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Sure, you can learn new platform X well enough to be productive in probably a matter of days, but you can’t manufacture 3 years of experience with platform X un

Sure, you can learn new platform X well enough to be productive in probably a matter of days, but you can’t manufacture 3 years of experience with platform X unless you lie about it. And many job postings expect you to not only have years of experience with platform X, but also significant experience with particular database Y and cloud service provider Z. How did you get your first job for each new platform that you learned? Let me guess—you knew somebody who helped you get your foot in the door. (Am I wrong?)

JohnFen 3y ago
> you can’t manufacture 3 years of experience with platform X Why would you have to? You get the experience by working with the technology, just like everyone else. The older worker and the younger worker both need to have X amount of experience. I don't see how this aspect is related to age at all. > How did you get your first job for each new platform that you learned? Let me guess—you knew somebody. (Am I wrong?) You're wrong. Connections are important for getting any new position, but connections aren't what got me "in" on a new platform. I've learned new platforms either (usually) on my own, or because working with the platform became part of a job I already had.
- BadCookie 3y ago
  So your company did a rewrite using platform X? Interesting. I think being in that situation requires a bit of luck. Many companies (understandably) don’t want to or can’t afford to rewrite their legacy code. I still don’t see how learning a platform on your own got you past HR resume screening. Learning something via a side project over a couple of weeks is hardly the same thing as having multiple years of professional experience already. Are connections always important for getting a new position? I doubt that a doctor needs to already know somebody at a hospital in order to get an interview … but I could be wrong about that, I guess. Age matters because someone just out of college probably at least did their internship in whatever platform is popular right now. They also will probably accept lower pay and worse working conditions. So the older worker has little or even negative advantage if they’ve been using the “wrong” platform in their recent job and don’t have a strong personal network.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > So your company did a rewrite using platform X? Not at all. They've been new projects, not rewrites of old ones. > I still don’t see how learning a platform on your own got you past HR resume screening. If I spent 3 years working with a platform on my own, that's still 3 years of experience with the platform. > Age matters because someone just out of college probably at least did their internship in whatever platform is popular right now. I don't understand this point. An older dev can also have spent a few years working with whatever platform is popular right now as well. Age doesn't enter into this at all. I sense, though, that we're not fully understanding each other about something. Are you thinking that "3 years experience" is both a hard and fast rule and that it means 3 years being paid to work with it? Neither of those things are true.
gopher_space 3y ago
Shops that legitimately need n years of Y experience spend the whole job description telling you why, so you'd know if similar experience counts before you apply. From my perspective hard requirements turn out to be red flags more often than not. Asking for 6+ years in a single language kind of looks like you regret your tech stack. Requiring experience with project management software is a cry for help.

JohnFen 3y ago

> you can’t manufacture 3 years of experience with platform X Why would you have to? You get the experience by working with the technology, just like everyone else. The older worker and the younger worker both need to have X amount of experience. I don't see how this aspect is related to age at all. > How did you get your first job for each new platform that you learned? Let me guess—you knew somebody. (Am I wrong?) You're wrong. Connections are important for getting any new position, but connections aren't what got me "in" on a new platform. I've learned new platforms either (usually) on my own, or because working with the platform became part of a job I already had.

BadCookie 3y ago
So your company did a rewrite using platform X? Interesting. I think being in that situation requires a bit of luck. Many companies (understandably) don’t want to or can’t afford to rewrite their legacy code. I still don’t see how learning a platform on your own got you past HR resume screening. Learning something via a side project over a couple of weeks is hardly the same thing as having multiple years of professional experience already. Are connections always important for getting a new position? I doubt that a doctor needs to already know somebody at a hospital in order to get an interview … but I could be wrong about that, I guess. Age matters because someone just out of college probably at least did their internship in whatever platform is popular right now. They also will probably accept lower pay and worse working conditions. So the older worker has little or even negative advantage if they’ve been using the “wrong” platform in their recent job and don’t have a strong personal network.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > So your company did a rewrite using platform X? Not at all. They've been new projects, not rewrites of old ones. > I still don’t see how learning a platform on your own got you past HR resume screening. If I spent 3 years working with a platform on my own, that's still 3 years of experience with the platform. > Age matters because someone just out of college probably at least did their internship in whatever platform is popular right now. I don't understand this point. An older dev can also have spent a few years working with whatever platform is popular right now as well. Age doesn't enter into this at all. I sense, though, that we're not fully understanding each other about something. Are you thinking that "3 years experience" is both a hard and fast rule and that it means 3 years being paid to work with it? Neither of those things are true.

gopher_space 3y ago

Shops that legitimately need n years of Y experience spend the whole job description telling you why, so you'd know if similar experience counts before you apply. From my perspective hard requirements turn out to be red flags more often than not. Asking for 6+ years in a single language kind of looks like you regret your tech stack. Requiring experience with project management software is a cry for help.