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Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

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Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#121

Post by baud147258 »

dansiemens wrote: post #80
tharkun__ wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue with Scrum and agile is that it's become mainstream. Anything that becomes mainstream is likely to get twisted and turned into whatever the "powers that be" want it to be. So, while using XP or Scrum or Kanban for that matter properly in a sane environment is going to be great, if you work in an un-sane (sic) one, then the powers that be have turned whatever system you're using into theirs . This is…

> This is how things like SAFe are born, that try to make "agile safe for the corporation" and of course they're nothing more than corporate BS under an agile name SAFe was truly one of the worst things I encountered with consulting clients. Planning days were an unbelievable exercise in futility. Waterfall masquerading as agile, the absolute worst of both worlds.

> SAFe was truly one of the worst things I encountered with consulting clients.

we've been using SAFe for a few years, I despise every minute of the planning process. Feel like a mix between using a crystal ball and forcing square pegs in round holes... Of course the additional disfunctionality at my company between sales, PO/PM/BO and engineering doesn't help, though it seems that I've avoided the worst SAFe train of the company.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#122

Post by mark_l_watson »

I am in my mid-70s now and for the first time in my life I can’t find part time work. I have had three really good leads in the last four or five months but in each case there was no job unless I accepted a full time position. Sadly at my age, I don’t have the energy for full time work, so it is what it is. My wife is happy I am not working, and she literally would not accept it if I tried a full time gig, even just for a year or so.

One thing that I do is that I keep writing code in my favorite languages Common Lisp, Haskell, Racket, and Python (Python only for deep learning). I also still write.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#123

Post by robertlagrant »

fm2606 wrote: post #90
nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious how you made that pivot? Did you have an "in" somewhere? What's your background (whatever you mind sharing).

I have a BS degree in Aerospace Engineering and from 1999 - 2006 I was job jumping quite a bit because I was miserable. All the jobs were boring. I took a EMT Basic night class because my wife and I were getting into scuba diving and I wanted to be a dive master on boats during the weekend. I enjoyed EMT so much that I signed up for Paramedic class, not knowing what I was going to do with it, just did it. It was rela…

Well done. That's a great career, and lots of brave and sensible decisions along the way. I don't have experience of firefighters much, but having worked with military folks a little bit, which I think is similar in terms of communication and team building training, I'm not surprised you interview well. Those intangibles really add up.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#124

Post by em-bee »

jongjong wrote: post #38
jamesrr39 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard this a few times from different people/places, but why is it the case that at 50+ it is harder to find work? Assuming a regular retirement age, there are still many more years left in the career than a typical tech employment lasts.

Because most founders who made it in the field, did so at a young age and so they are biased to view old people who didn't "make it" and are still coding as incompetent even though it has nothing to do with reality. Reality is that being good in the tech side does not correlate that mich with being good on the business side. They are almost independent factors aside from some low baseline requirement of competence...…

the average age for successful founders is 40 years, and i believe that is first time founders. so i do not believe that founder bias against age is the issue.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#125

Post by throwaway173738 »

neverartful wrote: post #109
bertjk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you need licensing / training to take on electrical work? Do you market yourself as an electrician or more just a handyman that does minor electric jobs?

In the US the laws vary considerably by state on what electrical (and plumbing) one is allowed to do without a license.

There are often exceptions for homeowners working on their own stuff. Nothing exempts anyone from any permitting requirements though.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#126

Post by anonzzzies »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #118
anonzzzies wrote: post #2

Doing up houses, doing electrics for houses in the town and making wooden doors. I do it for fun, but the latter two would make me bank; there is a massive shortage, most people suck and even when paid well they don't turn up anyway as someone pays more.

Tell us more about the doors - hobby woodworker here that buys more tools than builds projects. Do you run into code issues (not software but municipality)? For something like a door, how do you deal with weather extremes on 2 sides of the same surface? Like 30 degrees F on one side and 72 on the other. Are there specific wood species that are better suited for door making? I live in a subdivision with cookie cutter…

I mostly do indoor, but outdoor has those issues. I usually try to work within code but here the fines are low and people usually just opt to pay the fine. And yes, my own outside door scrapes across the floor now after two winters and I need to fix it, but haven't found the time. But it looks so much better than the aluminium doors most people get.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#127

Post by solumunus »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #122

I am in my mid-70s now and for the first time in my life I can’t find part time work. I have had three really good leads in the last four or five months but in each case there was no job unless I accepted a full time position. Sadly at my age, I don’t have the energy for full time work, so it is what it is. My wife is happy I am not working, and she literally would not accept it if I tried a full time gig, even just…

There are many full time jobs in SWE where you can easily get away with doing part time hours. Get a full time role and just do less?

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#128

Post by em-bee »

jamesrr39 wrote: post #19
popularrecluse wrote: post #16

I never stopped developing. After getting laid off in April 2023 after 13 years as first a full stack then mobile dev, I just started working on things that interested me. I did apply and interview a few times, but I started to realize that pushing 50 and being as cynical as I now am, I'm pretty much unemployable as an IC. So I released my application to the App Store this month, and while savings are dwindling, thin…

I have heard this a few times from different people/places, but why is it the case that at 50+ it is harder to find work? Assuming a regular retirement age, there are still many more years left in the career than a typical tech employment lasts.

in austria/germany the problem is that cultural expectation is that people get paid by seniority, and also based on their experience and qualifications, regardless of the actual requirements for the job. it is also assumed that no one wants to do work that is below their qualifications.

that is, a 50 year old isn't even asked what their salary expectations are, it is simply assumed to be higher than what they want to pay, or rather, they can't bring themselves to pay someone like that less than they think is appropriate for their age. combine that with the perception that older people are less flexible and unwilling/unable to learn new stuff, and you end up with the belief that older people are expensive and useless or overqualified.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#129

Post by itishappy »

solumunus wrote: post #127
mark_l_watson wrote: post #122

I am in my mid-70s now and for the first time in my life I can’t find part time work. I have had three really good leads in the last four or five months but in each case there was no job unless I accepted a full time position. Sadly at my age, I don’t have the energy for full time work, so it is what it is. My wife is happy I am not working, and she literally would not accept it if I tried a full time gig, even just…

There are many full time jobs in SWE where you can easily get away with doing part time hours. Get a full time role and just do less?

And collect a full salary? That sounds rather like admitting there's an SWE bubble, and I can't imagine indicates good things for the future job market...

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#130

Post by cmrdporcupine »

baud147258 wrote: post #121
dansiemens wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how things like SAFe are born, that try to make "agile safe for the corporation" and of course they're nothing more than corporate BS under an agile name SAFe was truly one of the worst things I encountered with consulting clients. Planning days were an unbelievable exercise in futility. Waterfall masquerading as agile, the absolute worst of both worlds.

> SAFe was truly one of the worst things I encountered with consulting clients. we've been using SAFe for a few years, I despise every minute of the planning process. Feel like a mix between using a crystal ball and forcing square pegs in round holes... Of course the additional disfunctionality at my company between sales, PO/PM/BO and engineering doesn't help, though it seems that I've avoided the worst SAFe train o…

My last job was SAFe. When I started I was given Staff level title and had dreams of maybe moving into lead or management at some level. Once I saw the process I became completely unmotivated to go in that direction.

For them I understood some of the motivation. Hardware & equipment manufacturer, which involves scheduling complicated industrial processes for months/years out. So you need some semi-coherent vision of where things will be, so having a multiquarter waterfall-esque plan was going to be needed.

Not that any of that actually seemed to work.

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