You can switch as long as you have a strong aptitude for logic, math, and probably language. There are some comments here about ageism and how hard it can be, but honestly, in my experience, good engineers just care about working with other good engineers. Your age, sex, and race are irrelevant to most techies I know when it comes to work. If you can program well, they'll appreciate you and working with the code you produce. I know people who have gone through a few months of code bootcamp and are able to get well paying jobs quickly after that. A lot of phd's have been switching to programming careers these days cause it pays way better and has a lot more job demand than w/e their scientific fields of study were and many of them are in the 30-40 range. There is major talent shortage in software engineering so if you get just ok at it recruiters will be knocking at your door with jobs and if you get good you'll have your pick of jobs.
Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
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Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#12Depends of your early experience in life. Whatever you have been doing before determines if it is a good idea or not.
I always recommend that you have a competitive advantage in what you do.
So if you start anew competing against 20 years old with way more energy that you have, it will be a bad idea.
But if you have mastered something in the past, and programming gives you an edge because you reuse what you have learned, it will be a good idea.
Programming can be miserable, lonely,alienating(you work with machines not people), painful and slow to get results, specially when you are not an expert. Experts can do miracles as they could automate their own code. Also experts are used to working remotely, and master the psychology of getting things done after years(or decades) of mistakes individually and as teams.
I would study what can you give that very few people can because of your specific personality, interests and experience.
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#13Its always doable. But you have to realize that theres a long road ahead. Its longer than just taking some classes or MOOCs. A lot of programming skill is real life experience in many different types of situations. That simply comes with time. So you need to be patient and build your way to that.
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#14Short answer is an absolute yes! Would recommend building programming skills and experience in areas that build on whatever professional, academic experience/credentials you already have. For example, Python+Data Science if you have some math background or have worked in industries that use analytics a lot. Embedded systems if you have worked in auto, hardware/electronics, aviation industries etc. In general, try and use your age and experience to project a well rounded technical ability. Programmers are easy to find, but coders with good domain expertise are more valuable and hard to find. Also very valuable are demonstrable communication skills, especially written. So, if you have maintained any blogs or have had a journalistic stint you can use that to your advantage.
Ageism exists no doubt, but a) tech industry continues to be one of the biggest drivers of jobs worldwide b) freelance/remote work based careers to some extent provide 'age irrelevant' opportunities.
Overall, welcome and good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#15The other posts are easily handling the resounding "yes" side of things, but I'll add this: add more context!! My recommendation would be to edit the question/post.
Generally speaking, the tech industry is sufficiently deep and wide that anybody with adequate motivation and resources to iterate will eventually find themselves somewhere interesting, for practical and short-to-mid-term definitions of "eventually", and even in a situation where you're diving into the deep end, cold, and with a lifetime of expertise in other fields.
But that iteration process takes time, and it can be unintuitive. The more specific you are about what interests you (where you want to go) and what experience you have (where you've come from), the faster you'll get somewhere personally significant.
Yes, there's definitely an "all about me" element to this (for want of a better way to put it). I feel the positivity and encouragement already present in the thread answers that to some extent.
It's also very true that adding specifics will make the thread less applicable to others, but I say that a) others can just post similar questions, b) tech changes so much these types of threads tend to become irrelevant over time, and c) more specific often correlates with more interesting!
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#16I keep reading here that somehow “energy” gives young people advantage. In my experience, having lots of energy can help or hinder.
Being a good programmer requires patience, mature view of the world and the ability to think critically. Reading articles and coding all day just serves the ego. A very small portion of young people spend time learning the fundamentals and think about consequences.
So, I think you have an advantage!
I started at 23 - this can be considered old too, because I have colleagues that started at 8, but I do not see a giant gap between them and me - everyone has strengths and weaknesses
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#17Of course you can! I decided to learn to code when I was 37yo. Now I am 41 and I earn a lot more as a junior developer than I ever did in any other job. I wrote a lot about my path and I think it can help both in the why and the how: https://rodrigohgpontes.github.io/ Good luck!
Older devs even with many years experience have it harder. That’s my own experience.
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#18You can, but it would require a lot of hard work at very low pay. My recommendation is to try to use your existing skillset for a tech company, and then try to transition internally. The right company may even provide free/before-tax tech education. Some points to consider: 1. Your age is a big disadvantage. Ageism is pervasive in tech, especially for entry-level coders. Someone your age who had started at 22 would l…
1. Your age is a big disadvantage. Ageism is pervasive in tech, especially for entry-level coders. Someone your age who had started at 22 would likely have been in a management role for ~10 years already.
Ageism is pervasive in some corners of tech. I'm nearly 50, and in my R&D group, there are few developers under the age of 35. Few of the older developers are managers, either.
I think you are conflating age with experience. If the OP has enough skills for an entry level position, then I would not expect him to have anywhere near the same level of expertise as someone in the industry for nearly 20 years. If the OP wants to get into web development, then they should work to progress their skill set over time (which, by the way, is a reasonable expectation for any number of career paths).
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#19You need two things: skill and accreditation. You can gain skill by studying or doing code camps, going to college, etc.
The easiest way to gain accreditation is to follow what similar people did. If you go to a reputable college, your CV won't be rejected. If you do a coding camp, chances are your CV is going to get rejected a couple of times before you have a chance to do an interview. This is what I mean by accreditation.
Don't be discouraged, there are a lot of opportunities and it mostly depends on you! If you wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer it would be much harder.
Re: Ask HN: Can you switch to a programming career despite nearing 40?
#20Consider an SQA role, if you have trouble getting a mainstream software developer job.