I asked the question "What do the above quote mean in regards to the tech industry" to my local tech community. The following is a curated list of their answers:

JC Smiley
One door closing is another door opening to me means to not be afraid of change. Life has a funny way of creating opportunities for success if you are willing to take a step forward. Even more strange is life's ability to force that change upon you. You have a choice to either make the best or worst of it.

Dennis Kennetz
I think of this on a per-project basis. Sometimes my manager would start me down a path, only for me to report back that I don't think it is viable for the long term. I don't see those closed doors as time wasted, I see them as learning opportunities. For many things that didn't pan out, I got to learn a new technology or improve some skills. One such example is when we were choosing between AWS and Azure for our Elastic HPC in the Cloud provider. I started with AWS and after about 2 months, we were told that we would not pursue AWS by some higher ups because St. Jude as an organization has very strong ties to Azure. Rather than mope about it, I was glad to have gained a deep understanding of a lot of the AWS tools and architecture. About 8 months down the road I have been able to leverage my AWS skills on a variety of other projects with other institutions collaborating with St. Jude. I became the “go to” AWS guy because I had the opportunity to sharpen my skills.

Brett Rehberg
Doors open and doors close. That is life. The question is will you be prepared when someone opens a door?

Lawrence Lockhart
For me this a particularly great reminder during those times when I'm sending out dozens of applications and it seems like the whole world is ghosting me. This was also the mentality when I applied to one boot camp and couldn't get in due to being too old. This definitely is spot on when 80 of us got out “pink papers” from Fred's, and I was without a job with no immediate leads in sight. Sometimes you just gotta believe it's gonna work out.

This led to a great tech job and perhaps more precisely for me, some opportunities that I've gotten I never would have known about or considered if other doors hadn't closed...

Ben Young
Tech is often a revolving door just like the fashion industry, what's old and phased out will eventually return under a new name or style

Birenderjit Madan
It can get difficult at times as I have realized as I am looking for my next role these past 5 months. I am also looking at like I rather do what I want to do than get pushed into a job just because that is the kind of roles and opportunities I am getting. I believe everything happens for a reason and happens for good. You can only look back and connect the dots to where you are today in your life.

Ryan McGovern
I mean, I just had a couple doors close for a couple of reasons. I turned down one job due to an NDA on their “trial period”, a recruiter decided to ghost me when I didn't get a job he was pushing me toward, and I was declined at my last interview due to amount of experience (1 yr). These are all great learning lessons and ultimately jobs that weren't for me. So I've taken this as an opportunity to step back once more and try to decide what I want to do, where I want to help, and refocus my efforts there. Doors are always opening and closing, not every one should be passed through.

In Conclusion

The quote “One door closing is another door opening” in the tech industry has several meanings.

Doors that are close today can lead to something great like losing a job today can lead to a great job tomorrow. Lawrence Lockhart commented how a boot-camp wouldn't let him in because he was “to old” and his first tech job gave his entire department the “pink slip”. This lead to a free boot camp and later a better tech job.

In the tech industry, developers are constantly learning new technologies for work projects. But sometime those projects are shut down. This closed door is still a blessing because that skill was learned. You never know when you may need that skill again or how knowing it will open future doors.

Searching for a job is a challenging adventure. A closed door can be a clue that it's a door you shouldn't pass through.

How can you help make doors open. A few tips are:

1. Network with others
2. Learn new skills
3. Market your projects on social media
4. Go to tech meetups
5. Be a great employee
6. Help others by mentoring or giving advice

Only by looking back at your past closed doors can you connect the dots to a great door opening. Closing and opening doors is about change. While scary, it's your choices afterward that will make the change worth it.

Please help others learn by leaving a comment on the quote "One door closing is another door opening." Thank You!!!

Code Connector is a non-profit that's organized tech meetups to help people start their journey into tech. You can join our daily conversations by clicking this link: Code Connector slack channel.