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Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#51

Post by wuliwong »

turc1656 wrote: post #42
wuliwong wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got laid off and then made that decision. And I basically just started building websites that I thought would be cool. Trying to "get a startup going" might be giving myself too much credit.

Ah, that make sense. Incorrect assumption on my part that you decided to leave.

I wanted to try something completely on my own and I had done a lot of programming in my physics career so I thought that building a website would make sense. I SEVERELY underestimated the complexity of web development though. :) But I'm glad I did or I probably wouldn't have even tried it.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#53

Post by yourapostasy »

swedish_mafia wrote: post #4

I believe this is a time when a lot of software engineers are asking the hard questions about their careers. Here's why: The technologies have become simpler and the barriers to entry have become low. Once upon a time, if you knew the mainstream languages (C++ and Java) it meant you paid your dues learning the hard stuff. Today, with nodejs becoming mainstream, and the cloud at the backend, developers who come from a…

> Devops is also simple enough for someone with 3 years of experience of be on top of the game.

You make some good points, but I want to drill down on the above. What do you define as "devops" in the above statement?

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#54

Post by nathanaldensr »

I'm dealing with this right now. I have a ton of experience--since I was a young teenager, in fact--of being a software developer, mostly in positions of technical leadership. Most of my resume consists of architect jobs. And yet, to pay the bills, explore a new area of the country, and expand on complimentary skills, I took a job as a senior DevOps engineer contractor at Idaho National Laboratory. Since my contract ended and I've started applying for jobs again, it feels like I'm being treated as damaged goods. I can't tell whether it's the fact I live in the Idaho Falls area or whether it's the Senior DevOps Engineer title. I get the standard "We've decided to pursue other candidates" non-reason. I have no data on which to base tactical changes to my approach. My applications are just falling into a black hole.

I know I am a very qualified candidate for any of these positions, and I have lots of GitHub contributions where people can actually see my work. That doesn't seem to be enough, however. Can't I just talk to a real person? My communication skills are excellent, and whenever I have gotten in front of the hiring manager, it nearly always leads to an offer. Am I the victim of algorithm-driven hiring?

To plug myself a bit: If anyone is looking for an experienced .NET architect who's done a bit of everything (including my own startup), drop me a line. I favor working remotely but I'll relocate to a desirable area for the right position. [nathan] at aldenfamily |dot| net.

Oh, and OP, you didn't mention if your question applies to you, but if it does, hang in there. We don't have much control over the ridiculous state of hiring in IT, so there's not much we can do except plug along.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#55

Post by southphillyman »

khazhou wrote: post #38
southphillyman wrote: post #18

Can't speak on it personally but about 3-4 years ago during my last job search I searched a few "Getting a dev job after 30" type queries. I was around that age and concerned about all the ageism claims. Apparently there are forums full of former developers either out of the industry or struggling to remain in it. There was a lot of talk about depression and guys being suicidal because they couldn't keep up with the…

I find the notion of age discrimination at 30+ to be simply ludicrous. I’ve been at multiple top tech companies, and the very common age ranges were mid-20s to (estimated) late-40s.

Older devs exist but they tend to be very senior with a lot of responsibility in my experience. Where does that leave the competent but non architect level dev who doesn't want to be responsible for that level of pressure? Maybe a 40 yr old wants to just take a mid level CRUD job for the purposes of keeping up with his mortgage and has no other ambitions beyond that? It seems like being "just a guy" is looked down upon the older you get which is not fair when there are plenty of those types of roles out there (mostly given to younger people)

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#56

Post by komali2 »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #54

I'm dealing with this right now. I have a ton of experience--since I was a young teenager, in fact--of being a software developer, mostly in positions of technical leadership. Most of my resume consists of architect jobs. And yet, to pay the bills, explore a new area of the country, and expand on complimentary skills, I took a job as a senior DevOps engineer contractor at Idaho National Laboratory. Since my contract…

When you ask them why they turned you down, what do they say? Have you tried asking for resume feedback?

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#57

Post by throwawayrp »

swedish_mafia wrote: post #4

I believe this is a time when a lot of software engineers are asking the hard questions about their careers. Here's why: The technologies have become simpler and the barriers to entry have become low. Once upon a time, if you knew the mainstream languages (C++ and Java) it meant you paid your dues learning the hard stuff. Today, with nodejs becoming mainstream, and the cloud at the backend, developers who come from a…

I think you made a good point. I am myself in the same spot with 10 yrs of exp. finding it difficult to figure out where to go from here.

The barrier of entry will become even more low to a point where building apps is no longer fun. I am looking for something which is a bit more complex and has high barrier of entry. I don't know where to go from here honestly.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#58

Post by matte_black »

_diyu wrote: post #43
rb808 wrote: post #34

I suspect its not as easy as many people make out. I was a great C++/OO dev for 10 years before I got bored, starting doing management, business focussed roles and more high level devops style work. After 10 years of that I wanted to move back into pure coding. With great experience should be easy right? Wrong. I got a mid-level java/python dev job and it was difficult, I was out of touch and everything was different…

I'm only 32 but that's kind of where I'm at right now too. Mastered Objective-C and Mac & iOS development 10 years ago, now it's all Swift and nobody's really hiring for iOS devs in my area (Chicago suburbs), and nobody's hiring for native Mac developers anywhere, period. And all the best practices in iOS have changed drastically since then, too, in terms of both coding and UX. Learned Ruby on Rails 8 years ago, but…

I was in your position, been working with iOS since the beginning until I decided to just get the fuck out of iOS and start doing some useful things.

Went all in with building single page applications in JavaScript and Node, front end, back end, and database administration, and haven’t looked back.

Fuck iOS now, native mobile development benefited from a craze where everyone thought mobile apps were the new web apps, but the truth is, most mobile apps only make sense in the context of a larger application ecosystem, usually supporting a web app.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#59

Post by caust1c »

rb808 wrote: post #34

I suspect its not as easy as many people make out. I was a great C++/OO dev for 10 years before I got bored, starting doing management, business focussed roles and more high level devops style work. After 10 years of that I wanted to move back into pure coding. With great experience should be easy right? Wrong. I got a mid-level java/python dev job and it was difficult, I was out of touch and everything was different…

> Also I'm never sure if its because the applications I work on are badly designed, or I just dont really understand modern design.

FWIW, I think there's a lot of people out there who would claim that Scala is a bit of a step backwards for the professional community. It's a fine language, but not a (socially) scalable one due to it's immense expressiveness.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#60

Post by gxs »

I think what this thread is highlighting more than anything is the importance of building real, meaningful relationships as you progress through your career.

As you progress, make a name for yourself as someone that delivers and build relationships with people. It's amazing how willing people are down the line to bring them on to their team/company in different roles if they already know you to be good and enjoyable to work with.

I'm already 33, and this is something I haven't been the best at, so definitely a wake up call for me.

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