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Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
41–50 of 86 posts
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#42I'm trying to break into SE (at 32 from an accounting background), but not having a US/EU passport and living in a third world makes it hard. So I will say that depending on where you are from, things can get tricky. But the usual still stands, you get jobs by knowing the right people.
If it helps, the tendency is to shift software development to other countries. It’s reached a stage like manufacturing in many aspects - including worker rights, status and job satisfaction and is about to be decimated in a similar fashion. Probably better than looking for a SE job in the west at the moment. In case you haven't noticed there are job cuts, people barely afford housing, crime is on the rise, and so on.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know you and don't mean to insult but I advise you to change your mentality. Victimhood is a choice. Yes, you live in a 3rd world country where things are harder. But SE is one of the only fields where you don't need a degree, could work from anywhere in the world and still make decent money especially depending on the cost of living in your country. Plenty of poeple live in 3rd world countries and have found…
Being condescending is also a choice. Nothing about the GP indicated victimhood, only striving for a better life with real challenges in front of them.
No worries about my life, I'm good. Just wanting to do something different as a job. Thanks for defending me :)
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#44I stayed in IT, so it was not a massive career change, but I went from being a Unix systems administrator to being an Android programmer.
Advice? It took longer to get a job as an SWE than I had anticipated. I kind of stumbled into being a Unix sysadmin way back when and didn't give much thought into getting my first SWE job paying a real salary.
In hindsight I would have paid more attention to college internships (although I don't know what companies make of someone 30+ on an internship). I was enthusiastic about Android when it came out, and at this point I'm happy I focused on it, but if I had been studying Javascript and React instead of Java and Android I might have gotten a job sooner. Also, I was doing my own projects and did not think to work for some small company for low pay, but eventually I did - I made a little money, got a little experience and had something to put on my resume and talk about in interviews - and I was upfront with them that I was not planning to stay for many years (I wound up staying about a year and eight months, longer than I had anticipated).
So my advice would be to think about how you're going to get that first job on the career path, beyond the idea that you'll go to college (or training) and study hard. I went to college and studied hard, and even was doing a lot of my own projects as well, but in retrospect it took longer to get that first job with a decent salary than I had anticipated.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#45I worked as a freelance translator from age 28 to 48, when I was offered a faculty position at a university. There would be a big drop in income and I was hesitant about cutting contacts with several clients I had worked for for years, but the offer came at just the right time in my life: the kids were nearly out of school, the house was almost paid off, and translation, while still paying well, had gradually become less interesting to me. The university job was only for a fixed term at first, but I took it because it seemed more stimulating. I also figured that, if my contract wasn't renewed, I could always return to freelancing and build a new set of clients.
The university job worked out in the end. I got tenure after a few years, and I had many more opportunities to learn and to interact with interesting people than if I had continued as a freelancer. I retired from the university earlier this year at the age of 65.
Looking back, I am glad I made that change when I did. But I still remember how nervous I was the day in September 2005 when I emailed my long-term translation clients and told them I couldn't accept work from them anymore.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#46I was 29 when I got my first job writing code. Before that I was a wildland firefighter and then a carpenter. I taught myself to code at night over the course of 2 years. Got an MS in Data Science a few years after that. Now I’m doing software engineering, data engineering, and data science in a domain I’m super interested in. So it worked out really well. I’m pretty much right where I wanted to be when I wrote my first line of JavaScript at 27. My advice is to totally immerse yourself as much as possible in whatever field you’re trying to get into and start to think of yourself as someone who is already a part of that community.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#47I did. At 35 I sold my Domino's, moved to NYC and started doing freelance tech support. I never looked back and am much happier
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#48[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#49I'm trying to break into SE (at 32 from an accounting background), but not having a US/EU passport and living in a third world makes it hard. So I will say that depending on where you are from, things can get tricky. But the usual still stands, you get jobs by knowing the right people.
If it helps, the tendency is to shift software development to other countries. It’s reached a stage like manufacturing in many aspects - including worker rights, status and job satisfaction and is about to be decimated in a similar fashion. Probably better than looking for a SE job in the west at the moment. In case you haven't noticed there are job cuts, people barely afford housing, crime is on the rise, and so on.
Yeah I see it a lot, but most part of Africa are still not seriously considered. And if they are, it's probably through some agency that will make most of the "cut" while paying the locals minimum wage. I can still go back to EU if things don't work out, but I'll try this way for now.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#50Planning on it and I'm almost 40. I'm in tech now, but in life I really enjoy deep 1-1 time with people more than anything else I do at work. I've got a 5-year plan to leave tech and go back to school to become a therapist, specifically working with people suffering from OCD (and perhaps some other forms of anxiety). At this point it's mostly meeting with people in the industry to hear their stories, with a goal of a…
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