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Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

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Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#121

Post by lnsru »

oytis wrote: post #90
lnsru wrote: post #41

I am similar demographics. In parallel to my regular job I am registering myself as self employed electrician (in Germany). For couple hours a week at the beginning and let’s see how it evolves later.

Out of curiosity: did you already have an education that certified you for the job, or is it something you acquired recently?

I have German university Dipl.-Ing. diploma. I have Handwerkskarte after examination of my university diploma (headshake here) by Chamber of Crafts. I have passed TREI exam. And I have few offers for upgrade of electrical system in my house ranging between 25000€ and 40000€. That’s my main motivation, but I will accept other jobs too.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#122

Post by pomatic »

I think the biggest concern for a would-be employer would be: can you take instruction. After a decade of being in-charge, that's going to be a really tough call. I'd suggest consultancy might be the easiest way to transition in to full time employment - at some point you'll find a great fit and they'll offer you a permie role.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#123

Post by 9rx »

quesera wrote: post #116
9rx wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, words often mean more than one thing. "want" has several commonly used meanings, not to mention that the author can define it however he pleases on the spot.

Right. So I'm sticking with the belief that you cannot coherently differentiate "want" from "desire", which was my point. :)

In context, "desire" is defined as what one would prefer to do absent of any financial constraints. With the stated acceptance of reality, one can want financial independence out of need without it being their desire (per the given definition).

It may be true that some definitions of "want" and "desire" prevent coherent differentiation, but as we established, and you willingly agreed, words do allow for more than one meaning...

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#124

Post by radicalbyte »

berkes wrote: post #109
radicalbyte wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm mid-40s and have a lot of older friends. Age doesn't matter for experienced people. Skill is independent of age. Wisdom usually isn't.

Age does matter for experience though. And "experience" is what allows one software architect to select the right stack, and the other to select something that turned out to be abandonware half a year later. It is what allows one developer to introduce abstractions in exactly the right place, and another to either overabstract or turn stuff into a tangled mess. It's what allows one team lead to estimate the right tim…

Absolutely.. that's what I mean with wisdom :-) I've been doing the same thing. When I was younger I was a little worried that I'd "age out", only until I thought about the older people I was working with. They were either the worst on the team or the best on the team. The latter group were the path I was going down so there risk was small :)

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#125

Post by surfingdino »

40+ shouldn't make it difficult for you to find work, IMHO. 50+ is where ageism starts to be a problem, no matter what your skill level. Consulting is a viable route, but even though your startup failed, I'd start a business anyway and stash as much cash as you can before you pass 50.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#126

Post by wing-_-nuts »

LambdaComplex wrote: post #100
billwear wrote: post #74

At 60, I applied to Canonical and got hired. The hiring process is thorough but very fair, all WFH, and they generally don't care about personal attributes. Gave me 20% above my asking price and a higher starting rank than expected.

> The hiring process is thorough but very fair I thought Canonical was the place where every candidate had to write a bunch of essays and talk about how they did in math in high school (regardless of how long ago that was). Glad you had a good interview experience there, but it's genuinely the first time I've heard of it happening.

I would struggle to have a polite response to that question. Come to think of it, the last company that even asked me about high school was a horribly toxic place, and it'd be a red flag that this wasn't a place for me.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#127

Post by pjmlp »

jghn wrote: post #113
pjmlp wrote: post #11

For me, reaching 50, it is all about boring enterprise consulting. You still get to jump around technology, althought it might not be as cool, as whatever newer generations are making use of on startups, but on the other hand seniority combined with such stacks is exactly what many companies are looking for. Naturally social skills also play a big role, as they expect people of our age to also contribute to discussio…

Are you talking about big companies like Accenture, Deloitte, etc? Or something else?

I am talking about Fortune 500 consultancy, those aren't the only ones.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#128

Post by shulber »

mlacks wrote: post #44
scrumper wrote: post #30

I have a couple ideas for you from my own experience. There's about a bajillion C/D+ stage 100-500 person software companies in any B2B vertical you could mention who would fight hard for your type of experience. Not necessarily SaaS click-and-drool tools for corporate drones, but unique and opinionated products that have some significant engineering innovation inside. Those companies have essentially no ability to a…

wasn't going to reply but you called out Accenture. I work at the Government Contracting arm of Accenture called Accenture Federal and it is by far the best place I've ever worked ( I worked in submarines for a decade so probably nowhere to go but up from there). It ranks highly in those marketing pieces "best places to work" if you're into that sort of thing. anyway, I highly recommend Accenture Federal. Great proje…

I work for Accenture too. It's like any giganto-corp, there are parts of the organization that are great and parts that are not so great. I was lucky to be hired into one of the very good areas. I've worked for a bunch of other Fortune 500s and it's the same story. I think at that scale it's basically impossible to have a uniform culture.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#129

Post by quesera »

9rx wrote: post #123
quesera wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. So I'm sticking with the belief that you cannot coherently differentiate "want" from "desire", which was my point. :)

In context, "desire" is defined as what one would prefer to do absent of any financial constraints. With the stated acceptance of reality, one can want financial independence out of need without it being their desire (per the given definition). It may be true that some definitions of "want" and "desire" prevent coherent differentiation, but as we established, and you willingly agreed, words do allow for more than one…

I cannot think of a single case where the words "want" and "desire" are not interchangeable.

One might connote a greater or lesser longing or preference in a given context, but I think that will also vary.

To the point:

> one can want financial independence out of need without it being their desire (per the given definition).

This sentence works equally well with the words swapped.

...

Anyway, this is not an interesting diversion. It was intended to point out that the semantics are not worth debating. Hopefully it will be disconnected from the thread and not waste anyone else's time.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#130

Post by adamredwoods »

Suzuran wrote: post #42

It is my understanding that if you are older than 35, have no C-suite social connections, and you lose your tech job, your tech career is over. Your only opportunities will be entry-level since none of your original education will pass automated filters, no entry-level hire is paid anything above subsistence wages, and at 35+ your rapidly-increasing medical issues (the piper's due for 20+ years of treating your body…

>> It's probably time to make and/or exercise your end-of-life plans.

My situation is as bleak as hey come. I'm much older, I have major health issues, and I'm a single father raising a teenager. Fortunately I have a good job thus far. I won't give up just yet, and hope you don't either.

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