Maybe look for jobs at defense contractors?
Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
21–30 of 189 posts
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#22One possibility is to chose a specialty that is in high demand, and where you are not competing directly with large numbers of younger people. So, for instance:
1. Don't focus on frontend work. There are large numbers of young people going through development bootcamps and there specializing in front end work.
2. Maybe focus on devops. Right now, in New York City, the top devops people are charging between $200 and $300 an hour. And, in my experience (and with some notable exceptions) devops people tend to be older. But this strategy would require you to push yourself very hard to come up to speed on modern devops, which is a vast subject. It really depends on your own self-discipline. If you don't know much about this topic, you'll need to study 12 hours a day for 6 months to come up to speed. But presumably you already know some of the languages that play a large role. Ideally, you already know Python, as Ansible still plays a large role in devops.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I get what you're saying but this attitude is what essentially says "Developers are ok with this crap so keep doing it please". Or, in other words, you say it's unfair but then participate anyways and whatever you say no longer has value.
It really doesn't take much effort. Non compliance to this kind of interview BS would make at of these unfair practices go away.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#24I would never work at a FAANG unless I had no other option. They will pay you handsomely, but they will take their pound of flesh. It's also extremely monocultural: your life, your world, your culture, is about their bottom line.
Personally, if I was presented with a leetcode interview (I was interviewing a few months ago), I bowed out pretty damned quickly.
You really need to catch up on the tech. In addition to what the other comments are saying, look into contributing: https://github.com/MunGell/awesome-for-beginners
Obviously, FAANG is for some people. You seriously need to have a very hard think if that is you.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#25The 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!
I take it you have never heard about the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (or similar) that every candidate has to take nowadays even before being invited for a technical interview.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#26I would never work at a FAANG unless I had no other option. They will pay you handsomely, but they will take their pound of flesh. It's also extremely monocultural: your life, your world, your culture, is about their bottom line. Personally, if I was presented with a leetcode interview (I was interviewing a few months ago), I bowed out pretty damned quickly. You really need to catch up on the tech. In addition to wha…
What you are saying is true of only a handful of business units in these companies. The rest of the supporting engineering staff does like 5-30 hours of actual work per week and some of the most stress comes from feeling under utilized or unimportant.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#27Think like an insecure beginner. Learn to write React JavaScript framework.
Don’t overthink this and don’t think like a technologist. If you can write small declarative code islands to put text into a browser you can get hired for six figures. You have to be willing to be trendy and preference tools over code while working with people in their lower 20s who may or may not value programming experience.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#28The 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!
If an applicant needs the job more than the company needs that applicant, then yes it is the applicant who will have to blink first.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#29The 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…
If you "have seen most very experienced software developers do quite poorly during interviews" then you are the problem. Change the way you interview.
Re: Ask HN: Been writing code for 40 years and can't get hired
#30I would never work at a FAANG unless I had no other option. They will pay you handsomely, but they will take their pound of flesh. It's also extremely monocultural: your life, your world, your culture, is about their bottom line. Personally, if I was presented with a leetcode interview (I was interviewing a few months ago), I bowed out pretty damned quickly. You really need to catch up on the tech. In addition to wha…
What you are saying is true of only a handful of business units in these companies. The rest of the supporting engineering staff does like 5-30 hours of actual work per week and some of the most stress comes from feeling under utilized or unimportant.
Yeah idk what model the OP has of FAANGs in his/her mind, but it's totally misaligned with reality.
Some roles at Amazon fit that model. But most roles at bigcorps are where you go to coast, vs startups where you have to actually show results and put in a full 40 (at least) hours a week.