Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#61

Post by ccuqui » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:07 PM UTC

IMHO, with that background (C-level positions), forget about "normal" languages.

A better (useful in the context) strategy would be focus on Data Analytics/Big Data tools:

A Good book to start (considering the background with Microsoft toolset):

https://www.amazon.com/Data-Lake-Analytics-Microsoft-Azure/d... 1

This knowledge is extremely valuable today for any C-level these days and will be a huge differential in an eventual relocation process......

Regards and good luck to your father :)

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#62

Post by eweise » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:07 PM UTC

I would target a constrained area like android development, which has a limited set of technologies you need to master. Also, the feedback cycle is rewarding since you actually see your changes, and its good contractor work.

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#63

Post by wellpast » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:11 PM UTC

As a thriving contractor, you should hire him, coach him, and make some money off of him.

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#64

Post by agumonkey » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:12 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #47

lbriner wrote: post #16

It's great that he is still up for working! At risk of getting flamed... It's tricky I think because even if he can learn to program to a suitable standard, I think the reality will be that people will see him as a "junior" but you will have a different working dynamic since it is easier for an e.g. 30 year old to coach someone who is younger if they are doing it wrong but could be tricky trying to coach an older per…

> could be tricky trying to coach an older person unless they have genuine humility Bingo. This goes for young people too, but is more important as we age or rise through the ranks. Accepting advice from an "inferior" with grace, humility, and thankfulness is key to gaining respect and learning at the rate necessary to stay on top of a field. I've taught things to people who were a million times more intelligent than…

Yeah this is gonna be a human "problem", an emotional level requirement, if both are chill sharing their viewpoints, being positive then things are possible.

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#65

Post by agumonkey » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:13 PM UTC

devoutsalsa wrote: post #40

lbriner wrote: post #16

It's great that he is still up for working! At risk of getting flamed... It's tricky I think because even if he can learn to program to a suitable standard, I think the reality will be that people will see him as a "junior" but you will have a different working dynamic since it is easier for an e.g. 30 year old to coach someone who is younger if they are doing it wrong but could be tricky trying to coach an older per…

Also thinking out loud... I started teaching my self to code w/ the intent of getting a coding job at age 38, and I got my first coding job at 40. Breaking into coding was brutal for me. I couldn't get taken seriously as a junior. I just had to keep grinding until I was good enough that someone would take me seriously as a mid-level. The way I did that was go super deep on learning Ruby super well. Then I found a com…

I'm curious at which point you were considered valuable ? what did you have to show ? some theoretical knowledge ? actually used products ?

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#66

Post by a_developer314 » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:16 PM UTC

Don't listen to anybody! Yes he can! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFYJ2DE9wlM (After Learning to Code at 81, She Made a Game for Fellow Seniors)

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#67

Post by jamil7 » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:16 PM UTC

eweise wrote: post #62

I would target a constrained area like android development, which has a limited set of technologies you need to master. Also, the feedback cycle is rewarding since you actually see your changes, and its good contractor work.

IME the expectation is you have pretty deep expertise of the platform, especially as a contractor and this takes a surprisingly long time to build on either of the mobile platforms.

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#68

Post by adamsmith143 » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

With that kind of experience why doesn't he do high level Corporate Consulting instead? I'm sure he could start his own shop or get with Mckinsey/Accenture/etc.

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#69

Post by sirjaz » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

If he wants the enjoyment of programming and being in tech, but not have the agisum have him go in to devops. He would thrive there with his management skill set and his found ability to program. Plus an SRE or Devops engineer gets paid as much as their developer counterpart

Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

#70

Post by topkai22 » Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

With that sort of executive experience becoming a “straight” programmer seems like a bit of a waste. Much better to pick up skills that augment his experience than to make a full pivot. Some form of consulting makes more sense in my head. There remain many problems for many businesses that can be solved by fairly simple automation or low end data science/analytics, but the hard part is identifying the problem and mapping to a solution.

Others have suggested various data science programs. To that I’d add picking up basic app design/prototyping skills and a low code/no code framework like PowerApps or going deep on an extensible platform he’s familiar with like SalesForce or SAP.

Platforms like that can enable him solve the business problems he’s uniquely suited to identify and understand, rather than competing with a 38 year old with 20 years of experience trying to solve obtuse technical issues.