Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 304 posts

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

#171

Post by gaius »

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.

Apparently people past middle age aren't one of those groups.

If Zuck had said whites or Asians or men “are just smarter” he would have been flayed alive, but he was (is?) brazenly ageist and not a murmur. That’s Silly Valley in a nutshell.

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

#172

Post by anonOver60 »

justin_vanw wrote: post #135

You have been in the industry for around 40 years and you have no personal network you can call on for referrals? You are obviously leaving out critical parts of your story.

Well, I'm not very social. My personal network exists but most of them have been at the same job for 10 years or longer. A few are at FANG-CxO level where I'm not sure they'd be helpful.

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

#174

Post by ChuckMcM »

Feel free to contact me (email is in my profile) if you have specific questions.

A couple of things stand out;

1) Your resume has the potential of being very intimidating to someone, sometimes less is more. Trim it to just what they hiring manager cares about.

2) You said "Everything from senior engineer to VP of engineering" have you applied to "just engineering" roles?

I ask because both senior engineering and VP roles typically have a very high level of "hiring risk" associated with them. Specifically, if you are interviewing at places outside the network of people who know your work, whether or not your idea of how to fill a senior role is the same as the company where you are interviewing its a very real question. It can cause a tremendous amount of churn in an organization to hire someone in at a senior level who ends up not getting along with the rest of the team or company.

As a result you may find it easier to work initially at a lower level and then negotiate a raise/promotion rather than jumping in high. Everyone's situation is always a bit different.

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

#175

Post by anonOver60 »

diegoperini wrote: post #101

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.

VP of Engineering at a startup is probably the best fit. Managing small (< 10) software teams is probably next. Anything with lots of novel and/or interesting problems is next. I also seem to have a knack for listening to customers and figuring out what they really need and want.

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

#176

Post by anonOver60 »

rb808 wrote: post #20

I wonder if its ethical to change some of the dates. Eg if you graduated in 1980 it makes it obvious how old you are. If you leave dates blank it kinda doesn't make much difference, but if you said you graduated in 2000 it would mean you get an interview at least. Edit - I get it the issue will come up at some stage. But explaining why you changed the dates later in the process is better than not getting an interview…

Absolutely not! It's a slippery slope when one starts fudging "just a little".

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

#179

Post by insvwallhitsyou »

Mononokay wrote: post #139
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-…

Eich's donations to causes restricted the freedom of his employees. That's generally considered a "no-no" when it comes to being liked by your employees. Shockingly, they may even protest it.

Actually, I don't think my management's political activities are any of my business, and vice versa.

Once upon a time, this was known as being a busybody and intensely frowned upon.

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

#180

Post by encoderer »

Find a company you want to work for. Pay for linked in premium. Find engineers there with common ground, reach out, ask for coffee.

Tech companies all have lucrative referral systems so you really can network your way in through a person on the team.

This is the way to get a good job in SFBA. There is a good chance you are not even passing a recruiting screen.

Post reply on HN