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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

#161

Post by scarface74 »

chrisbennet wrote: post #156
scarface74 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pro…

Hacking Linux is a specialized skill that isn’t your average everyday job that you can just walk out into the street and get like your bog standard enterprise developer for yet another software as a service CRUD app.

Honestly, the broad market doesn’t care about a masters in CS. Of course it’s going to be harder to find a job with a highly specialized skill.

Why does it necessarily have to be ageism and not just that she doesn’t have market fit?

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

#162

Post by segmondy »

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…

This defeatist attitude is what's going to make this come true for you. McDonald? really? How about consulting? Starting your own shit? Perhaps looking outside of the West Coast and other places you might be appreciated? How about the govt, schools, hospitals, banks, big ol boring enterprises? How about other countries? Seriously, you have option and everyone does. If you are smart enough to pass the hiring committee at FANG, you are obviously smart enough to accomplish anytime you put your mind to. I often see these stories and it's often, "poor old me, woe unto me..." and you know what? Yeah, woe unto them indeed.

If you believe you can, you can, if you believe you can't, you can't.

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

#163

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

MSM wrote: post #117
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he started in the eighties and contributed even a third of the limit, he'd be quite wealthy now even with the setbacks you mentioned. I've only been contributing since '07 and I'm at nearly $700k in my 401k. Now, the information wasn't as easily available about how to properly invest back then, and I don't necessarily blame the guy for it. Not necessarily , but there is still probably a better than even chance tha…

How is your 401k invested? Contributing the maximum since 2007 would only give you (~187k @ 17k/yr average) and I don't see how you could have almost quadrupled that with anything but the riskiest of investments.

OK, I made an error above. Thanks for catching it. Yes, I have somewhat overstated the benefits of saving in a 401k. In my defense, it's been two years since I last fiddled with my settings, so I had lost track of what was what. Still, let me explain my mistake.

1. My employer matches 50% of my contribution up to the cap. Not entirely uncommon at big tech cos, but maybe less common in smaller enterprises.

2. I also did $50k of in-plan conversions over the last two years.

After you take all those sources out (and the resulting investment proceeds from the funds from those sources), my total is only $400k. I do still think it is correct that someone investing ($2019)5k/y since the 80s would have generated a sizable nest egg by now, but my own experience does not make that case as strongly as I had thought.

Actually, when I run it through a calculator assuming 5% total returns, it looks like that hypothetical person only saves about $700k. Which is enough to live a reasonably good life in retirement, but not marvelous wealth by any stretch.

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

#164

Post by mikekchar »

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…

The number of people I know who would kill to be able to move back to Nova Scotia is absolutely huge. Whatever jobs there are will have huge competition and very low wages.

I'm kind of in the same boat. 51. Working remotely while living in rural Japan. If I lose my job (or quit), it's either get another remote job or move. If I can't get a remote job quickly, I will not wait to find someone willing to relocate me -- I'll be on the first plane to somewhere huge where I can get a job.

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

#165

Post by democracy »

Aloha wrote: post #85
perryh2 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In today's world of agile development, I haven't met any project managers worthy of anything. I feel that strong product managers are capable of managing development as well. I can't believe there are actual people getting paid to move JIRA tickets around full-time.

Not everyone lives in an agile world. Besides, there are still politics to shield from, budgets to maintain, stakeholders to brief, paperwork to do - all stuff that putting an engineer on - would be an utter waste.

Exactly, for some reason we got rid of PMs, then architects, then "devops" (as they understand it) replaced system administrators, and now as a software engineer you have to do much more, actually leaving less time for your actual are of competence.

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

#166

Post by brobdingnagians »

agumonkey wrote: post #45
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…

Serving food is more than honest IMO, but still a bit of a waste.. Also it seems a lot of capable coders are struggling with harsh if not inhuman business structures. Maybe regroup and form a nice company of nice people.

I like this comment; seems like you could make a pretty good company from the older talent that isn't picked up by the young companies. In terms of pure competition, you could give them all a run for their money with the lifelong knowledge bit.

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

#167

Post by taftster »

rmason wrote: post #157

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.

Yeah, I don't get this age-ism thing at all. I'm approaching my 50's, and I'm still climbing in my effectiveness and productivity. I haven't even yet reached the top of my game yet. I am getting better every year.

Proportionally, I bring to the table 5-10x (at least) greater value than those just-out-of-school with no experience. But I'm only paid 1.5x of their salary.

Granted, there are some folks out there that have been slacking off their whole careers, and after 20+ years, they're very good at it. But in terms of dollar spent to unit of value, I believe mid-career folks like me are way more economically valuable overall.

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

#168

Post by democracy »

segmondy wrote: post #162
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…

This defeatist attitude is what's going to make this come true for you. McDonald? really? How about consulting? Starting your own shit? Perhaps looking outside of the West Coast and other places you might be appreciated? How about the govt, schools, hospitals, banks, big ol boring enterprises? How about other countries? Seriously, you have option and everyone does. If you are smart enough to pass the hiring committee…

It is a good motivational speech however things can be much more complex at some stage...

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

#169

Post by freewilly1040 »

cottsak wrote: post #96

If you're listening David, here are my suggestions. Keep in mind I don't have nearly the wealth of experience you would obviously have. * Refresh both http://www.avidaid.ca/ your websites with a modern feel http://www.avidaidmedia.ca/ Hire a designer for a fixed price on https://www.upwork.com/ or other freelancer site. Your potential employers will look you up and they don't want to find dated visuals like these. If…

Those sites are rough. Another option is a website builder like Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly. Might be cheaper than Upwork and will at least get you started with a decent layout / theme.
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