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Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

#111

Post by zwieback »

mmmBacon wrote: post #64

I’d say the biggest obstacle is that a requisition for someone at your level is just really hard to get. It’s hard to convince people that we need an expensive gray beard. Without a requisition at your level some companies have a policy that they won’t talk to you because they don’t want to leave you with a bad experience (sounds like bs but this is true). The view isn’t entirely just financial. People at your level…

Good observations. I'm currently employed in my 50s and starting to worry about my chances should I have to take them.

I'm often challenging my leaders because I believe they work for me, e.g. their job is to make my life easy. I usually get away with it simply because I've been here long enough to know how projects usually unfold.

As our workforce gets younger and younger (we don't generally hire graybeards either) I start wondering how I fit in - I don't want to ever become a manager so I guess I have to fake it with the skinny jeans!

Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

#112

Post by heydonovan »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #16
mrunkel wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do they use instead?

LinkedIn my last job search I hardly did any direct job searches and I am hem hem close to 60

LinkedIn has been completely useless for me. Not a single time has it been acceptable. I'll link it in an email, and people will ask for me to send a PDF instead. Got a few complaints when I used the "Save as PDF" feature, since it was obviously generated from LinkedIn. shrugs

Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

#113

Post by conductr »

duxup wrote: post #8

Heck 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...

It also has to do with will you hang out and play ping pong all night or if you’re an 8-5er

Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

#115

Post by fatnoah »

joewee wrote: post #17

Speaking 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…

Two resumes? Granted, I'm only 43, but each and every resume I send out is tailored to the role I'm applying to. I make sure to highlight experience relevant to the role. Now that I'm mostly on the management side of things, I emphasize outcomes over languages and skills (they're in there, but not as prominent as they once were).

Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

#118

Post by newtothebay »

docker_up wrote: post #22

Anything more than 10 years old on your resume is worthless. Yes, you may have 3 STEM undergrad degrees, but no one cares because it's not relevant anymore. What modern technologies have you recently worked with? What does your resume show, 20 years at the same company, or do you have experience at well-known, "prestigous" companies like FANG? Are you pigeon-holed into a specific area, or are you a generic, back-end…

As a young professional who's realized the importance of maintaining a network, I'd love to learn how you stay in touch with your former co-workers.

Do you reach out for weekend lunch dates just to chat? Are people open to that (given work, hobbies, kids, etc.)? I'm having a hard time coming with "excuses" and serendipity to stay in touch with people I'm no longer working with.

Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

#119

Post by city41 »

antisthenes wrote: post #69
austincheney wrote: post #63

Abandon the Bay Area. It seems to me that ethnocentricity is rampant in the bay as a sub cultural norm. For example the Bay Area is big on tolerance, but if you choose to voice political concerns that challenges the area’s popularity you will be silently shunned and ignored which counter-intuitively is intolerance. As a solid example review the firing of Brendan Eich from Mozilla. This kind of self-satisfying inward-…

From everything I've seen, heard, and read on HN, the Bay Area isn't really big on tolerance. It's big on virtue signaling specific kinds of tolerance towards certain groups, but that's about where it ends. Apparently people past middle age aren't one of those groups. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but those are my observations as a 3rd party - I have no skin in the game.

I think it depends on the type of company. I've never worked at a startup but it wouldn't surprise me if they tend to avoid older workers. I work for a larger company in the Bay Area and there are plenty of older workers (myself included). Anecdotally I've also known of older workers succeeding at other large Bay Area companies.

Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

#120

Post by mundo »

joewee wrote: post #82
klaw123 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are companies that take this the other way. Companies where everyone is over 40 and has kids. And stability of the prod systems is highly prized. Nobody wants hackathons , we all leave at 5:30pm each day. These companies exist in Bay Area.

Care to list a few for those who might be looking for something like that?

Just anecdata, but in my experience any company whose product is not software tends this way. Standard Insurance, Kroger, that sort of place - they have large software groups, but those groups report in to traditional executives from non-software backgrounds.
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