I did, I was a new father, and in my late 30s. Took a paycut at the time, became a trainee developer. 6 years later, I'm a (proper) dev and they are asking me to apply for senior dev positions, I'm making more money, doing more fun work, and with less stress and more remote working. Do it.
Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
111–120 of 234 posts
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#112I'm 45. I run a small ISP. It's a dying business, which will be dead in maybe 7 years or so as prices in my geographical area drop 10-15 percent every year.
I started an agri commodity trading business in 2015 (anticipating telecom going down in the future) which did quite well for a while. Covid years were ultra bad. And the market instead of recovering has gone even worse now. Many small companies are closing down (2 of my clients this month).
Learnings from 2001, 2007/8 were to turn to education in a down cycle. I had anyway not completed my undergrad college degree. I joined one in data science. Found some problem areas for my existing clients could be solved with data science. Registered a new company last month, and this week got my a miniscule seed funding (debt).
Things are not great but they're still looking up for me. I do not consider myself skilled at anything except maybe relationship building. I too feel that I've faked a lot by just being there. I would suggest you leverage your existing experience, join a MOOC, network with people - it'll take a while, maybe a year or more, but things will work out.
I'll leave you with this cliche - luck is when preperation meets opportunity. Be prepared.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#113Yes, I know a few good examples.
A friend went to university in her mid 30s during/after her maternity leave and switched the industry completely, then started her own company in that industry.
Another friend made his hobby a career and switched from sales to UX design in his 30s.
I suggest you start meeting people and network. You don't know where opportunities will come from in the future.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#114(Disclaimer: USA-centric advise) I advocate the formal education route here. Figure out the least expensive path to getting yourself a technical undergrad degree. Meaning a BS in Engineering or Computer Science, from an ABET-accredited university. For my BigTechCo, you are not going to get hired without a technical degree. Any Engineering degree with some Computer Science emphasis will work, or straight Computer Scie…
> technical undergrad degree
OP stated they were in grad school, implying they have some degree. I'm not sure it would help to take another one now?
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#115[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#116Colonel Sanders started KFC in his 60s.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#117I am in my late 30’s. I had been teaching at the high school level, but left in June. I had/have complicated feelings about exiting that profession, but I knew I needed to commit or I wouldn’t leave.
I immediately began asking everyone I knew if I could do an informational interview about their professional lives. Often, their first hand experience helped me know that a specific path would be closed or undesirable for me (which is very helpful), but I always closed with something to the effect of “knowing what you know about my background and interests, do you know anyone I should talk to?”
This was a critically important question in my journey because it planted a seed. Even if my friend/acquaintance/former colleague said ‘No’ in the moment, I got a number a great follow up emails.
For those secondary connections, it also helped to ask for a personal introduction via email rather than just contact info. “Hey, Bob - this is my old friend G. He’s interesting to blah-blah-blah. You two should connect sometime”. The secondary contact was much more likely to engage vs a cold email.
I probably did two dozen calls/Zoom meetings with people between July-Aug.
Eventually, this led me to an opportunity at a small tech consultancy. I almost doubled my salary, improved my benefits, and have a substantially better work/life/stress balance. I probably wont stay in this position forever, but it was a solid win for me and my family.
The advice I was given and repeat here: “you wont get a job from your friends; you’ll get a job from the friends of your friends”, so start connecting with and talking to everyone you possibly can (on LinkedIn, Facebook, at parties, everywhere possible).
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#118Yes, you can change your career if you have the passion and you work hard. More than a little bit of luck also helps.
I studied corporate finance at university (including to Masters level part time while working). Did well in the investment banking arena over a 10 year period (including being a Director of a subsidiary of a listed company).
Went travelling for a few months, came back and whilst contracting decided to build a SaaS. I had almost zero programming experience outside of VBA. This was at the age of 38.
I ended up with 5 SaaS companies (some more successful than others), plus started my own software consulting business (grew to 8 employees). Also had 2 kids in the meantime.
I'm now head of Engineering at a ~100 person company.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#119My mom switched careers multiple times.
- Degree in Chemistry, led a production plant for a couple of years.
- Left that job and went to law school, worked at a law firm for 20 years until the boss retired.
- Then she studied to become an accountant and started working in the family business.
I know many people with similar "career paths" often doing something completely unrelated to what they did before. You only have to get up every morning and start.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their 30s?
#120I was in IT out of high school for 8 years, then gave it up to travel for 4 years. Moving to Vancouver at 30 I started from the bottom with aspirations of getting into software development. 6 years later and 3 foots in doors later, I got an offer at Microsoft to start as the level right below Senior. I've been there for over a year now. It's always possible to start over, but it helps to start doing something you love.