Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#141

Post by richrichardsson » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

deanmoriarty wrote: post #109

ju-st wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So in the bay area you can make 350k/y (saving, living, taxes) average for 20 years starting as a 25 year old?

You don't exactly need 350k/y to get those numbers (at least I don't). I don't know what the history will be over the next 20 years if you start now, but for the entire 8 years of my career so far (started at 24), my pre-tax compensation has been roughly 260k/y averaged (I'm at 350k now and started at ~120k), which has allowed me to comfortably save 120k+ a year. My career has been a mix of a couple startups (one wit…

Well, that's given me some insight into bay area dev pay! I've never even heard of anything near those levels in the UK except for contractors.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#142

Post by pjscott » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 10:27 PM UTC

deanmoriarty wrote: post #122

deanmoriarty wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that laughable? 150k spare a year, diligently invested 20 years with an overall real return rate of 5% (which should be relatively achievable with index funds, otherwise our capitalist machine is in serious trouble and it won't matter too much what my portfolio does) compound to $5.2M. And that's a real return rate so it should be protected against inflation (add a ~3% if you want to do pre-inflation calculati…

I would really love to know why this was downvoted? This is what I don’t like about HN, one spends time to come up with a reasonable, realistic and thorough comment, and just gets downvoted. Makes me lose motivation for writing my future next comment.

Your comment approximately matches my experience, and thank you for taking the time to do a bit of calculating. Upvoted.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#143

Post by richrichardsson » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 10:27 PM UTC

liftbigweights wrote: post #110

richrichardsson wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How have you arrived at that conclusion? A few million = 3-5 million. Even at the low end that involves having 150k spare a year, plus a house and retirement fund? You're having a laugh.

> Even at the low end that involves having 150k spare a year, plus a house and retirement fund? You are forgetting interest, capital gains and appreciation. Considering he has no children, $3-5 million is easily doable. Also, I was including house + retirement fund in the $3-5 million. I wasn't having a laugh. I was just telling him that early retirement is a possibility. It's insane to worry to be worried about "car…

OK, combination of what you wrote being understood as cash + house + retirement (which is what you wrote) and not understanding pay levels over there! Still the idea to me of earning enough after taxes in the UK to have £100k/year spare is fanciful.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#144

Post by deanmoriarty » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 10:35 PM UTC

lastofus wrote: post #139

deanmoriarty wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really love to know why this was downvoted? This is what I don’t like about HN, one spends time to come up with a reasonable, realistic and thorough comment, and just gets downvoted. Makes me lose motivation for writing my future next comment.

> I would really love to know why this was downvoted? Some bar napkin math: $150k (savings) + $40k (living expenses) = $190k post tax. Assuming 30% goes to taxes (making liberal use of a 401k), that would be $272k salary. @ 35% it would be $292k. I think the reason everyone is annoyed/down voting is the assumption that every developer in the bay area is pulling top end salaries like that. The reality is the median de…

Put it that way, it makes more sense. Thanks for taking the time.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#145

Post by danielvf » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 10:48 PM UTC

Other than a different tech stack, I've got all of these. This is totally doable as a freelancer.

I can't offer any magical advice, other than that, I've made it my policy to never work with anyone who might be a jerk, and to stop working with anyone one who got past the first filter and turns out to be one.

So yes, if you actually want control over your work environment and who you work with, your options are usually either freelancing or owning you company.

Good luck, and you aren't asking for too much!

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#146

Post by username3 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 10:56 PM UTC

rdiddly wrote: post #137

A - private office B - WFH C - Android D - few meetings E - good management F - mellow, friendly (probably older) colleagues G - no training of underlings H - low stress I - interesting work Independent contracting/consulting satisfies A and B; some subset satisfies C; D it likely fails; E is orthogonal or maybe slightly negatively correlated (some portion of those who hire consultants, have to do so because they're…

Reading variables is hard.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#147

Post by tcbawo » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 11:07 PM UTC

madeuptempacct wrote: post #76

Yenderman wrote: post #56

When I was 30, people just looked at me and assumed I was a competent software engineer because I looked exactly like a very senior software engineer, and I presented myself in that way. But I was very junior, having made a recent career change. Yet they paid me like a prince, and I rose so rapidly through the ranks that I became an executive. Now I'm 50, and my company folded and I went to the curb, and am looking f…

The prospect of being a senior dev and 40 is terrifying to me. The only ones who are treated with any respect are the "real" wizards - i.e. the guys who spent every spare second if their life breathing tech. The guy who decompiles third party code at 4 am to see why their update caused an error in our system (real recent story). The other (very competent) older people get actively harassed. Some little *es from my co…

I don't know why you're being downvoted. Ageism is real and depends on where you are. It can be scary if you live in a smaller market.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#148

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 11:21 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#149

Post by matt_the_bass » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 11:25 PM UTC

mehh wrote: post #100

wai1234 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My only concern hiring older engineers is that they are stuck in a rut." Wow, better check that bias.

It is really quite simple to assess if someone is 'in a rut', even more so when they have more experience, as it becomes more obvious. Even with mid-career developers I check for this. So "My only concern hiring older engineers is that they are stuck in a rut." doesn't come across well, anyone reading this should be very clear that to adopt that thinking when interviewing would be very lazy on your part! Not trying t…

Yes. Thanks. Please see my other replies for clarification.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#150

Post by fuzzieozzie » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 11:27 PM UTC

These kind of jobs DO exist. This is pretty much exactly our value proposition to our developers (we are a team of 9 in six countries!) Unfortunately for you we are focused on back-end Java developers. (search for CompilerWorks on who's hiring https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17902901)