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Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

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

#111

Post by pcthrowaway »

Tozen wrote: post #103
mhewett wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 devel…

I know the OP said it was "maybe Pascal or Basic", but having done this ~40 years ago, I'd argue that it is basically starting from scratch, unless he was actually writing Javascript the whole time for google sheets integrations

> Being a CEO, CCO, etc... We can assume his father is an intelligent and successful person.

Being unable to continue working as a CEO/CCO suggests he's not currently very successful, and to put it lightly, CEO "intelligence" (whatever that means) doesn't necessarily translate to the kind of intelligence necessary for software engineering

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

#112

Post by da39a3ee »

I tend to think that it's best to only recommend a programming career to people who actually like programming.

So: I'd tell him to spend 3 months going online and learning Javascript or Python, and pick a suitable first project (or first contribution to an open source project) and get to the point where he's actually working on that. Then see whether he loves it or hates it or inbetween.

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

#113

Post by mooreds »

I would suggest he consult and program to meet client needs. That way the focus is on solving problems, which is easier to sell, rather than slinging code.

For example he could do audits of financial departments using his CFO background, and write some programs to help him do that.

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

#114

Post by typhonic »

I am now 66 and continuing to work as an engineer in a field not too far removed from a programming career. I have had the same inclination as your father and I hope he is successful. Pre-pandemic I would attend meetups in town, specifically Python related. We often had in attendance recruiters from companies with open positions. I talked to them and often they openly invited me join, even though I would have been entry level. It appears to me that there are more programming jobs than there are programmers and that some companies will take the chance on my age group. There are also companies where programmers are valued not just for their programming experience, but also for other skills they bring to the table. So, even though I have not made the transition, I think it can be done.

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

#115

Post by brudgers »

If he wants to work as programmer, he should talk to the people in his network who hire programmers.

If he can't get a programmer job through his network, then it is unlikely he will be considered hireable by random companies.

Whether or not he should learn programming is mostly orthogonal.

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

#117

Post by sokoloff »

It’s definitely possible to do, but being a junior dev in his early 60s after being a C-level executive for years is likely to be a tough transition mentally.

If he hasn’t wanted to program before now, and is primarily doing it because he’s seeing ageism in executive roles, I would recommend against this path (pretty strongly).

If he’s always been interested in it, dabbled in and enjoyed perfecting Excel workbooks and now wants to make the jump, that’s a different story.

In the former case, keep being an executive, especially if he’s got a track record of leading companies that are generally well-regarded. Even with ageism, I think he’ll find that easier and likely more rewarding.

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

#118

Post by NortySpock »

There are flavors of consulting that are not programming.

Business consulting, mentorship, project analysis - basically providing an outside perspective - are all valuable skills that businesses or people will pay for.

Others have offered good advice in the form of becoming a PM.

An alternative pitch: Your Dad starts HisLastName Consulting LLC, goes around to local businesses, and asks if they would like a strategic analysis or expert financial analysis done for $$$. A few take him up on the offer, he does a deep dive on their business and financials for a month or two, and delivers a presentation with recommendations. Done, onto the next client or a vacation.

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

#120

Post by fdschoeneman »

Encourage him to take some classes online. If he has fun and then says he wants to be a professional programmer, your role is to honor and support that choice. Help him figure out which tools can be learned quickly and he can get paid for. Let him know it's okay to be slow. Help him when he's frustrated. Consider the possibility he may be using this as a way to know more about you.

Good luck to him and to you. He seems like a cool dude.

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