Choosing Not to Support Technologies
May 15, 2025Tags: careers
Today’s post is about choosing not to support technologies. There is no rule out there that says “Once you have used a technology, you must continue support it for (the org you moved on from/people who are using it similar to how you used it/others).”
This morning, I had a quote that got me thinking…
… sucks so much that I wouldn’t even offer you my “go away” rates for consulting. I’d just tell you to go away. 😳
Even in this desperate job market, I wouldn’t take it. 😤
This is something I would omit from my past experiences and deny ever using.
- Sadukie
There are technologies that I’ve used in the past that I refuse to support going forward. I have intentionally left off experiences from my resume so that I would not have to admit to certain technologies.
Unfortunately, I got asked about this in a community where there are others who knew I used it. So I couldn’t just deny it and move on.
But… Why?!
Let’s put it this way. This particular thing I was talking about in the quote was very much a “work in progress” API. The platform doesn’t have a great API, and I found it very immature for the particular scenario I was supporting. It got to the point where there were features that I would expect as “common sense in API land” that weren’t there. There were processes that were nightmarish UXes - especially at least 5-clicks to get to a single file. Now do that manually over 100 times because there’s no API for that. Yeah, I finally stopped asking questions and stopped reporting problems. I finally hit that point internally where I thought - “For as immature as this platform is, I’m done giving feedback. If they have questions on expectations and want UX feedback, they can reach out to my employer and pay our prices to get my feedback.” Never have I been that angry about a platform for a community project. Never!
Leaving Things Off the Resume
If you think you have to list every experience on your resume, let’s set the story straight. Your resume is where YOU get to tailor your career story. You get to choose what stories you tell and which you never want to relive.
So if you don’t want to support another FoxPro app, then leave the FoxPro off!
Tired of having to deal with yet another Lotus Notes environment? Don’t mention it on your resume, and don’t apply to jobs that use it.
Is that low-code platform that you have to support currently the main cause of your headaches? Don’t list it as something you do.
Know that there are many of us out there who have experience with technologies that we explicitly omit for various reasons. If people judge you because you omit experience, that is a problem with them, not you.
Conclusion
It’s okay to walk away from a language, tool, technology, or platform. There may come a point where it’s just too much - frustration, wasting time, overcomplicating things, and really crappy user experiences. It’s okay to set the boundaries of walking away and never touching them again. Just know that there are trade-offs - like if it’s important for your job and you need the money, you may need to tough it out. But in your next job, you can avoid mentioning it on the resume. Just because you used a technology doesn’t mean you must include all the technologies on the resume.