%%Q: how is online affiliate marketing as a recreation esp. when I grow old
A: yes can reduce loneliness. Online shopping is a megatrend.
— pff: me: In the U.S. I was told that many people get a bachelor’s degree in their 30s, after they have figured out what they want to study. I feel that’s more natural for many individuals.
XA feels it’s not easy in SG. If a guy doesn’t attend university, he is likely to marry early. After marriage, as a SG citizen he could get a flat and take on a loan within a few years. (Many would take a car loan, too.) The loan create a financial burden that rules out full-time study in his 30s. XA likened it to enslavement. I think it’s something of a trap.
— parenting ..
%%Q: screen time control?
A: be more lenient esp. after the exams. Screen restriction could lead to mental breakdown, but dabao is coping well.
— gz .. in recent months (or years), after a decade as a tech guy, XA moved into “people mgmt” (his own words). The team is like post-sales professional consulting, on a wide range of products including Oracle DB and Mysql DB.
%%Q: Relaxed job?
A: Not at all. XA considers himself not a people-person, but in a people-mgmt role. I said many managers were not people-persons but could hold their jobs for years. XA said Oracle is more “demanding” (not his original words). Too many expectations including revenue targets — his team need to go on sales meetings.
This “expectation” reminds me of my Macq role expectation and the GS culture. I think Jenny of MS also said something similar about responsibilities and benchmarking.
So my career has plateaued in salary, responsibilities, energy [stress],, In contrast, my peers have (almost) plateaued in salary Only ! I feel luckier.
me: learning new tech, beyond java/c++ .. I have refused to take up new languages, or javascript etc. Maintenance of c++ critical mass requires dedication and takes up bandwidth.
XA took some Coursera certificates on some AI topics. XA thinks javascript (frameworks) skillset market value is usually rather low except in the top employers where all tech skills are paid very high. Sharp observation. Javascript/Kotlin/golang has poor market depth compared to coreJava.
XA pointed out that some niche tech skills can enjoy robust demand for decades. Examples include Cobol (XA’s example) and sockets (my example). Young developers won’t be interested or won’t acquire the experience. How about LotusNotes? Perl CGI?
%%Q: what’s your coding interview experience.
A: only once several years ago. XA has moved out of dev roles. He was a tuning expert for Weblogic, JVM etc, less of a developer
%%Q (minor): what do you say about continuous coding drill
A: yes needed. On-the-job practice is too light too easy. Mostly string processing and if/else/for loops
%%Q (minor): outsourcing in SG tech domain .. still your concern? web2.0 is bucking the trend?
A: fin-IT is not mainstream. SG is an outsourcing destination for American fin-IT.
A: Covid19 has reduced the outsourcing worries among some Singaporeans.