Thanks for the kind words, I've been trying to keep anxiety in check
Yeah we're an Agile and kanban shop. I don't necessarily want to be done with code, but I would opt for it given no better option. Thanks for the input.
Sure. I wear a lot of hats, but rarely have anyone to lead as we're a small team. This struck me as an in-house promotion scenario rather than a new hire one, maybe not? What does one do, PMP?
averting career stagnation
I'm a software developer (desktop/enterprise) working full-time. I made a lateral move to this position without a CS degree. The tech stack in the workplace is niche, down to the language, consequently limiting my marketability. Here and there I picked up some experience with some industry-standard languages on the job (Java, Python, C++, SQL), but in very limited scope. It's been several years, I'm in my late 30s and in a spot.
I did not expect to be rejected in competitions for years, at 2nd and 3rd interviews, but here we are. Now the market is tougher, and employers have their pickings of candidates experienced with popular technologies. I may be completely screwed, but now racing to save my career.
I have a choice to make. From best to worst, as I imagine:
a) focus on accruing more FOSS contribution experience, highlight this everywhere (including blog/homepage), then network aggressively. How much, I have no idea. Banking on the idea that demonstrated experience trumps every