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64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

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Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#151

Post by eecsninja »

goalieca wrote: post #26
towaway1138 wrote: post #15

I'm only in my 50s, but this is very relateable. Did a couple dozen interviews a year or two ago before finally getting a bite. Somewhat amazingly, even passed the hiring committee at a FANG, only to get swatted down by a rare strike from the executive level. In one interview, was asked to produce a class that could serialize and deserialize a list of numbers, to/from a string of chars. Sure, it's not that hard. Took…

i'm not really understanding the tech sector. There's often the criticism that we keep reinventing solutions to old problems. And here you are, with presumably 30 years of experience, and no one wants to take a chance?

Maybe the people complaining and the ones doing the hiring aren't the same.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#152

Post by Novashi »

csa wrote: post #40
towaway1138 wrote: post #15

I'm only in my 50s, but this is very relateable. Did a couple dozen interviews a year or two ago before finally getting a bite. Somewhat amazingly, even passed the hiring committee at a FANG, only to get swatted down by a rare strike from the executive level. In one interview, was asked to produce a class that could serialize and deserialize a list of numbers, to/from a string of chars. Sure, it's not that hard. Took…

Check out jobs with the federal government and/or with government contractors. The work might not be as sexy or as lucrative (although sometimes it is), but the pay is stable (lolol... shutdowns notwithstanding) at a middle-class level. The government is desperate for people who can code.

>The government is desperate for people who can code.

Not desperate enough to teach people to code who want to learn though.

But I bet half the need is from mountains of shit code anyway. The contracting and procurement processes are fucked (source: friend who works in gov't IT contracts -- stay far away from any dev positions involving Dept. of VA).

Demand for good devs is going to be won by companies. We clearly can't even fill private sector roles even at these salary levels. I'm not sure how anyone can look at our really picky labor market with the government's lack of salary and perk offerings and think "yeah we can fill these if we just try a bit harder".

Government really needs a different approach to solve their staffing needs in this regard. They aren't competitive.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#153

Post by pinewurst »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #102
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's from Canada. We get basic medial coverage for free. Well, if you are not working it is free, if you are working it is like $50-100/month (depending on your pay level). This is often covered by your employer too, again if you are working. So, there is no real issues there as he gets older.

Oh, that's awesome! Remind me to move to Canada... Vancouver isn't too far from Seattle =) tax rate isn't that much higher, these days, either from my understanding (depending on your income). Edit: Though, you guys aren't taking us in anymore as easily, these days, though huh? =) I say this all mostly in jest. I do think things will even out here and cooler minds will prevail, eventually.

Vancouver tech salaries though are terrible by comparison with Seattle or even Toronto.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#155

Post by wolco »

thisisweirdok wrote: post #79

When I was in my upper 30s I was mistakingly included in a reply-all email from someone who interviewed me and said I seemed kind of old for the position. I was ready to lose my shit on them but my wife made me wait a day before responding when she saw how angry I was. I was considering hiring a lawyer to sue the shit out of them for discrimination, but at the end of the day I brushed it off with a snarky "at least I…

You think they would give you an offer to avoid legal issues.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#156

Post by chrisbennet »

scarface74 wrote: post #135
chrisbennet wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telling yourself that makes you feel better but it doesn’t change the reality that ageism is a thing. My wife looked for years until I told he to give up and retire. Working as a consultant, I’m making double what I made as an employee but I’m exceptionally lucky.

Yes because it’s not reality that I’m 45 and find jobs quickly. When I was looking for a job at 42, I submitted my resume to 8 companies through recruiters and had no rejections and three offers in the course of three weeks. Two years later it took one or two weeks. My former manager is in his 50s, decided he was tired of managing after his kids retired and now is a full stack React/C# developer working with Azure. A…

Yes, and I suppose sexual descrimination isn’t a problem in your world either (if you’re a man) but you know what - you aren’t everyone or even most 50 years olds.

I’m 0x39 and I don’t even look for work, it just finds me.

My wife also has 30+ experience and a masters in CS. Her last job was something like 3 years ago hacking/attacking Linux for Darpa for gods sake. She’s a sharp girl just not an outgoing one. No problem getting jobs when she was as young as you are but now, crickets.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#157

Post by rmason »

You want to know a secret for finding engineers as a startup? Be open to hiring any fifty and over engineer that you verify can do the work. Word will get out and you will be flooded with qualified applicants.

I can imagine telling your VC's, oh no we don't use agencies and spend at most 5% of the CEO's time on hiring. When they express puzzlement just tell them a wise mentor gave you his secret.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#158

Post by Gibbon1 »

snotrockets wrote: post #98
burtonator wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Link to your resume and I'll take a look. All this bullshit about inclusivity. What we SHOULD be doing is blinding the candidate and interviewer. No name. Just the last 2 years of job history. That's it. You don't know their gender. Don't know their age. Don't know their race. Just complete meritocracy.

It won't be, because different groups answer questions differently. One famous result ( http://web.pdx.edu/~mev/pdf/PS471_Readings_2012/Lizotte_Sidm... ) is that woman hold themselves to a higher threshold of certainty before claiming to know something. An interesting solution would be to score differently based on known biases; but that would be a can of worms in itself. Meritocracy is a lie used by the privileged.…

> Meritocracy is a lie used by the privileged. There is no such thing in the real world.

I remember an essay by a black female engineer. She said what helped her were three things, her dad had a union job, disability payments from the uncle who came home from Korea with no legs. These meant they could fake a middle class lifestyle. And her mother teaching her how to dress and talk like a white person.

Seriously a lot of 'Meritocracy' is nothing more than soft affinity fraud.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_fraud

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#159

Post by jbarham »

WestCoastJustin wrote: post #8

The population of this town is 6,300 [1]. This area of Canada is not known for tech ( at all ). I totally feel for this guy, it must totally suck, but moving might be a good option too. Or, try starting a business or remote work, if you have to live there. These are all hard things to do, but if you are really down and out, all options should be on the table. Or, look for something in a different line of work, where…

Yeah, as soon as I saw that he was from Nova Scotia I thought that's his main problem right there. (I say this as a Canadian.)

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#160

Post by wolco »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #41
yardie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like this blaming of people for not having foresight. You can do everything right and still lose it all. Let's say he started a 401K in his 20s and slid the meter all the way to right (riskier investments). He would have encountered: - 1980 recession, the one that got Reagan elected. - 1990 recession, the one that got Clinton elected. - 2001 recession, this one mainly affected tech workers. - 2008 recession,…

I see your point, however we all should have long term savings that we do not touch, even if things are falling apart. That used to be how pensions were. Also keep in mind this guy is in Canada and the GFC was not nearly as severe as in the USA.

Canada has lower salaries and higher taxes resulting in lower savings. But in a year should have cpp/old age.
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