It's all poker, especially the part about not needing to have a strong hand to win. Play the game to win, your 40-year-old jack of all trades high notwithstanding. ;-)
Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
11–20 of 88 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#12just gonna be straight here, there are older people that are the really smart, savvy engineer types that school all us young folks, then there are the older people that learned Pascal in 1978 and never stepped outside of their comfort zone. We have an older person working in our office that, if it wasn't for him would practically be a zoo. He constantly schools us on all things tech, and keeps everyone in line. You are gonna be just fine.
The fact that you are on HN and able to have this kind of insight proves you are capable of hanging with the youngins.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#13Don't give out SSN or Birthdate information until after an on-site interview when you're at the offer stage. Someone dishonest can use that information for identity theft. I'm already starting to be concerned about age discrimination, and I'm only 40 years old! It's very disturbing when you go on an interview and you're the oldest person there by 10+ years. The only way out is to start your own business. Do you have…
Thats 1) A bit depressing - you seem to be conveying that there is no other possibility 2) Starting a new business is not everyone's cup of tea. Even for a young person. Its loaded with risks.
I do face this as well. Age does slow down a person. But age also helps us make haste slowly. I've seen younger engineers scattering their energy around, and then coming to realize that the common sense option was the best. And older programmers (like me) might be too set in our ways.
Can an old dog be taught new tricks? I'd say to test that, make sure you learn a new programming language every year. Show it with non-trivial projects on your github or other profile. Thats proof that you're still sharp.
Edit : Also adopt a new editor every year. That shows you can step out of your comfort zone. (I need to kick that emacs habit).
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#14Recruiter here. I would absolutely recommend you not include any obvious indicators of age on your resume, at least in many parts of the country. Graduation dates are not required, and perhaps your first few jobs can be eliminated from the resume. A resume doesn't have to be a complete biography. With 40 years of programming (not sure how many were hobby vs paid), you are likely to raise questions as to how many more…
Useful advice . thanks
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#15Also, outside of SF, the ageism is much much milder Agreed, it seems outside the cultural bubble of the Bay Area the entire technical workforce seems to be aging. I see fewer and fewer of the younger generations entering tech outside of a few markets like the Bay Area and Austin. I have a theory, that it is due to the work force being more mobile, as well as the younger work force having less to tie them down. There…
My theory is that having roommates only works when you're young. When you're married and/or have children, you need your own place. That makes it much harder to stay in the most expensive city in the U.S., rent wise.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#16The coin has been in hand 2 all along.
I tend to see it that way too.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#17I dunno, this is kind of creeping up on me. I just turned 35 at the end of January and I'm in the middle of a job search because my last startup is shutting down. I've only done a handful of onsites so far and I've been a little worried about perceptions. I'm overweight and because of genetics, I'm much greyer in hair and beard than a lot of other people my age. So far it doesn't seem to be an issue, even when I'm ta…
Thats yet another kind of discrimination - but I am sure (and hope) there are many who will treat you fairly.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#18Don't give out SSN or Birthdate information until after an on-site interview when you're at the offer stage. Someone dishonest can use that information for identity theft. I'm already starting to be concerned about age discrimination, and I'm only 40 years old! It's very disturbing when you go on an interview and you're the oldest person there by 10+ years. The only way out is to start your own business. Do you have…
Thats 1) A bit depressing - you seem to be conveying that there is no other possibility 2) Starting a new business is not everyone's cup of tea. Even for a young person. Its loaded with risks. I do face this as well. Age does slow down a person. But age also helps us make haste slowly. I've seen younger engineers scattering their energy around, and then coming to realize that the common sense option was the best. And…
I think one of the advantages of being older is that it gives one the wisdom to be more selective about tools. I'm an expert in the tools I use (C, C++ and Python, mostly, although I know a dozen-odd languages well enough to crash a program in them) and not hugely keen on learning new ones. I poke around at new languages now and then but quickly learn they are either a) so much like ones I know there's nothing special or b) Haskell or Erlang, which I've run at a couple of times hard enough to be convinced there is something interesting there but not hard enough to really have learned much.
So rather than learn a new language every year I aim to learn something about the languages I already spend most of my time in. Functional techniques in Python, the new features in C++14... things like that.
Nor do I see any value in learning a new editor. Really, editing is a solved problem and if you're familiar with vi, teco, emacs, VisualStudio, Eclipse and that other one whose name I don't remember that Microchip based MPLABX on you've covered enough ground that anything you encounter is going to look basically familiar.
I've met programmers young and old who won't leave their comfort zone that I acknowledge it's a real problem, but I don't think you need to spend too much time very far afield of your core expertise to keep current.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#19As someone who has also been programming for 40 years (!), I find that although I don't work as hard, I get more done. I.e. one learns to program more efficiently, and make fewer mistakes. There's a lot less of uselessly thrashing about.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#20Recruiter here. I would absolutely recommend you not include any obvious indicators of age on your resume, at least in many parts of the country. Graduation dates are not required, and perhaps your first few jobs can be eliminated from the resume. A resume doesn't have to be a complete biography. With 40 years of programming (not sure how many were hobby vs paid), you are likely to raise questions as to how many more…
Hi Recruiter,
I appreciate the value of what you have said but I wonder whether the deception by omission would count against me in the case that I get as far as the face-to-face interviews.
Thanks!
ps. The 40 years includes only the years I was paid. Prior to that I spent about a year learning how to program.