May sound entirely unrelated but I'm really curious. What kind of job (which area of expertise) do you think would satisfy you most? Excuse my ageism but I think I would be intimidated if I interviewed you as a hiring manager. That could cloud my judgement in the end.
Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
101–110 of 304 posts
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#102Speaking from experience you need two resumes (I’m much younger, but with a long career). One that’s management focused and one that’s developer focused. Use the appropriate resume for the role you are applying for. Even though I’m a hands on engineer people didn’t want to consider me for roles because I had management experience and they thought the engineering role would be too boring, and vice versa. Reduce your r…
Thank you for being very constructive.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#103Also, consider the language especially non-technical jargon you use on your resume. I suspect many companies are screening their resumes using ML and likely their "ideal" candidate uses non technical language like, "I crushed my project goals, or I dominated the blah blah..." You get the idea, every new-gen of business updates their non-technical (and technical) keywords. Try to figure out how these people are talking and try a few submissions with those empty lame-brained phrases these people use.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#104Speaking from experience you need two resumes (I’m much younger, but with a long career). One that’s management focused and one that’s developer focused. Use the appropriate resume for the role you are applying for. Even though I’m a hands on engineer people didn’t want to consider me for roles because I had management experience and they thought the engineering role would be too boring, and vice versa. Reduce your r…
>Even though I’m a hands on engineer people didn’t want to consider me for roles because I had management experience and they thought the engineering role would be too boring, and vice versa.
I found this to be true a lot of the time. Great idea to tailor your resume to the type of position you're applying for.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#105Well US companies don't ask for details that could give away your age. I mean removing the date of your graduation and only including the last 10 ("relevant") years of your experience is not a crime in any sense. I don't feel my age is as much a problem as raising my rates. That definitely makes things a bit more challenging.
I have two experiences in the last year that were a bit strange. One was a guy that kind of already hired me and casually asked my age to never reply again after I disclosed it. OK. The other one was a company that had two early twenties co-founders I worked for remotely for more than half a year and were genuinely surprised about my age when I stepped in their offices for the first time. Still working for them though.
In Europe a lot of companies (I think it happened with a German and a Swiss company) straight ask for your age, which somewhat shocked me when seeing it for the first time after mostly dealing with US companies.
On the other hand some US companies asked me if my "race"* is "Latino" whatever the hell that means. Sometimes I feel like it I guess? Depends on the music? Me and most of the other people I see in my country look pretty caucasian to me though. Must even be more confusing to black people from Latin-American countries. Do I get a double race bonus or should I pick the one that gives me most benefits? If so which one?
* they asked it in a very PC way and made it an optional field
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#106Heck I'm only over 40. I did a handful of interviews at places where folks who I went to school with also interviewed. I got a lot of "culture" questions. My younger classmates, did not hear the world "culture" in their interviews, ever. It's hard not to be pessimistic and assume "culture" was about age...
I worked at an HR tech startup that did recruiting services for a lot of seed/series A companies. Maximum ages for roles were discussed openly and nobody even considered the possibility doing so might be illegal.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
You need dates on jobs because they want to identify gaps in employment. The only exception would be if you are a contractor and all of the engagements were under your company. You would list the start and end of your consulting practice in that case.
I've screened thousands of resumes and I've never searched for gaps in employment. Some companies may do this but I haven't witnessed it. The things I search for all things obviously within a person's control: consistent formatting, sane file format & filename, and flawless grammar.
It's a common HR tactic to identify people that might bring their employee retention time numbers down. Leaving off dates seems like a good idea, but may upset such people.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#108Well US companies don't ask for details that could give away your age. I mean removing the date of your graduation and only including the last 10 ("relevant") years of your experience is not a crime in any sense. I don't feel my age is as much a problem as raising my rates. That definitely makes things a bit more challenging. I have two experiences in the last year that were a bit strange. One was a guy that kind of…
"Must even be more confusing to black people from Latin-American countries. Do I get a double race bonus or should I pick the one that gives me most benefits? If so which one?"
Most US-based forms along these lines ask the Latino question separately from the general race question. "Latino" not fitting cleanly into any particular racial group is specifically why it's a separate question.
So if you're simultaneously black and of Latin-American origin, you'd answer both questions accordingly ("black" for race, and "yes" for whether or not you identify as having a Latin-American ethnic background).
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#109Heck I'm only over 40. I did a handful of interviews at places where folks who I went to school with also interviewed. I got a lot of "culture" questions. My younger classmates, did not hear the world "culture" in their interviews, ever. It's hard not to be pessimistic and assume "culture" was about age...
Try being a minority, and consistently get rejected because you aren't a good "culture fit" on an all white team. edit: I didn't mean to sound like I was trivializing your experience. The "culture fit" is really nasty and sucks for everyone who isn't "the norm".
The "not the right fit" one always makes my blood boil especially in these cases.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#110From a technical point of view, I keep a "master" resume with every job I've ever had. Then I do what top comment recommends, which is break out the parts I want for whatever roles I happen to be applying for.
I also agree that applying for dev roles when you have manager experience is really going to raise questions. I was only a manager for one brief stint and I still had to reassure every single interviewer that "yes, I was interested in a purely technical role".
Age: very late 30s