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Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#21

Post by gorjusborg »

blahblah1234567 wrote: post #14

"- Where do I even begin?" With logic: - Pick a goal (AKA a destination) - Find a map to achieve that goal (AKA a Roadmap) - Ask a question regarding the above two points, to a search engine, such as "Roadmap to becoming " For example, perhaps it's "Roadmap to becoming a Civil Law Attorney" or "Roadmap to becoming a Web App Developer" If it's the latter, here's a good resource: https://roadmap.sh/ If you intend to ed…

It's easy to let the feeling of being overwhelmed make things seem harder than they need to be. This is an excellent way to view the problem (or any problem, really).

I'd emphasize that 'I guess I'll go back to school' is probably not a constructive thought. It is fine to go back to school, but it should be a tool to get to your goal. If you have no goal, school (and more debt) probably isn't going to help.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#22

Post by weatherlite »

RajT88 wrote: post #17

I went from bare metal/OS stuff to cloud in my 30's. It felt like starting over.

Interesting, I've always wanted to go over the opposite direction (probably won't happen). What made you do it ? Somehow high level programming feels not as good as low level to me.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#23

Post by dougmwne »

Yes.

I was 30 when I took a major step back to reevaluate. I had some positive professional experiences that I was able to use as building blocks, but I was severely underpaid and underchallenged. I was on the road to nowhere, and certainly not retirement.

I gave myself a year to explore new things and not be an employee. I traveled, lived outside my home country for the first time, learned about startups, taught myself new tech, explored small business ideas and went on a lot of long walks. It was me time and it was glorious.

When I came back to the working world, I found I had a pretty radically changed perspective and I pivoted into a tech career. I have built it up over the past 7 years and now am in a fantastic niche!

You are never too old to redefine yourself and the world has no shortage of problems to solve, but a huge shortage of people willing to really solve them.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#24

Post by tamaharbor »

badpun wrote: post #8
orangeplus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was 38 when he first entered politics

According to Olivier Stone's documentary, Truman was nominated to be the Democratic party's president to "prove a point that a party is such a well-oiled machine that it can push through even a complete nobody". So, in other words, he was incredibly lucky.

If you consider a nobody to be a Judge, Senator, and Vice President.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#26

Post by jxramos »

jvanderbot wrote: post #10

Yep -- I graduated grad school at 34 and got a series of amazing jobs with incredible people over the last 8 years. I was a complete pile of poop until 25, and slowly crawled out of my bad habits from 25-30, caught some ambition at 30, managed to turn it into an advanced degree by 34. Hell, I dropped out of high school and, 5 years later, still managed to fail my first year of undergrad. In hindsight, it was a natura…

I like that age range bounded failure recognition. I can relate, I call them the wasted years of my life.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#27

Post by yboris »

I had BS in Math, MA in Education, 2 years of Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, and I was a math teacher for about 5 years. Around 31 years old I became a "full stack web dev" and have been happy ever since.

I did have background in programming (various WordPress work, some personal learning at PHP, minor projects like a 2D game for myself). I discovered I was able to do it after my wife finished a half-year full-stack bootcamp during which I kept helping / answering all her questions. So I realized I could do it too.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#28

Post by emrah »

I have. I studied EE, did that for a little shy of a decade, but didn't like the work culture in general. I wanted to do research but not get a PhD, so I got hired at a research lab at a university. After several years, I was done with that too and switched to SWE.

It's certainly doable especially if you go into adjacent fields.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?

#29

Post by krisroadruck »

I switched from network administration to SEO around 30ish. Took a couple years to get my footing but honestly it wasn't much different than starting career path first time around. A few years of suck, followed by plenty of years reaping rewards of early efforts.
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