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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?

#181

Post by TheCoelacanth »

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…

I think you're right, but there would still be some hope in the "Don't call yourself a programmer"[1] avenue.

If he can sell himself not as a programmer, but as someone who does X with programming as a tool that they're going to use to do that, preferably where X is something that he has some expertise in from earlier in his career, he might be able to get people to look at him as an expert X instead of a novice programmer.

[1] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...

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

#182

Post by commentsgaloer2 »

My father in law is 59. He works as the main "maintenance guy" for a large warehouse. He's pretty good with electronics and mechanics, but did not know how to program. He noticed that some stuff could be automated but PLC's were not enough. So, he bought an Arduino board and learnt by himself. Of course, me being a software engineer helped and I put him on the right track or helped him debug stuff. He actually got a pretty nice bonus because the stuff he automated saved the company a lot of money.

But the main point I'm trying to make, is that I would find a problem in my current job/field to which programming can help, and use that to drive the learning.

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

#184

Post by FWKevents »

The certificate in cybersecurity I was referring to is a CISSP. It takes a few weeks to master the ideas and get a certificate, and then your dad would be qualified for cybersecurity consulting jobs. As I mentioned, cybersecurity consulting is mostly about re-organizing governance, and making PowerPoints about that re-organization. And there are a lot of openings, and more every day, due to the scariness of the threat of Russian cyberattacks.

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

#186

Post by parasense »

lkxijlewlf wrote: post #127
rookie_knight wrote: post #79

Earlier 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…

Anecdotally, ageism seems to mostly exist in FAANG-type companies, web dev, and startups. If you look around at other industries like logistics, transportation, etc. there's less ageism.

Ageism is a fundamental truism of all society throughout history. It's pretty much baked into the species via evolution.

* women are unable to reproduce until a certain age.

* women stop being able to reproduce at a certain age.

* NOTE: we need not delve any further into the inherent ageism of female biology.

* women select men for mating for a multitude of reasons, of which includes the dichotomy of dominant men.. who (for young women) tend to be slightly older then the men of the woman's own age group.

* men compete with each other for dominance, and age is a factor. Young men have a strength advantage, older men potentially have more experience.

* dominant men who grow older, become less dominant, etc... are no longer as useful for mating.

* older dominant women tend to have different selection criteria, they tend to select younger males who are less dominant then the other males of their own age, yet more so then the men of the woman's own age.

* this is not an exhaustive list...

Older men & women tend to be less useful beyond natural selection, but evolution is a great starting point.

Ageism is everywhere, but I'm surprised by your anecdote that it's more intense in FAANG-type companies. I wonder why?

Perhaps the FAANG working environment is competitive? Perhaps men & women are competing with each other for a kind of workplace dominance? hrm.....

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