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Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

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Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#31

Post by mattmanser »

gallerdude wrote: post #28
jvagner wrote: post #19

The bigger companies I worked for in the Bay Area were more like this than the smaller. As a late 40-something who started his own marketing & technology agency to get out of the "working for others and their bad boss habits" conundrum, the one thing I can strongly recommend is that you have to interview companies as carefully as they interview you. I've directly hired more than 100 people in my career, and it was al…

I've always noticed this as a weird development. In an ideal capitalist scenario, people will wind up with the job that suits their preferences to the degree that they have enough career capital to be picky. But in reality, people just kind of fall into whatever job they can get and stay longer than seems rational. As a soon-to-graduate student, I hope I can hold onto the idea that the path of least resistance has a…

As a soon-to-graduate student, you'll find out why.

You need money when you have rent.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#32

Post by ngngngng »

samstave wrote: post #24
jvagner wrote: post #19

The bigger companies I worked for in the Bay Area were more like this than the smaller. As a late 40-something who started his own marketing & technology agency to get out of the "working for others and their bad boss habits" conundrum, the one thing I can strongly recommend is that you have to interview companies as carefully as they interview you. I've directly hired more than 100 people in my career, and it was al…

Sure, but people also take jobs because they really need the money. I don't know if you have spent any meaningful amount of time without a job/money - but this world REALLY fucking sucks when you have no income.

A good strategy in this scenario is to take the first job you can when you need money, but keep interviewing. This way you can be more selective since your needs are already being met.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#33

Post by xyproto »

OldHand2018 wrote: post #17
wrs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inexperienced people advocating change is not new either. They both have their pros and cons.

Experienced people advocating against good changes is a bad thing. Experienced people advocating against bad changes is a good thing. Inexperienced people advocating for a good change is a good thing. Inexperienced people advocating for a bad change is a bad thing. It's almost like it would be great if we knew what changes were good and what changes were bad before we started arguing about them. Any ideas???

Ideas just have to be tried out. The problem is when a company have absolutely no process for letting developers, young or experienced, try out a new idea. Many companies have a very random "process", where a few select people can get away with just implementing their ideas, without any testing.

Small teams of 2-3 people spending a few days for testing out a new idea, or writing a prototype, may often work out.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#34

Post by samstave »

ngngngng wrote: post #32
samstave wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but people also take jobs because they really need the money. I don't know if you have spent any meaningful amount of time without a job/money - but this world REALLY fucking sucks when you have no income.

A good strategy in this scenario is to take the first job you can when you need money, but keep interviewing. This way you can be more selective since your needs are already being met.

Yeah, I hear this - the problem can be in some cases that the job you get for money may have come from a contact that if you up-and-leave will negatively affect your relationship with them.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#35

Post by richardwardza »

tyrust wrote: post #23
gcb0 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you considered you are in a rut, and it might not be a very good one, so people with seniority call you out, while the freshman/woman you keep hiring and doctronating just reinforce your own bias?

Calling out women separately and grouping them with "freshman" is pretty messed up. No one mentioned gender and women could be part of seniority.

I think you're misreading and the op was meaning freshman/freshwomen, shortening it to freshman/women

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#36

Post by wheaties »

ngngngng wrote: post #32
samstave wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but people also take jobs because they really need the money. I don't know if you have spent any meaningful amount of time without a job/money - but this world REALLY fucking sucks when you have no income.

A good strategy in this scenario is to take the first job you can when you need money, but keep interviewing. This way you can be more selective since your needs are already being met.

Sorry but that's a very good way to hurt your career. The community is surprisingly small. As in, I swear it's less than 3 hops from me to most people who might cross my desk when recruiting. I can tell you we know who have done this and we shy away from them. They're a waste of time.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#37

Post by nextstep40plus »

alexashka wrote: post #8

It may seem to you like you're asking for advice, but may come across to others like you're complaining. We'd all prefer a better work environment, with better people and less stress, so that we can thrive and have better balance in life. You haven't mentioned anything that you're doing to get there, besides asking somebody else (HN) to hand you some sort of 'insightful' answer. The insight may very well be that give…

Actually I've been actively searching and responding to recruiters and sent spontaneous applications etc. You have no idea.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#38

Post by wrs »

OldHand2018 wrote: post #17
wrs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inexperienced people advocating change is not new either. They both have their pros and cons.

Experienced people advocating against good changes is a bad thing. Experienced people advocating against bad changes is a good thing. Inexperienced people advocating for a good change is a good thing. Inexperienced people advocating for a bad change is a bad thing. It's almost like it would be great if we knew what changes were good and what changes were bad before we started arguing about them. Any ideas???

One good filter I’ve found is whether the person arguing has a good understanding of both the old thing and the new thing. If an experienced person doesn’t seem to understand the new thing, or an inexperienced person doesn’t seem to understand the old thing, then they probably aren’t making a good argument. Both of those certainly happen —- the inexperienced will follow fads and the experienced will not want to devalue their knowledge.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#39

Post by donretag »

"So many recruiters are looking for senior developers like me to join their early stage team and to do development and assist junior devs via knowledge sharing."

What I have encountered is that everyone wants to hire senior developers, but no junior developers, so your "senior" role is the same as that of a junior developer.

I always ask what the team structure is during the phone screen. If it is all senior developers, which is becoming the norm, then I stop the interview process. You will be the defacto junior developer as the newbie on the team.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#40

Post by gallerdude »

mattmanser wrote: post #31
gallerdude wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always noticed this as a weird development. In an ideal capitalist scenario, people will wind up with the job that suits their preferences to the degree that they have enough career capital to be picky. But in reality, people just kind of fall into whatever job they can get and stay longer than seems rational. As a soon-to-graduate student, I hope I can hold onto the idea that the path of least resistance has a…

As a soon-to-graduate student, you'll find out why. You need money when you have rent.

Of course - for the better or worse, money fuels life. I'm just afraid of sticking with my first company for the rest of my life because I'm half satisfied where I'm at, when I could do much more interesting things elsewhere.

Maybe I'll just be happy enough with my life that I won't feel a need to take risks. Maybe I'll be courageous enough to pursue greater net happiness.

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