Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job?

#31

Post by tomcam » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 6:32 PM UTC

no-s wrote: post #29

tomcam wrote: post #8

I’m his age. I am independent but for the last 50 years I have been preparing for that very situation because as a child in the 1970s I saw that the tech world was cyclical. I still keep my skills up-to-date even though at this point there is probably no reason to. The thing your father needs to understand is that he can find a job, but it will just take him a lot longer than most people. That’s because most of the p…

I took a 5-year break and it was 5 months of brutal futility to get back into the workforce at 60, but once I hit my stride I received multiple simultaneous 6-figure offers in month 5. Positive attitude very essential due to many, many, many rejections. Constantly solicited feedback and tuned my approach to meet goals of targeting industry hiring cycles, getting interviews, technical screens, 2nd through Nth intervie…

You are a complete badass. That is one hell of an inspiring story. Congratulations.

Re: Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job?

#32

Post by ab_testing » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 4:37 AM UTC

You can suggest him to learn some older technologies that are still actively being used. The benefit of those are that the younger generation does not prefer using/learning them but lot of older companies still use them.

Things like Oracle, SAP etc.

Re: Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job?

#33

Post by MathMonkeyMan » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 6:40 AM UTC

krageon wrote: post #15

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #3

He needs to create a github site with samples of his work while he finds a job. I think the days when you could just say that you can program in a certain language are long gone so a sample site should be his goal right now. Second, he needs to focus on contract work. Look at Upwork and such to see what employers are looking for and focus on that. I've had to deal with finding reliable contract programmers and it's h…

> He needs to create a github site with samples of his work IME no company you will ever interview at will care about this.

Every interviewer I've ever shadowed on the hiring side has done zero prep, zero resume/portfolio reading, etc.

People don't read emails, so they sure as hell don't grok portfolios.

I put time into preparing an interview for a candidate, but I doubt it matters. My recommendation is always "proceed" unless they're a total wreck.

Re: Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job?

#34

Post by throwawayninja » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 1:42 PM UTC

guard0g wrote: post #25

Instead of competing with the fresh grads, he should use his age to his advantage. Learn COBOL, and he'll be in-demand by US big banks/financial/insurance companies for the next 100 years.

ADA is also very hot in those markets

Re: Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job?

#35

Post by no-s » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 4:37 PM UTC

tomcam wrote: post #31

no-s wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a 5-year break and it was 5 months of brutal futility to get back into the workforce at 60, but once I hit my stride I received multiple simultaneous 6-figure offers in month 5. Positive attitude very essential due to many, many, many rejections. Constantly solicited feedback and tuned my approach to meet goals of targeting industry hiring cycles, getting interviews, technical screens, 2nd through Nth intervie…

You are a complete badass. That is one hell of an inspiring story. Congratulations.

> You are a complete badass. That is one hell of an inspiring story. Congratulations.

Hah! Thanks! But I wish. This was just to get an ordinary job. I don’t even feel like I’m near the upper quartile of performance yet. There are many stories other than mine, some more heroic. Persistence in the face of adversity has been considered virtuous since before antiquity.

Many decades ago someone pointed out to me that networking was not just adding contacts, it was also about connecting over solving similar problems and sharing inspiration and tips. The more the merrier.

Re: Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job?

#36

Post by dyingkneepad » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 4:51 PM UTC

krageon wrote: post #15

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #3

He needs to create a github site with samples of his work while he finds a job. I think the days when you could just say that you can program in a certain language are long gone so a sample site should be his goal right now. Second, he needs to focus on contract work. Look at Upwork and such to see what employers are looking for and focus on that. I've had to deal with finding reliable contract programmers and it's h…

> He needs to create a github site with samples of his work IME no company you will ever interview at will care about this.

I am an engineer who often interviews other engineers for my own team. I look at portfolios. I look at github profiles. I try to find if they have open source contributions, and if they do I read their commit messages and patches.