’s not intellectually stimulating. You take attendance, you hand out worksheets. In hard classes with discipline problems I typically call the main office and ask for help. They don’t pay me enough — and frankly I don’t have the skills — to deal with kids who fight, throw things, run around, or just maliciously try to get under my skin.

It’s the intellectual stimulation I’m sorely lacking since being laid off. And it’s not just intellectual stimulation. There are any number of things one could do to challenge one’s mind. It’s more the working together with  smart, talented people on a common goal. The sense that what you’re doing matters to someone else. In my last job I worked remotely for nearly 10 years but I still felt a connection to a team. I haven’t found any way to replace that.

Summer was difficult. School was out so I couldn’t even do substitute teaching. I don’t know what I’ll do next summer but I’ve learned I have to have some kind of work.

Sometimes I think, if only I had more self-confidence and ambition. If nothing else, the age of Trump proves that anyone can succeed at almost anything if they merely have confidence and ambition. I guess that’s encouraging? Scary but encouraging.