Aging programmer • Hacker News Board

Re: Aging programmer

#371

Post by greyhair » Wed, Sep 28, 2022, 7:54 PM UTC

cortesoft wrote: post #284

w4ffl35 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the thing that gets frustrating as i age are interviews and code challenges. i'd really prefer a certification that proves i can do xyz which i take once (per year? in my life?). then just decide if you like me based on personality and communication. i have over 200 repositories etc. its redundant, and random code challenges that differ from employer to employer prove next to nothing. 20 years ago it was the norm for…

I have avoided this problem by not interviewing anymore. Every job I have had after my first one has been going to work with someone I worked with before, and they recruited me so I didn’t have to do any formal interview process. It has worked for me so far in my 15 year career.

I have had to interview for jobs, but the four jobs I have interviewed for since 2000 were all in response to requests to join companies, either from friends, or (once) from an internal HR employee (and to this day, I have never found out who gave him my name).

So the interviews were more about finding out if I would fit within the team than hard technical interviews. People knew me, and knew what skills I brought to the table.

Your network matters. And if you think it doesn't, stop, think again. Your network matters.

One final note. I have interviewed people. Never oversell yourself on your resume. Don't put down that you are an 'expert' at this or an 'expert' at that, unless you really are. Because you just may end up being interviewed by someone that is. And nobody, absolutely nobody, is an expert at fifteen different unrelated things. Don't do that. I have been doing this for 38 years, and I am pretty good at about five things. And those five things that I am good at have changed on a regular basis since the day I started.

Re: Aging programmer

#372

Post by samuell » Sat, Oct 01, 2022, 9:11 AM UTC

I'm approaching 40, and have so much more I want to learn. The only thing is I hope I keep my physical and mental strength going long enough. My plan for this right now is to keep physically active. Cycling to work (2x9km), and 2-3 weekly 5-15km runs.

Seems to work reasonably well, though I see I would do better if I increased the running even more, perhaps switching out some of those bike travels to running to work instead etc.

Re: Aging programmer

#373

Post by hmlongco » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

remote_phone wrote: post #285

mixmastamyk wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you get thru the endemic leetcode stuff?

I studied my ass off! I did 300 LC questions and could finish LC mediums pretty easily and I found that most companies concentrated on easy and medium.

So honest question. I presume you spent months on those LC questions.

Do you feel that they were beneficial in terms of making you a better developer, or did you simply learn a bunch of solutions to puzzles that have no bearing on real world development?

Re: Aging programmer

#374

Post by hmlongco » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 4:14 PM UTC

tootie wrote: post #246

dijit wrote: post #2

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career. If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career. I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

"likely 65 these days" I think with software jobs paying what they do, retiring at 50 would be pretty easy.

Things happen. But what I often tell people is that I'd probably be sitting in front of a computer anyway. Might as well get paid for it.

Re: Aging programmer

#375

Post by timtas » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 3:03 PM UTC

Forty? A mere child! I'm about to turn 59, and I spend my days coding. And I love it.

At my current job I could have easily moved into people management. But the modest salary bump just ain't worth headache as long they let me keep building software.

My plan is to ease into retirement over the next decade or so as an indie hacker. Maybe try to grow my current passive income side project. Maybe make new things or take on occasional contracts.

There are plenty of people who lose their passion building software or get tired of keeping up with tech. There's a reason for stereotype. But there are many of us who are living exceptions.