I got into software development without any education or prior experience at the age of 25 and learned iOS development. I work as an iOS developer & consultant and I feel I'm doing dead-end freelance gigs, which doesn't feel like they will get me very far. I want to be involved in backend development as well but I don't have a clear path as to how I can make that happen. A mentor might have been very good to have here to at least offer second opinions, but I am unable to find one, since the people good enough to be a valuable mentor usually don't stay in this country(I'm in Turkey). Even if there was, I feel like age might be an issue.
Where and how does one find a mentor? Is it too late to find a mentor after 30?
Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
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Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#2Why would it matter? Mentors just want someone who learns quickly and works hard. They want someone they can watch avoid much of the pain they went through to acquire their skills.
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#3Stop worrying about age. Shit... 30 is young. You have plenty of time to follow these dreams.
Depending on what type of back end development you want to do pick up a book and start learning back end languages. Java, Go, Javascript (Typescript) etc. Also, start learning databases like MySQL or Redis etc.
Just make a simple web based notes app or something that will allow you to hit all these back end technologies.
Just start!
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#4In programming or in anything in life, a Hard Working person, an intelligent person, a passionate person is what that count. From where you start or age doesn't matter, it's what you do from now on and where you're heading. We can't change our current circumstances or reality in one day but definitively where you're heading the time of decision. I am 50 and considering too sharpening my knowledge ( I was a IT / Network guy) to become programmer...
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#5It is not too young. I've been mentored by peers of mine quite a bit that are my age and a bit older (I'm 31).
As another commenter says, stop worrying about age: both yours and theirs. Focus on being willing to leave your comfort zone.
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#6It sounds like your problem is not age, but that your mentors are leaving Turkey. Where are they going? Go there if you can.
Also, how did they get good enough to leave? Do that.
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#7You're only 30? I thought you meant after a 30 year career and was going to call your bluff on starting with iOS. I'm nearly 30 and just last year switched into my first software engineer role after studying electrical engineering. Everyone has been very supportive of teaching me things I miss, and has been happy to leverage my electrical experience to better interface with the electrical teams in the company.
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#8My best advice from a fellow 30 year old: Try to find an in-home caretaker that also knows programming.
They're uncommon but invaluable when you find one. My caretaker is a young man currently in school for computer science. He comes by once a day to check on me and gives me brief programming lessons while heating up my soup, helping me up the stairs or doing jigsaw puzzles with me.
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#9iOS is pretty niche. I started on backend stuff and through (years of) webapps moved through doing a bunch of business stuff. Now I run larger businesses. I am 35, and spent much of my career physically isolated in remote corners of China, working either on my own businesses or remotely for others. So I understand physical isolation and feel qualified to offer you advice.
First of all, if you feel you want to stick with programming, set yourself larger goals. Any server-side language can be effective.
Second, if I were you right now I would leverage your iOS skills by learning React Native to get competent at producing triple-platform (web/Android/iOS) frontend apps in Javascript, then learn Node JS to get competent at server-side.
By doing this you are offering a huge value business solution (overall app and web and potentially backend solution and ongoing hosting/maintenance) instead of a single project (iOS app frontend only). You can charge a lot more.
Re: Ask HN: Is it too late to find a mentor after 30 for a software developer?
#10Without a mentor, your work will be largely ignored and treated like worthless garbage for years. On the other hand, being associated with a mentor who is well known in the industry will mean that your work can easily gain traction, even if it is mediocre.
Having worked on open source projects for almost 10 years, I've come to the conclusion that hype is never a good thing. Hype just gives users a false sense of confidence, gives you a false sense of accomplishment/optimism and hinders real progress.
So in reality, I think that you don't really need a mentor. 'Mentors' are only really useful for PR/promotion when you're already skilled and have already done the hard work.
I'm kind of a 'mentor' myself right now so I'm not saying this out of spite. I just don't have any illusions about my true purpose. There are plenty of severely undervalued developers out there who don't really need any mentoring; they just need someone to help their projects get the traction it deserves.