Ask HN: Where to Work After 40? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#171

Post by cluoma » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

jghn wrote: post #147

IshKebab wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience the only bias against hiring ICs over 40 (at least in the UK) is * They tend to get stuck on old technologies that nobody uses any more. I don't really care about your Perl skills, sorry. * They expect higher salaries. If you keep up to date with your skills (Rust, Typescript, Nix, etc.) and aren't precious about your salary increasing forever then I don't think there's an issue. I've worked with ple…

It's not just the UK. As someone who is themselves in the same age range, as a hiring manager it's been eye opening to see the clusters of resumes from older candidates. It continues to boggle my mind how many resumes out there are people who have spent the last 20+ years working on the same set of problems, using the same tech. The reason a lot of these people aren't getting jobs is not that they're old. It's that t…

What would you look for to see if somebody is 'staying relevant'? Side projects? Personally, I would like to explore new technologies, and am still excited to learn, but feel limited by what is actually needed/required in my day-to-day which is unlikely to change.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#172

Post by chasd00 » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

prettyblocks wrote: post #56

plagiarist wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you're doing okay because this is pretty bleak. I also have a bleak outlook on the future, the healthcare costs in particular. I don't want to spend years building up money and then have cancer wipe it all out in just months. I haven't (yet) added "tech career ends at 40" to my set of looming tragedies. I'm currently more worried for people starting their careers, they seem replaceable by LLMs. Perhaps I have…

Lots of doomers on here, yet somehow I keep meeting highly technical people still working on interesting things that are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and older. I think HN probably skews really young and tech tends to fetishize youth, so this is the mentality you get.

I'm 48 and the only age bias i've encountered so far has been me against myself. Usually it's like I think i'm too old to learn something new, or don't have the energy to keep up, but if I give myself the chance then it turns out I'm wrong. You'll surprise yourself with what you're capable of if you're actually willing to make the effort.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#173

Post by sharmajai » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

fatnoah wrote: post #143

dartos wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is grinding code at a FAANG really that different?

> Is grinding code at a FAANG really that different? It probably depends on where you're coming from. I was an Engineering manager at a FAANG, and roughly 80% of my 1:1's with my team revolved around their performance, or lack thereof, with 5% devoted to supporting mental health, and 15% around general topics such as what they were working on. I had 3 managers in two years, and with one we mostly talked about strateg…

I am 100% sure that company is the F in FAANG.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#174

Post by neverartful » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:46 PM UTC

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 interviewed with Canonical in 2023. It was an enormous waste of time. I would never suggest anyone interview with them while they still have the same interview process.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#175

Post by parpfish » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:48 PM UTC

n144q wrote: post #60

What do you care about? Money, stableness, scope or opportunities? I know people who "settle down" in companies with well-known work-life balance (usually develop for B2B products). I know many more people who stayed at the same company and climbed the corporate ladder. I know people who jump to a different, big company for better compensation and work in different areas. I also know a small fraction of people who cr…

i'm early 40s and my goal is to work in tech for a couple more years to build up enough retirement nest egg that i can spend the next couple decades pursuing lower-paid non-tech work where i can doing things i find more personally meaningful or maybe even something mindless but more present in my local community.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#176

Post by cloverich » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

dhd415 wrote: post #82

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…

My longest employment stint was at such a company and it was a very good experience for me. That said, even though I worked at such a company for a while, I don't have a very good idea how I would go about identifying other such companies with open roles. Any suggestions on how to do that?

VC firms often have recruiters that are familiar with the stage and quality of their portfolio amd can provide warm introductions. Last go round I gave them my criteria (no moonshots, solid revenue, post series A, no crypto) and had several quickly lined up.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#177

Post by willseth » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

meowfly wrote: post #158

austin-cheney wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While many people talk about a bias against hiring ICs over 40 I also wonder if there is a bias to favor people over 40 for promotions.

I don't know if by promotions you mean into ic tree also, but it's definitely there for management. My boss who is probably a decade older than me is very much hinting I'm making a mistake if I don't move into management at my age. I think there is probably some bias against promoting a young manager over an older one. I'm currently a team lead and I've resisted a management role. I just don't like managing (or being…

Do you think you might like management if you knew it didn’t have to be permanent? Highly recommend Charity Majors’ blog about this if you haven’t already https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum...

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#178

Post by kaskakokos » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:53 PM UTC

quesera wrote: post #120

snowwrestler wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they are different words for a reason.

Then differentiate them coherently for me. Ideally with either prescriptivist justification or descriptivist evidence.

You want someone to teach you the difference, but what you desire is for no one to be able to point out a single difference to you.

I had to try :/

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#179

Post by xivusr » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:55 PM UTC

InsideOutSanta wrote: post #66

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…

This. I'm now working at a small- to mid-sized (~80 people) local B2B company. Pay is fine, they offer 100% WFH if you want, but they also have nice offices, they make good and stable revenue with reasonable growth targets, the actual work is somewhere between interesting and mind-numbingly stupid (e.g. integrating with poorly documented enterprise software - can be fun, but can also be aggravating), people are mostl…

This is a great job ad - are they hiring?

Re: Ask HN: Where to Work After 40?

#180

Post by sangnoir » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

dartos wrote: post #33

weatherlite wrote: post #29

> Google is the place you go to retire after 40 I don't get this honestly. About 1%-2% of devs will manage to work at a FAANG, that's it (correct me if I'm wrong). The rest of us will grind code somewhere else. I'm 40 and I'm staying put in the startup I'm currently working for because I like the people and it's not a sweatshop. Eventually I'll find something else. I'm more worried about A.I making me irrelevant than…

Is grinding code at a FAANG really that different?

> Is grinding code at a FAANG really that different?

On paper, code is code. In reality, grinding code at a FAANG has a lot more "performance anxiety" and is generally more competitive, and likely worse mental health but pays way more. YMMV by company, vertical, team and manager.