>>I've been programming for nearly 40 years
Instead of being 59 you will be 49? I don't think it will help. Instead, put a spin on it and sell yourself as experienced in technical matters.
Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
21–30 of 88 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#22Don'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…
Why do you want to stop using emacs?
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#23I think you should not worry about your age, after all there is nothing you can do to end up younger. You should have confidence; you are much more experienced than the average 25 year old developer out there.
On the other hand, as others have stated, you better avoid making your age obvious.
In the end, you know what? In this life your time is limited and I think it's wise to avoid worrying about things you can't control. Don't make your age obvious but have confidence in your skills and experience!
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#24Recruiter 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 - in what age/level of experience does "discrimination" come in and one should start to "trim" the number of years?
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#25just 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 a…
On the flipside, I've personally witnessed a manager firing someone just because he was old. There is an ageism problem in the industry. Like racism or sexism, whether you see its effects depends on where you are.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 specia…
Why is being comfortable such a problem?
I'm fine with having bled the captains of big data and presentation (thereof) hysteria of enough resources to live the rest of my life on comfortably, and now enjoy embellishing whatever terminal window I'm inhabiting to suit my needs of the moment.
I'm happy in vi, wish I'd stuck with emacs, blah, blah. But when you can make things happen in a terminal window, does it really matter?
Personally, I'm finding a ton of joy in Lua. So clean and simple and fast and portable and easily extensible in venerable 'ole C. So much to love!
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#27Recruiter 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…
Appreciate the advice, Recruiter, but despise the suggestion that appearances apparently still matter more than reality.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#28just 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 a…
On the flipside, I've personally witnessed a manager firing someone just because he was old. There is an ageism problem in the industry. Like racism or sexism, whether you see its effects depends on where you are.
surely there was more to the story. hard to believe it was only attributable to age without some context.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#291. Where are you.
2. Don't be paranoid but don't play it up.
3. There's no way to hide your age, realistically. You have to answer questions like the year you graduated from college, the year of your first job.
4. There are a bunch of people that age I would kill to work with (35 year programmer), we have half a dozen people in our office with that much experience. We're a C shop and we write very, very high performance code. WORK YOUR FRIENDS, you must have friends, those friends have jobs.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Downplay My Age?
#30No, of course you shouldn't downplay your age. If such prejudice exists, you are perpetuating it by downplaying your age.