5 ms·

Sounds way too negative from my experience. I’m only in my 30s to be fair, I’m sure it does get harder as you get older, but I’ve also definitely interviewed a

by cactus2093 6y ago

Sounds way too negative from my experience. I’m only in my 30s to be fair, I’m sure it does get harder as you get older, but I’ve also definitely interviewed a lot of older engineers and made offers to them at what seems like a similar rate as other age groups. I have to strongly disagree about advising the OP not to join SV startups. I’ve worked at many of them, and they can the perfect environment for a “jack of all trades”. I also have not found that all of them just care about culture fit, there are certainly some that might fit that caricature but but by and large what they care about is can you get things done quickly without needing a lot of hand holding. Smaller startups are more likely to look for this as well in an interview, and for example have you build something fairly practical rather than solve tricky algorithms problems that bigger companies rely on. As far as using your network to get jobs, you might be surprised that it’s not as easy as you think. The smaller the company the more pull this can have. But most companies try to be objective in the hiring process, and any company over a certain size (I.e. if they’re big enough to have recruiters and a head of HR) probably won’t just give you a job if you don’t pass their standardized interview questions. The main way it can help is if you don’t yet have enough experience on your resume or a good school and are having trouble getting past the resume screen, a personal intro can move you along to at least the hiring manager screen or first technical screen step.

peterwoerner 6y ago
In general you should not expect more than help getting the first interview from your network. With that being said, I have heard stories from older engineers in my large company that they skipped fizz buzz type questions for people with a strong internal reference.
- gregjor 6y ago
  How much help you get from a contact or referral depends on where that contact is placed. Sometimes you just get your resume put on the short list. Sometimes you skip the entire process. Regardless of company size or HR policies, a hiring manager who wants to hire you will do that. That has happened to me more than once, and I have heard the same from former colleagues who literally walked in to jobs at Google and Netflix without any interviews or HR, because they knew the right person and had a professional reputation that spoke for itself. You don't suppose Google interviewed and tested Rob Pike, or Microsoft whiteboarded Anders Hejlsberg, do you?
  - peterwoerner 6y ago
    I don't, but I suspect that they aren't asking for advice on how to find work.
hehejjdd 6y ago
> I have to strongly disagree about advising the OP not to join SV startups. I’ve worked at many of them, and they can the perfect environment for a “jack of all trades”. Well, you can disagree, but you’re wrong. Just look at what the interview processes are optimised for.
- gregjor 6y ago
  I agree they can be the perfect environment for a jack of all trades. But they too often (not always, not uniformly) have recruiting, interviewing, and hiring practices that screen out older people, or anyone who isn't just like the team. That may be discrimination, or (more likely) just the normal human tendency for people to associate with other people more like them than not. By the same token I'm not going to fit in at a skateboard park or a club for video gamers. Age discrimination in the software business is a real thing. There's a widespread (and I think wrong) notion that older people are stuck with outdated skills and can't learn anything new. Young people can have a lot of hubris. I generally excuse that as the inexperience and over-confidence of youth (I am the parent of three millenials). A team of 20-somethings may not want me, and they may be right that I won't fit in. I think I might add some experience and maturity the team lacks, but too much friction in the team will work against everyone. Team dynamics are a first-order driver of productivity, so it's up to me, as the outlier, to persuade the team that I will fit in well enough to add value, even if I'm not going to play foosball or decorate my cube with anime (exaggerating for comic effect, but also directly from my personal experience).

peterwoerner 6y ago

In general you should not expect more than help getting the first interview from your network. With that being said, I have heard stories from older engineers in my large company that they skipped fizz buzz type questions for people with a strong internal reference.

gregjor 6y ago
How much help you get from a contact or referral depends on where that contact is placed. Sometimes you just get your resume put on the short list. Sometimes you skip the entire process. Regardless of company size or HR policies, a hiring manager who wants to hire you will do that. That has happened to me more than once, and I have heard the same from former colleagues who literally walked in to jobs at Google and Netflix without any interviews or HR, because they knew the right person and had a professional reputation that spoke for itself. You don't suppose Google interviewed and tested Rob Pike, or Microsoft whiteboarded Anders Hejlsberg, do you?
- peterwoerner 6y ago
  I don't, but I suspect that they aren't asking for advice on how to find work.

hehejjdd 6y ago

> I have to strongly disagree about advising the OP not to join SV startups. I’ve worked at many of them, and they can the perfect environment for a “jack of all trades”. Well, you can disagree, but you’re wrong. Just look at what the interview processes are optimised for.

gregjor 6y ago
I agree they can be the perfect environment for a jack of all trades. But they too often (not always, not uniformly) have recruiting, interviewing, and hiring practices that screen out older people, or anyone who isn't just like the team. That may be discrimination, or (more likely) just the normal human tendency for people to associate with other people more like them than not. By the same token I'm not going to fit in at a skateboard park or a club for video gamers. Age discrimination in the software business is a real thing. There's a widespread (and I think wrong) notion that older people are stuck with outdated skills and can't learn anything new. Young people can have a lot of hubris. I generally excuse that as the inexperience and over-confidence of youth (I am the parent of three millenials). A team of 20-somethings may not want me, and they may be right that I won't fit in. I think I might add some experience and maturity the team lacks, but too much friction in the team will work against everyone. Team dynamics are a first-order driver of productivity, so it's up to me, as the outlier, to persuade the team that I will fit in well enough to add value, even if I'm not going to play foosball or decorate my cube with anime (exaggerating for comic effect, but also directly from my personal experience).