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Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
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Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#32I started a Bachelor's in CS in 2019, graduated in 2022 at age 38, and got a dev job that I really enjoy. I was one of the older students (but not the oldest!) and it felt like half the class was older than your typical university student.
I had only had fairly low skilled jobs (and lots of unemployment) earlier in life. I even dropped out of college when I was younger, just like you. I definitely graduated at just the right time, but I think that it can be done, and it's not as weird anymore to go back to school when you're older.
I was extremely motivated because I felt like it was my last shot, and I knew that I really enjoyed programming after doing a couple of MOOCs and such.
Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#33I am a 68 year old child of a navy family. Mostly far east, all over the USA, and some Europe.My advice from my life is combine your uniqueness into a single unit. Take your background and create an opensource project that can be done quickly 2 - 3 months max and after that is done use that to promote yourself if you want to be a developer/software engineer. If you are into DevOps or DevSecOps do challenges. Pursue w…
Please don't do a quick open source project for the sake of padding one's resume. The world is full of crap software as it is. Such software shows up in people's google searches, takes time to try out, and the user will inevitably find out that it's garbage (you can't do anything good in 2-3 months that wasn't done before if you're just learning) and not use it - but not before they wasted time to research it. Multip…
What about projects people made for fun and put it online because they're proud of it?
It's also common advice to put your portfolio online. They really don't show up in internet searches as far I've seen.
Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#34If you have the means, get a computer science degree at a reasonable school, and don't listen to people telling it's too late, and that ML is your meal ticket. We have two kinds of jobs here in the valley, the glamorous and competitive, and the really challenging and necessary. The latter are more immune to hype cycles and economic downturns. If you do something along the lines of networking/security, cloud infrastru…
Not sure what a CS degree is supposed to help with if this guy wants to pursue the "scrappy SV tech startup" world.
He shouldn't be wasting time learning from professors who have never done anything real and have lived in an academic insulated bubble for decades.
Instead he should be building and shipping product after product until something sticks. And spending just as much time on marketing as development, and putting a lot of time and energy into hiring out and training a team to scale up to the next stage.
Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#35I'm lost too although in 40s and stuck in dead end job that has basically meant I've stagnated for 15 years while all my peers have 2-3x me. I'm left behind and fear it's too late with the current economic climate.
I’m speaking to myself more than to you (I am in the same boat): invest in yourself, not your job.
Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#36Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#37> And yet the child inside of me still wants to pursue the scrappy Silicon Valley tech dream.
So go do that? You fail to mention whether you live in a developed country (the US), you have a family, kids, or you want to have a family in the short-term, or you have parents to take care of. Because that matters more than the rest.
If you don't have any obligations, I'd just buy myself a ticket to S.E.A or Latin America and forget all about it. That's just what I did it.
Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#38What is your dream exactly? To have a startup idea, get funding and live the scrappy life of building a billion dollar company? If so, probably don't do it.
If your dream is pick up a skill like web development and join (or build your own) company, then totally give it a shot.
You don't need to do it in the valley either.
Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#39[dead]
Re: Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
#40Ask HN: How do I start over at 37?
Quick background: Grew up in an immigrant household with very little in the way of resources, guidance, encouragement. Was enamored by House MD and medicine from a young age, but foolishly followed the family tradition of computer science despite hating it as I felt I had no choice. Went to technical school, dropped out, worked a few odd end gigs for the next couple years, stumbled into a UAP role that I was let go from due to performance.
I am now 37 without an impressive educational or professional background, no network of colleagues, no mastery in any one skill, and a whole lot of mental health debt. And yet the child inside of me still wants to pursue the scrappy John Hopkins surgeon dream.