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Comment by nemmonszz | Hacker News Reader

Is convincing employers to transition technology stacks really something that is generally considered easy (or even doable)? I'm stuck maintaining 'enterprise' software running on VB6 and ColdFusion 9 and the idea of getting my employers to sanction a migration to something newer is laughable.

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Not necessarily, but convincing your boss to be mindful of your medium-term career goals definitely is and at largish companies there should be opportunities for you to spend time working on something else. Career-wise, I'd be more concerned about working for someone that wants you to stagnate than about the specific software you're maintaining. (Not saying that that's necessarily the case, BTW.)

We're finally starting to consider talking about transitioning old software from Access 97 to a C# .NET web app at my job.

It's a thing. I don't know about convincing employers, but employers do it. I've participated in such projects. hell, I know people who have done such things in government and military contracting contexts. It does happen

so yeah, it happens. Legacy systems are re-written. convincing your employer? yeah, I've never seen that part happen, so I can't say anything, but I certainly have seen the aftermath.

Honestly if they expect you to maintain that code then your salary should reflect the long term damage to your career and sanity.

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