In response to Karsten Self's: >>But its significance can only decline, and the communities focussing >>on >>it can only become more insular.

Several years ago I became quite concerned that my SAS skills would become less and less marketable. I did some market research to determine what skills were "hot" and then learn them. I began to learn PowerBuilder at first. Then I got a management job, not involving PowerBuilder, that lasted a few years. By the time I left that job, Powerbuilder was no longer "hot". Then I became a Microsoft Certified Software Developer (MCSD) and found that I could not find work with Microsoft products either. But I always found that it was relatively easy to find SAS jobs. My SAS skills never became obsolete, but both my PowerBuilder and Microsoft skills became obsolete pretty quickly. Now I'm trying to build Perl skills, but I wonder if I can't just keep going with SAS until my retirement in about fifteen or twenty years.

I'm interested to learn of others' experiences.

Abe

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