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Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

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21–30 of 242 posts

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#21
Well, Goldilocks, you’re going to have to pick which of your list you’re willing to give up to have the other. Do such jobs exist? You bet they do, I’m working a job that fits your list to the letter. I’m also making considerably less than I could. That’s fine, it was a compromise I was willing to make. But I’m not working on mobile, either.

In a macro sense, though, you’re going to have to come to grips with the fact the work environment has changed. I’ll bet the fact that you don’t want an open office knocks out 60-70% of Seattle-area prospects right off the bat. Quiet colleagues? Tech bros are where it’s at...bro! You’ll have at least one in 50% of the remaining prospects. Managers are not getting any more competent, so whack off another 25%. The quiet, professional workplace with offices is largely gone, so prospects that fit your parameters are less common than in the past.

That all said, my brief flirtinsg with embedded and the reports from others indicate that it is a field with higher instances of what you’re looking for.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#22
>I'm 40 years old without any children and would like to be able to not be stressed and work overtime and solve hard technical problems

You have no kids... You can work overtime and do anything you want when you want with respect to working and focusing on work without kids.

I'll assume those downvoting this comment dont have kids.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#23
post #14

I think these jobs exist. Mine does. We’re a small company that makes high value physical items with a large software component. We encourage remote working but not remote only. I know this is not a popular view on HN, but I think there is huge value with regular irl interaction. It doesn’t need to be every day, but it does need to be regular. We also offer mostly single person offices (interns are currently 2 per ro…

have you considered you are in a rut, and it might not be a very good one, so people with seniority call you out, while the freshman/woman you keep hiring and doctronating just reinforce your own bias?

Calling out women separately and grouping them with "freshman" is pretty messed up. No one mentioned gender and women could be part of seniority.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#24
post #19

The bigger companies I worked for in the Bay Area were more like this than the smaller. As a late 40-something who started his own marketing & technology agency to get out of the "working for others and their bad boss habits" conundrum, the one thing I can strongly recommend is that you have to interview companies as carefully as they interview you. I've directly hired more than 100 people in my career, and it was al…

Sure, but people also take jobs because they really need the money.

I don't know if you have spent any meaningful amount of time without a job/money - but this world REALLY fucking sucks when you have no income.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#26
post #12

> Do you suggest I go solo and take on development jobs myself Yes. You don't want to help juniors. You don't want to waste your time in meetings explaining things to "incompetent" managers. You only want to work in a private office on your own schedule. You don't want to be stressed or asked to put in extra hours. You only want to work on "hard technical problems" that you find interesting.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#27
post #23
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you considered you are in a rut, and it might not be a very good one, so people with seniority call you out, while the freshman/woman you keep hiring and doctronating just reinforce your own bias?

Calling out women separately and grouping them with "freshman" is pretty messed up. No one mentioned gender and women could be part of seniority.

Pretty sure he meant "freshman or freshwoman"

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#28
post #19

The bigger companies I worked for in the Bay Area were more like this than the smaller. As a late 40-something who started his own marketing & technology agency to get out of the "working for others and their bad boss habits" conundrum, the one thing I can strongly recommend is that you have to interview companies as carefully as they interview you. I've directly hired more than 100 people in my career, and it was al…

I've always noticed this as a weird development. In an ideal capitalist scenario, people will wind up with the job that suits their preferences to the degree that they have enough career capital to be picky. But in reality, people just kind of fall into whatever job they can get and stay longer than seems rational.

As a soon-to-graduate student, I hope I can hold onto the idea that the path of least resistance has a dangerous allure.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#29
post #23
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you considered you are in a rut, and it might not be a very good one, so people with seniority call you out, while the freshman/woman you keep hiring and doctronating just reinforce your own bias?

Calling out women separately and grouping them with "freshman" is pretty messed up. No one mentioned gender and women could be part of seniority.

Perhaps they meant "fresh men/women"? Instead of slamming, you could ask.

Re: Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?

#30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling out women separately and grouping them with "freshman" is pretty messed up. No one mentioned gender and women could be part of seniority.

Pretty sure he meant "freshman or freshwoman"

Oh, didn't think of that. I hope that's the case.

Avoiding a gendered word would avoid this confusion.

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