With such a c-level background it seems weird to me that he wants to contract as a programmer, for which he has hardly any experience at all and not a business consultant.
Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
101–110 of 186 posts
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
The flip side of this is true as well. Ageism is a real problem in our industry. People are just more patient with young college grads and more willing to help them out. As somebody who transitioned to SWE in a big company(FAANG) after a decade of wireless communications research, I found out despite all the processes and supposed practices a big company has in place to onboard people from different backgrounds, you…
How does working remotely seem to affect ageism in software development?
Honestly, have been long tenured (comfortable) at my current job for the whole of pandemic so only have second hand experiences through my direct reports. But on the whole I think remote work has made this problem kind of worse. When I was new I could walk over to someone, gauge their mood or how busy they are and have a direct conversation. Even if I lacked the ability to communicate my problem clearly it was definitely easier to get help. They could just see where i was stuck and get full context. Here for every simple thing people have to ping one on one on DMs or in group channels. There are few problems with this. One in large channels a person who asks a lot of questions is looked down upon. (Shouldn't be in an ideal world and we keep emphasizing this with processes and what not but it's human nature). Plus unlike an in person conversation every question you ask becomes a part of permanent/semi permanent record which discourages people from asking questions. Also you don't know when you are interrupting people. Even if you dont expect an answer right away when the person doesn't respond for a long time you naturally feel resentful. And repeating my earlier point it's much easier to provide full context when somebody has your undivided attention by showing them instead of typing out what you think the problem is.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It would take him 5-10 years to become a competent programmer. Does he want to finally achieve stability in his career at age 70? I would suggest that he become a business advisor to small companies. His expertise is invaluable and he could be useful immediately.
I disagree that it would necessarily take that long. Per the OP, his father is not starting from scratch, and has some programming in his background. Being a CEO, CCO, etc... We can assume his father is an intelligent and successful person.
Possibly, if his father applied himself, he could find himself a niche in which he would be adequately competent within 2 years. To include being a freelancer or independent developer.
As you alluded to, because of his father's business background, he might do really well in sales for a software related company or starting his own business.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#104Consider that an undergrad takes 4 years, with a 2 year master's on the end of it, but that's for students who are distracted. You can completely reinvent in 3-5 years, and at that age, you will have condiments in your fridge that have lasted longer.
Can't say much for finding jobs, as I've contracted and consulted for most of my career because I prefer the problems and change, but really, your options are either to manage, or become manageable. That's the decisive factor in finding a job as we age, imo.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#105I say go for it. He might want to consider areas such as database development (SQL) and stable, commonly used technologies (Java, C#) as opposed to front end where frameworks seem to be constantly changing. You mentioned he might be good at Excel - that could come in handy also, especially in finance and/or data analysis type roles. Don't worry about ageism - it's a good asshole filter. Also his leadership experience could be useful if he wants to manage engineering teams.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#106Programming is hard. It is competitive. The programming languages change every 2 yrs. 61 yr old programmers who have programmed much of their careers. Find ageism and irrelevancy if they have not kept up with the changing technologies. Your father is choosing a harder path. That may not be worth the time, effort and energy. And starting with no relevant skills to programming. Some better options with competitive pay:…
> The programming languages change every 2 yrs.
And here I am getting paid to write C. It's been around since *checks notes* 1972.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Accepting some advice or input on an individual item vs having someone 'manage' you are different beasts. As I come up to 50, and work with a group of folks ranging from 28-32... the age and experience gaps are highlighted often. I'm happy to contribute, and I do occasionally learn something from someone (often some specific tool I'd not seen before). But there's a resistance to 'learn' from me. We're 'equalized' on…
Hi! Thanks for the honest response. I'm your age, and find the same reluctance from young people to listen to me when I've been down that road before. They really do have to learn from making mistakes, as they keep telling you, and can't learn from your experience. I'm not defending them for not taking advantage of the diamonds right in front of them, but I also understand their need to experience things for themselv…
Rather than “that won’t work because of X”, I may say “here are some potential problems to watch out for”, or just ask a question like “OK, and how will you handle X?”. That message seems to get through better, and at least helps people recognize the mistake earlier.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#108"I think he feels inspired by seeing me thrive as a contractor, with access to a global marketplace and seemingly endless working opportunities."
Well there you go, teach him to code and then get some contracts that you can give him some work from so he can get his feet wet and some experience under his belt to increase his chances if he decides to look for a job or go out on his own.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#109I don't think that would make a lot of sense financially or professionally, but if he wanted to do this for fun (and money) then I think he probably could.
Re: Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?
#110Hard part will be to secure that first job with almost no prior experience in programming and no recent formal education.
One option could be vocational education (depending on what the education system is in your country), they tend to be more practical rather than theoretical and can offer an internship at a company. An internship can be a good way to get that first job.