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Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

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Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#11

Post by adamredwoods »

Yes I have done this in my 40s: Go to a coding boot camp. Sure, you will be possibly the oldest one there, but do it. Do the work, stay humble. Choose a focus (front end, full stack, backend) and sharpen on the latest tech.

I went in-person, but remote learning could work. I highly recommend choosing somewhere where there is code peer-reviews and instructor reviews. Self-learning is harder than it looks when you have a family.

When I recently was hired, I noted they specifically wanted cloud programmers, not local desktop programmers. Therefore, make sure you choose a bootcamp that works with Heroku or AWS or Vultr, etc, to get that exposure.

Also, consider going to local meetups that focus on coding (meetup.com or other channels). Listen to what they're talking about and what the latest trends are. Some even offer mentorships.

You can do it. (And after you've done it, help others.)

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#12

Post by cc101 »

icsa wrote: post #8

The churn rate of current software development practice is quite rapid. When you took several years off, you "fell out of the job market". In effect, you need to reboot your skill & tool set to make current. In addition, you must reboot your interviewing skills. I've been a professional software interviewer (600+ interviews) and have seen most very experienced software developers do quite poorly during interviews. Th…

WTF! It's your job to find people who can do the work. It is NOT the applicant's job to fit your preferred interview design. Talk about arrogance!

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#13

Post by adamredwoods »

icsa wrote: post #8

The churn rate of current software development practice is quite rapid. When you took several years off, you "fell out of the job market". In effect, you need to reboot your skill & tool set to make current. In addition, you must reboot your interviewing skills. I've been a professional software interviewer (600+ interviews) and have seen most very experienced software developers do quite poorly during interviews. Th…

I agree, we interviewed some potentially skilled people that just didn't interview well. Even when I interview, I must have someone give me several warm up interviews.

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#14

Post by hppb »

cc101 wrote: post #12
icsa wrote: post #8

The churn rate of current software development practice is quite rapid. When you took several years off, you "fell out of the job market". In effect, you need to reboot your skill & tool set to make current. In addition, you must reboot your interviewing skills. I've been a professional software interviewer (600+ interviews) and have seen most very experienced software developers do quite poorly during interviews. Th…

WTF! It's your job to find people who can do the work. It is NOT the applicant's job to fit your preferred interview design. Talk about arrogance!

It's a description of reality. We can agree the situation is unfair, and that the big companies show an arrogant approach, but if you want to get hired you have to conform to what is asked and expected.

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#15

Post by Tepix »

> Over the past few years I have been only interviewed once or twice a year by anyone who seemed interested, most notably Google and Facebook, but neither decided I was a worthy hire. At this point it seems impossible to get even a junior developer job!

I don't see how you can have a mere two job interviews (that likely have many applicants each) and then arrive at this conclusion.

How many jobs have you applied to? What are you doing to stay up-to-date or get back up to speed?

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#16

Post by wodenokoto »

cc101 wrote: post #12
icsa wrote: post #8

The churn rate of current software development practice is quite rapid. When you took several years off, you "fell out of the job market". In effect, you need to reboot your skill & tool set to make current. In addition, you must reboot your interviewing skills. I've been a professional software interviewer (600+ interviews) and have seen most very experienced software developers do quite poorly during interviews. Th…

WTF! It's your job to find people who can do the work. It is NOT the applicant's job to fit your preferred interview design. Talk about arrogance!

Maybe it is his job to execute the interview design.

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#17

Post by tomcam »

Some tough love here, from the parallel universe you. It was people like you in the late 1970s who inspired me to be a programmer (literally, talking to Hughes aircraft programmers on the bus to high school about the JOVIAL language), but one thing I knew by the time I was about 12, say, 1973 or so, was that aerospace engineering in the Hughes aircraft world was boom and bust. I did not learn programming until I was 21(completely self-taught), in the early 1980s, but what I understood from the beginning was that I had to keep my skills up.

Ever since then, even after getting a job as a program manager at Microsoft in the mid-1990s, I have continued until this day to assume that I would be fired and would have to find another job. Which means that I have studied every day for almost 40 years because I knew someday I would get old and less easy to hire. For the last two decades, I ran an extremely lucrative business, yet continue to keep my skills up.

But I haven’t heard from you is that you have tried to adjust to the market. The simple fact is, if you want to get paid what programmers get paid these days, you need to know what programmers know these days. After all, you made a good living in the 1970s because you had a special set of skills for that era. The easiest thing for you to learn at this point would be database backed web development, perhaps in python or (my favorite), Go. You could learn what you need to learn part time in about a year.

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#18

Post by luhego »

Practice Leetcode for a couple a months. Then apply again to Facebook, Google and similar companies. There is a lot of luck involved when passing those interviews. So to increase your chances, increase your interview skills and increase the number of interviews. Good luck in your search.

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#19

Post by gentleman11 »

yuppie_scum wrote: post #7

Just quick perspective check: Facebook and Google are high bars to set for yourself. With some hyperbole we could say that’s like saying you’ve been paying the guitar for 40 years but neither the Beatles nor Stones would hire you. You could have a great and lucrative career playing guitar for, like, the Pretenders or something.

Each of those hire thousands of employees and they are saying that 40 years experience is less important than 6 months of leetcode. The analogy doesn’t fit

Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired

#20

Post by bradlys »

You’ll need to get up to speed with modern interviewing practices. Unless you know someone - people don’t care what you’ve done. They care about how you perform in the interview.

True with most of the top paying companies. I’d suggest doing a 100 problems on LC (try the subject study guides first) before interviewing again.

Doesn’t sound fun but that’s how it is now. The bar is high for all candidates - at least for top paying companies. Haven’t seen one yet that lets you skip the bs unless you know someone high up.

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