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Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

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Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#151

Post by tjr225 »

Aloha wrote: post #149
tjr225 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a high rent area much like yourself and I don't necessarily agree. It's pretty affordable for couples like my wife and I- and we aren't running the risk of having to sell our house at a major loss if and when the housing market falls out due to whatever reasons. We're saving for a house while pretty aggressively paying off our student loans... but the flexibility of renting has been great.

The issue that I have, is cost of living has been going up higher than wages

It has...I can totally agree with that my friend. I think it is slowly getting better, however.

Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#152

Post by DenisM »

drtr wrote: post #150
DenisM wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply. How do you and yours look for jobs? In other words, where would I need to advertise to have you find me and apply? Here I posted an ad for a principal engineer, and it drew zero responses [1]. What could I do differently to get attention of (someone like) you and your friends? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16055897

When I read a post like yours, it reads like $100k salary, boring system, small company, small total addressable market, so even if wildly successful, not much upside. Boring tech too: Basically a classic database system. My friends are mostly at Amazon, Google, or Facebook with incomes from $250k up to over $1 million. The others are at startups solving big hard problems with big dreams. If there is no particular co…

That’s a lot of prejudice for someone who just a day earlier complained about prejudice. :)))

Thanks for feedback!

Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#153

Post by gaius »

yekepa wrote: post #85

I think a mix is the best. I worked in different teams, but with teams where the age were mixed I felt good and well thought out decisions was made. Young devs are eager to learn and think older devs are in the way for new tech. Older devs have more mature look on life and know more about consequences of different decisions in the long run. Ageism in a company makes it more shortsighted and plain out stupid. They mak…

older devs are in the way for new tech.

Asking those awkward questions like “what problem, that we actually have, does it solve?” And “will it still be around in 3 years? Won’t even you be bored of it in 6 months?”

Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#154

Post by Corrado »

DenisM wrote: post #131
scruffyherder wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredibly prevalent.

Anything to back that up? Stats? First-hand / second-hand experience?

Several years ago, in my mid 40's, I was on the job hunt. I interviewed at several companies that seemed to love me and even flew me to the HQ for an interview (D.C., Utah, etc.) Most of the companies were the same; lots of young people sitting/standing at long tables in open offices. I didn't receive a single offer from any of them, with most of the replies being along the lines of "not a culture fit". I can't say for sure what that means but it sure sounds like ageism to me.

Interestingly, I landed my current gig with only phone interviews. I didn't even see my co-workers until 2 months after I was hired and we all met at a central location for a 2 day "summit".

Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#155

Post by DenisM »

Corrado wrote: post #154
DenisM wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything to back that up? Stats? First-hand / second-hand experience?

Several years ago, in my mid 40's, I was on the job hunt. I interviewed at several companies that seemed to love me and even flew me to the HQ for an interview (D.C., Utah, etc.) Most of the companies were the same; lots of young people sitting/standing at long tables in open offices. I didn't receive a single offer from any of them, with most of the replies being along the lines of "not a culture fit". I can't say f…

I can easily imagine this happening. Makes me wonder what can society do about it?

Google for example takes hiring decision away from interviewer - the committee receives interview feedback in written form and makes a decision based on that, not seeing the candidate. You do lose a few bits of information that what, but it takes like half the bias off the table (the other half is allowing the interviewers to ask more difficult questions and being more nit picky in grading answers).

Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#156

Post by jeffasinger »

drtr wrote: post #114
DenisM wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you spent 4 weeks drilling basic CS problems do you think you will pass the interview? When I look into them I feel like I can pick it back up quickly. On a tangent: which city are you looking in?

I am passing them now, after having gone through a few. I do still make stupid mistakes more than I would have in my youth. Four weeks drilling would definitely more than do it. I think the bigger problem is none of the other skills I have seem to even matter for Google/Amazon/Facebook hiring. I would rather practice those skills and find niche openings which value people like me than do prep for a broken process. Pl…

I'd be curious if you interviewed at the company I work for (DraftKings) or not yet. If you have, I'd be interested in any feedback you had on our process, and if you haven't, I'd be interested in why you hadn't considered the company. Either way, it's worth getting in touch.

My personal email is in my profile.

Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#157

Post by repolfx »

crispyambulance wrote: post #141
repolfx wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a misunderstanding. They want you to show growth at Google , and if you are hired as an entry-level engineer . It isn't about what you did up to that point. Source: did a lot of hiring at Google.

>show growth at Google, and if you are hired as an entry-level engineer. It isn't about what you did up to that point. Wait, do you mean: IF you are an entry-level engineer, they want you to show growth at Google upon getting hired at Google? What about NON entry-level? That's my point-- career trajectory is, I am told, very important to them.

Yes.

There's an expectation that if you're hired below the level of Senior SWE you will get enough promotions over time to reach that level, more or less, although as long as you show the right trajectory there isn't any deadline attached.

If you're hired right in at director level or something, it's not like you're expected to end up CEO or you get fired :)

Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World

#158

Post by repolfx »

OnionBlender wrote: post #138
repolfx wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a misunderstanding. They want you to show growth at Google , and if you are hired as an entry-level engineer . It isn't about what you did up to that point. Source: did a lot of hiring at Google.

Do you think Algorithm Design Manual is better to read than Introduction to Algorithms for preparing for programming interviews at the big companies?

I have no idea. Probably just spending some time on Wikipedia is enough. Interviewers ask algorithms questions mostly because it's hard to find programming tasks small enough to fit in an interview which cover all the basics and which aren't implementing basic algorithms.
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