Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't it be cheaper in the long run to just buy a laptop?
the person you're replying to is absolutely unhinged, sadly
You found this out by reading nearby comments? Or is there more lore from other HN threads?
Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
211–220 of 301 posts
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I agree age discrimination in tech is a huge problem, it’s hardly true that it hasn’t received attention. Age discrimination has been one of the few successful discrimination based lawsuits that have been brought against companies in the tech world.
> Age discrimination has been one of the few successful discrimination based lawsuits that have been brought against companies in the tech world. Rarely. A quick search indicates that only 3% of older employees file complaints, and, out of that, less than 1% result in lawsuits. And that is pertaining to people who are already employed somewhere. What we are talking about here is finding a job. In that case the situat…
Not sure if many folks remember this video or have seen it at all but this is what Mark Zuckerberg had a say on young vs experienced engineers. This is I believe from 2011 and I think it perfectly portrays the majority of SV companies to this day and of course their recruitment practices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPHVeQ7-ynA
00:03 The two most important things that I look for are number one is just raw intelligence, right? Because you can hire someone who is a software engineer and he's been doing it for 10 years and if they're doing it for 10 years that's probably what they're doing for their life, you know, and I mean that's cool. But there's some things that that person can do and they're definitely useful in an organization and can do a lot of stuff. But if you find someone who is raw in intelligence exceeds theirs but has 10 years lots of experience
00:31 then they can probably adopt and learn way quicker. You know, and within a very short amount of time be able to do a lot of things that that person may never be able to do. And so, I think that's the most important thing that I look for. And the second is just alignment with what we're trying to do. So I mean, people can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable but if they don't really believe in it, then they're not going to really work hard and they're not going to even if they're smart guy who doesn't have the relevant experience,
01:01 they're not going to care enough to develop the relevant experience in order to succeed. So I think that the best people who I've hired so far have been people who didn't really have that much engineering experience. I hired a couple of electrical engineers out of Stanford's new programming staff and they had very little programming experience going in but just really smart, really willing to go at it, and the guy who just work photos was one of those guys, and if you're willing to just go and do
01:40 whatever it takes to get photos out, then you're probably more valuable than someone who's just a career software engineer. So those are the things that I'm looking for and why I would rather look for people like...
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#213Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
So did you start med school? How old are you? It takes a long time to get to practice, so I'm wondering what is the full story here.
In my 30s, quit my last startup about 2.5 years ago. Have been an EM scribe the last two years which has been amazing clinical experience. Did my premed coursework a decade ago when I did neuroscience. Just needed biochem, and about 800 hours of self-study for the MCAT. Interview two weeks ago, fairly optimistic about this cycle but if not, I think next cycle will go well. Everyone focuses on the amount of schooling…
This is awesome, I got interested in biochem via AI. And the idea of being AI-assisted doctor sounds much healthier than being an AI-assisted coder.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
I agree that some of the outputs of the SAFe process aren't useless, like expressing dependencies between teams and discussing objectives, but the process is way too costly for what it achieves. Maybe if the name was changed to something like SCRUM and Waterfall evil child...
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but why is it the case that at 50+ it is harder to find work? I think this begins to be visible even sooner, 38 if you graduated at 23. The majority of the job market requires very very few 15+ years experienced engineers. 5 to 10 years of experience is a sweet spot - you will be easily hired. Everything below and beyond is a struggle, especially for the latter since very few companies need and are willing to pay f…
I feel like I'm hitting this now. Just turned 39. I'm very good in my niche, but businesses just want 'answer to question'. I can provide 'answer to question while also making sure the answer-generating process is fully reproducible, data limitations are addressed and made visible, uncertainty has been calculated and is included in the answer'. Not every question needs that! Most people are willing to pay for Ikea fu…
I must say that I have never thought about that before but that's the reality of the tech market. Many people I talk to, who are outside the tech, can't comprehend this at all - they all assume the same - the more experience and knowledge you have, the more competitive and therefore highly sought out you become. Not true at all.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always wonder why more people don't use wildlife photography as a more challenging alternative to hunting.
If you're doing something for fun, cheating just ruins the experience. If you're doing something for the result, or for a trophy, cheating becomes more appealing.
I really hate cooking.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Sounds like you just worked your ass off. Nice job! You also have a different background that would perk up interview potential (at least to me). Diversity (aerospace eng, firefighter, emt, paramedic) can help bring different perspectives and ways of thinking through problems that will ultimately help an organization. Organizations that mostly hire people with CS degrees from top universities that can fly through lee…
Thank you.
Luckily for me my current manager didn't have a code test. I received a timed coding test for another position within the same org but a different manager and bombed the hell out of it.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Thank you
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did actually. I created a custom dashboard with basic stats of type of calls ran, how many calls were run by each station, how many were EMS and how many were fire calls. Then I started doing some more automation stuff. Nothing super interesting and mostly bespoke stats gathering.
Well, if you’re ever still interested in the intersection of the two, give me a buzz - my email is my HN handle at Gmail. I might have something for you.
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