5 ms·

> But those students at community college who are aged between late 30 and 50? Really driven. It's embarrassing to compare typical college students to them. I'

> But those students at community college who are aged between late 30 and 50? Really driven. It's embarrassing to compare typical college students to them. I'm in that age bracket (30-50), and trying to transition from tech-support/helpdesk into something like coding/linux-admin/devops/etc, anything that would pay enough to allow raising a family in/near a major US city. I find it daxx hard to even get a phone call back because of my age. I spend a lot of time learning this and that and have s small portfolio that can be viewed. But still no joy. So I keep on pressing myself to learn new skills, putting in 10-30 hrs a week, ON top of my 9-5 job. I did not I work this hard with this much focus in college. Honestly much regrets. Posting this with a disposable account.

rocky1138 9y ago
Craft a new post with a non-disposable account and title your post "Ask HN: What's the best way for a ~40 year old to retrain and get a job in tech" or "Who's hiring ~40 year old developers?".
- someone01 9y ago
  Actually, I rather like maintaining some anonymity. I am working in a tech company and my colleagues/friends frequent HN. I am just not in one of those high paying positions. But I will retain this account to check for responses. Do you have any suggestions in general? Sorry I cannot post much more details on my part though.
  - rocky1138 9y ago
    I've seen the HN community respond really well to developers looking for work (Who's Hiring threads come to mind) and seen us really respond well to the plight of older people in our workforce. I have no doubt that if you posted something like this, you'd find people who would be interested in reading your resume.
bradknowles 9y ago
So, I recently hit the 50+ age bracket, and got laid off by VMware back in November. I got a BSCS in 1989, and my first job after graduation was for the Defense Communications Agency in the basement of the Pentagon. I've worked for AOL (years before Gene Kim got there), and I've consulted for Apple, Raytheon, AT&T, and a wide variety of other companies. I was literally doing DevOps many years before that term was coined. Since the layoff, I've been able to scrape together a few phone interviews, but I find that it is damn hard to get a second interview -- anywhere. It's not just hard to get into this line of work at this age, it's also hard to get another job in this line of work when you have already been working in this industry for over 25 years. The last time I was interviewing, one recruiter said to me that they were looking for someone who was just exactly like me -- but just five to ten years younger -- and asked me if I knew of anyone who was looking. I don't see how you can have as much experience as I did at this time, if you didn't start playing with computers back in 1982.
- someone01 9y ago
  Well, I am sorry for your predicament. I wonder, is it the recruiter doing the age screening on their own or is it coming from above?
- muninn_ 9y ago
  What location and who are you interviewing with? Also, maybe you're applying for the wrong job titles?
- j_s 9y ago
  Are you able to relocate? You should apply to work at YC almost as a sabbatical. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14372192 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14372192
- le-mark 9y ago
  This seems curious to me, here in the midwest, it's pretty common for non software companies with shit legacy apps to desperately hire anyone with experience. These companies find it impossible to keep developers, no one wants to work at them. I'm at one now, making the highest salary of my career thus far. I'm not quiet 50.
dazc 9y ago
"So I keep on pressing myself to learn new skills, putting in 10-30 hrs a week, ON top of my 9-5 job. I did not I work this hard with this much focus in college. Honestly much regrets." Maybe you could put this effort into building something for yourself? Because, the cruel reality is, the older you get the less likely it you'll get the break you are currently aiming at. I worked in construction for most of my life but once I past 40 it became obvious that nobody wants to hire someone older and better qualified than they are. Hope it works out for you.
lacampbell 9y ago
I'm still young enough that ageism is a concern yet, but I do read situations like yours with interest. I wonder what my shelf-life is as a dev, and wonder if I shouldn't try and more aggressively transition into something else. My gut instinct is you'd have more luck in more rural areas - jobs do exist in them, I'm technically employed in the agricultural industry.
abhirag 9y ago
"I spend a lot of time learning this and that and have a small portfolio that can be viewed. But still no joy." -- You should try posting with a non-disposable account then, I agree showing your work is a hard thing but this community is filled with people who try to be helpful to others. Also if you are interested in all this stuff try this -- [https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/ https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/] you get free 3 months trials for Pluralsight and Linux Academy, you can download and watch some video courses during commute and that might reduce your study time at home a bit. Disclaimer -- not affiliated with Microsoft or Linux Academy or Pluralsight, just trying to be of some help :)
JustSomeNobody 9y ago
What type of job are you looking for? What I mean is, web dev accounts for like 95% of the age discrimination you'll see. There are companies out there that still make stuff and need programs written to configure that stuff. Look in the transportation and agriculture industry. There are still programming jobs out there that don't have much, if anything, to do with the web. And those place don't typically age discriminate.

rocky1138 9y ago

Craft a new post with a non-disposable account and title your post "Ask HN: What's the best way for a ~40 year old to retrain and get a job in tech" or "Who's hiring ~40 year old developers?".

someone01 9y ago
Actually, I rather like maintaining some anonymity. I am working in a tech company and my colleagues/friends frequent HN. I am just not in one of those high paying positions. But I will retain this account to check for responses. Do you have any suggestions in general? Sorry I cannot post much more details on my part though.
- rocky1138 9y ago
  I've seen the HN community respond really well to developers looking for work (Who's Hiring threads come to mind) and seen us really respond well to the plight of older people in our workforce. I have no doubt that if you posted something like this, you'd find people who would be interested in reading your resume.

bradknowles 9y ago

So, I recently hit the 50+ age bracket, and got laid off by VMware back in November. I got a BSCS in 1989, and my first job after graduation was for the Defense Communications Agency in the basement of the Pentagon. I've worked for AOL (years before Gene Kim got there), and I've consulted for Apple, Raytheon, AT&T, and a wide variety of other companies. I was literally doing DevOps many years before that term was coined. Since the layoff, I've been able to scrape together a few phone interviews, but I find that it is damn hard to get a second interview -- anywhere. It's not just hard to get into this line of work at this age, it's also hard to get another job in this line of work when you have already been working in this industry for over 25 years. The last time I was interviewing, one recruiter said to me that they were looking for someone who was just exactly like me -- but just five to ten years younger -- and asked me if I knew of anyone who was looking. I don't see how you can have as much experience as I did at this time, if you didn't start playing with computers back in 1982.

someone01 9y ago
Well, I am sorry for your predicament. I wonder, is it the recruiter doing the age screening on their own or is it coming from above?
muninn_ 9y ago
What location and who are you interviewing with? Also, maybe you're applying for the wrong job titles?
j_s 9y ago
Are you able to relocate? You should apply to work at YC almost as a sabbatical. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14372192 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14372192
le-mark 9y ago
This seems curious to me, here in the midwest, it's pretty common for non software companies with shit legacy apps to desperately hire anyone with experience. These companies find it impossible to keep developers, no one wants to work at them. I'm at one now, making the highest salary of my career thus far. I'm not quiet 50.

dazc 9y ago

"So I keep on pressing myself to learn new skills, putting in 10-30 hrs a week, ON top of my 9-5 job. I did not I work this hard with this much focus in college. Honestly much regrets." Maybe you could put this effort into building something for yourself? Because, the cruel reality is, the older you get the less likely it you'll get the break you are currently aiming at. I worked in construction for most of my life but once I past 40 it became obvious that nobody wants to hire someone older and better qualified than they are. Hope it works out for you.

lacampbell 9y ago

I'm still young enough that ageism is a concern yet, but I do read situations like yours with interest. I wonder what my shelf-life is as a dev, and wonder if I shouldn't try and more aggressively transition into something else. My gut instinct is you'd have more luck in more rural areas - jobs do exist in them, I'm technically employed in the agricultural industry.

abhirag 9y ago

"I spend a lot of time learning this and that and have a small portfolio that can be viewed. But still no joy." -- You should try posting with a non-disposable account then, I agree showing your work is a hard thing but this community is filled with people who try to be helpful to others. Also if you are interested in all this stuff try this -- [https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/ https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/] you get free 3 months trials for Pluralsight and Linux Academy, you can download and watch some video courses during commute and that might reduce your study time at home a bit. Disclaimer -- not affiliated with Microsoft or Linux Academy or Pluralsight, just trying to be of some help :)

JustSomeNobody 9y ago

What type of job are you looking for? What I mean is, web dev accounts for like 95% of the age discrimination you'll see. There are companies out there that still make stuff and need programs written to configure that stuff. Look in the transportation and agriculture industry. There are still programming jobs out there that don't have much, if anything, to do with the web. And those place don't typically age discriminate.