The first surprise of 2025

Well, to those that know me they’re well aware of my concerns around the purchase of my employer by a private equity firm. It’s no secret that they are notorious for dramatically “restructuring their assets” to better fit the infinite return on investment scheme they so much love. We all know it’s not sustainable, yet it seems to be the defacto practice.

Well, guess it’s my turn to feel that wrath. As much as I don’t want to. It’s unfortunate as well because I’ve grown to actually like working for my employer. It’s the first time I felt like I’ve been cared for by my immediate superiors. The only solace I have is my termination is not immediate. Thought I doubt others in my organization are quite as lucky.

My last days are by the end of June, which gives me some time to reflect on what I want to do before I actually have to start looking for new work. Am I happy with myself? Do I want to do anything different? It still really hasn’t hit me yet. I guess knowing I have a buffer helps. So when will it hit?

However, that’s a minor concern of mine. One that pales in comparison to one thought that has already given me some anxiety attacks. It’s whether or not I might have to move based on what I find for new employment. As much as I want to stay local to where I am, even if I have to commute an hour or so everyday. Finger lakes New York is not exactly a hot bed for software development to begin with. Positions are most likely filled, and not many companies really on the lookout for new talent. So I’m really hoping I don’t have to move. Otherwise the house I managed to buy, down the drain. I’ll have to sell it. I doubt I’ll be able to buy a house again. Not without some drastic changes in income.

Then that brings me to my next concern. If I have to move, where is that going to be? If not in New York, then I can no longer be the primary care giver to my mother. A person who is unemployed and disabled. Dependent on state resources to get health care. She’d have to stay behind and live with other family members. Else she’d lose those resources. The thought of not being able to be there for her, also hurts.

Another concern I have is the sudden growth of AI in development. I fear my next position may want me to rely of some tool that’s suppose to help me. But so far, any AI tool I’ve used so far have been more of a hindrance. Everyday I here of some new platform incorporated AI to “make development smoother” or “easier” or “faster”. However I highly doubt they hit any of those marks to begin with. I’m not a fan of AI when it’s use case is incredibly generic.

AI can be a great tool, if it’s laser focused to perform one task. One good example is decoding genome structures in the case of Evo. It’s not trying to replace an entire workflow, but aide an existing workflow to become more efficient. It does one thing, and has been trained to do that one thing well. The ones trying to replace entire workflows with the illusion it’s an aide. A solution to essentially make some job more “accessible” is just not acceptable use in my opinion. I’m all for making things accessible, it’s just AI doesn’t really make maintainable apps. They’re usually very monolithic, contain irrelevant code that needs to be removed and potentially contain security risks. If the user doesn’t know this, then it’s not really making efficient use of time.

Then there’s the ethics on how AI is trained. Personally not a fan as well, especially the ones that try to target “art”.

However, I’m trying not to focus on the negatives. I’m rather thankful for being with my current employer as long as I have. I’ve been given over 5 years of industry experience in software development. Which would definitely give me a great advantage at finding new work. I’ve also learned so much about things like .NET, Azure, Docker, and security. Things I probably would’ve ignored learning had I not gotten this job.

I’m also trying to view it as an opportunity to try something new. Maybe software development is not my cup of tea. I could go for other positions related to that field. I also really want to dive into game development but I’m not sure if I’ll ever make a cut. Perhaps with a small indie studio I might, but there are skills I’ve yet to develop. Especially when it comes to working and thinking in the 3rd dimension. Perhaps I might give things a shot.

All I know, is whatever lies ahead of me is going to require a lot more work than I’m currently used to. I just hope I don’t have to make any extreme changes in my life, and it can stay relatively the same as it is now.