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

How old is too old to jump into software development?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 43 posts

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#21

Post by iainctduncan »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #13

Your experience in the medical field might give you a head start into software development more than you think. There are companies that build medical devices, data gathering for pharma trials, and lots of health care IT companies including insurance. A large part about learning curve for someone is the business domain. Building someone else's ideas/projects is not like building hobby projects. You have no directiona…

This is true, I have assessed a lot of them in my due diligence work. It's totally a growing a field, and they would love coders with domain experience.

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#22

Post by iainctduncan »

aristofun wrote: post #12

We have a few 40+ “From zero to developer” cases in our bootcamp. And a plenty of 30+ cases. Btw, “spend time with family at home” is not the best primary motivation for the job. It’s demanding and requires a lot of mental energy, for some developers WFH is quite challenging.

I dunno, I disagree. I got into this game specifically because of the ability to work flexible, remote, and part time hours. Does it limit who I can work for? Sure. Has it mattered? Not really. 16 years in I'm earning a very comfortable middle class income working 24h per week, and the most I ever did was FT for six months, and 80% time for a year and a half. Most of my career has been 60-75% time.

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#23

Post by iainctduncan »

iainctduncan wrote: post #20

If you have hobby projects that show you are capable of self-directed learning and working, you will have no trouble getting hired. The hardest part in hiring is figuring out which people are genuinely interested in coding and will learn on their own vs the folks who took a course (even uni!) because they heard the salary is good and have no real interest. Programming in the real world is so much about self-directed…

Also, the O'Reilly Safari membership is like the best $40 a month you could spend. If you can make sure you spend an hour a day reading on there, you will become a very attractive proposition.

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#24

Post by iainctduncan »

iainctduncan wrote: post #20

If you have hobby projects that show you are capable of self-directed learning and working, you will have no trouble getting hired. The hardest part in hiring is figuring out which people are genuinely interested in coding and will learn on their own vs the folks who took a course (even uni!) because they heard the salary is good and have no real interest. Programming in the real world is so much about self-directed…

Another tip: Do not waste any time applying to posts by recruiters. They are mostly useless for coding, and they are totally useless for people like you. Find out if the application is a recruiter before you send anything in, as lots of them make posts that sound like they aren't middle men. This is what stack overflow jobs has done so well... way better signal-to-noise than any other options.

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#25

Post by shakkhar »

First, it takes years to become true expert in a particular branch of software development. There is no switch career button. You just have to put in the hours to grow as a developer. You will spend the rest of your thirties just catching up with your peers. It's for you to decide whether you have the patience to do that persistently.

Second, like any other white collar job, your earning potential is heavily backloaded. An early career software developer doesn't really make a lot of money. Even assuming that you are good, you well be well into your forties before you start making the big bucks. In the meantime, you'll be earning significantly less than your peers.

Third, you could really screw up your WLB if you don't choose your employer right. People with non-traditional background often end up in terrible companies which use developers as expendable labor in stead of investing in their growth.

I highly recommend that you explore opportunities in software development, but be aware of the challenges.

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#26

Post by iainctduncan »

shakkhar wrote: post #25

First, it takes years to become true expert in a particular branch of software development. There is no switch career button. You just have to put in the hours to grow as a developer. You will spend the rest of your thirties just catching up with your peers. It's for you to decide whether you have the patience to do that persistently. Second, like any other white collar job, your earning potential is heavily backload…

This all true and is a good warning. However... if you can find the right job, something that leverages your already existing experience and skills, you won't necessarily need to start at junior level pay. So I would agree wholeheartedly that the uniqueness of your situation means you should expect to spend a lot of time finding the right job. Fortunately, this business is such that our version of "a long time" is everyone else's "got a job real fast!" :-)

I assess tech companies getting purchased, and have done 50 in the last two years. I'd say over 90% say it's really hard to hire and/or hang on to talent. It is absolutely a seller's market.

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#27

Post by iainctduncan »

webmaven wrote: post #19

> [...] Problem is that I do not have any official experience that I can put on my CV and my job is unrelated to tech (employed in medical field). Not having corresponding CV entries is generally only a problem for non-tech employers. Document your hobby projects and put them where they can be examined (I don't just mean "put the source on GitHub" as that isn't always the best choice, you have other options like givi…

OMG, yes. Early in my career a mentor said "whether you can afford it or not, go and get a really good chair". I put a $700 chair on my credit card and could instantly work like 30% more hours. GET A GOOD CHAIR!!! :-)

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#28

Post by PopeDotNinja »

I got my first dev gig at 40. The hardest part of getting established was people excepted me to be more experienced than I was because of my age. It can hard to get an entry level job at 40. To compensate I went deep on learning Ruby & focused on finding a job where deep Ruby knowledge was an asset. Don’t be afraid to go straight for mid-level jobs, and just be prepared to be stronger than the average boot camp grad.

Re: How old is too old to jump into software development?

#29

Post by muzani »

iainctduncan wrote: post #22
aristofun wrote: post #12

We have a few 40+ “From zero to developer” cases in our bootcamp. And a plenty of 30+ cases. Btw, “spend time with family at home” is not the best primary motivation for the job. It’s demanding and requires a lot of mental energy, for some developers WFH is quite challenging.

I dunno, I disagree. I got into this game specifically because of the ability to work flexible, remote, and part time hours. Does it limit who I can work for? Sure. Has it mattered? Not really. 16 years in I'm earning a very comfortable middle class income working 24h per week, and the most I ever did was FT for six months, and 80% time for a year and a half. Most of my career has been 60-75% time.

In terms of work hours, tech is awesome. Some work full time at nights, many get flexible hours. Hourly rates are excellent. Some might say WFH is hard; but at least we get such jobs.

The downside is you don't really shut off. A problem may take days or weeks of thinking to solve. You might be home but still spaced out, thinking of work, and I doubt everyone on HN browses tech stuff only during work hours.

Post reply on HN