Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#1

Post by tunetune » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 2:53 AM UTC

I see that lots of 10+ years of folks in software struggle to find work while while lots of under 26 command 100K+ salary . I don't want to be cynical and I completely understand and also onboard with everyone should receive compensation commensurate to their talent. In fact, I fully support it.

Lately though, after hanging around on sites like HN, reading quite a lot I am finding an interesting observation. People having 10+ or even 15+ years of experience face greater challenge to find work , be it change of job , finding job in new state etc. where as there are lot of young folks who easily command 100K+ salary.

What is missing glue ? Why people with large experience struggle to find work ? Are we gradually moving into phenomena that if you are 30+ then either be in management or get out ?

Would love to hear your point of view.

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#2

Post by mindcrime » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 3:08 AM UTC

I haven't found that, or anything even close to that, to be the case at all. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I'm on the East Coast and from what I can see, if you have a "hot" skillset (Hadoop/Big-Data, MongoDB, Clojure, Node.js, Angular/Ember, etc.) you won't have any problem finding a job, regardless of your age.

Personally, I'm 41 with 15+ years of IT experience and I have never felt any sense of age discrimination at all. But, I'm also constantly working to keep my skills current, and I do a lot of things to make myself attractive and known in my area - speaking at events, writing articles, blogging, etc. shrug

My feeling is, if you're sitting at 15 years of experience and you've been, for example, writing Java code for 15 years, go pick up a Scala or Clojure book, or learn R or take the time to learn Hadoop, Spark, Storm, Kafka, MongoDB, etc. If you have skills that are "hip" at a moment in time, I don't think it's usually going to matter much how old you are.

OTOH, if you are a 15 year Java programmer who is still writing Java 1.2 code for a JSP based app that integrates with a COBOL book-keeping system on an IBM S/360, and you refuse to even look at that "new fangled" Java 1.3 or newer, then yeah, you might find yourself in a tough spot if/when they decide to turn off that mainframe.

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#3

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 3:56 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #2

I haven't found that, or anything even close to that, to be the case at all. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I'm on the East Coast and from what I can see, if you have a "hot" skillset (Hadoop/Big-Data, MongoDB, Clojure, Node.js, Angular/Ember, etc.) you won't have any problem finding a job, regardless of your age. Personally, I'm 41 with 15+ years of IT experience and I have never felt any sense of age discriminati…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#4

Post by ekm2 » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 3:56 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #2

I haven't found that, or anything even close to that, to be the case at all. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I'm on the East Coast and from what I can see, if you have a "hot" skillset (Hadoop/Big-Data, MongoDB, Clojure, Node.js, Angular/Ember, etc.) you won't have any problem finding a job, regardless of your age. Personally, I'm 41 with 15+ years of IT experience and I have never felt any sense of age discriminati…

Can you recommend some good beginner books on Clojure?

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#5

Post by facorreia » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 4:01 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #2

I haven't found that, or anything even close to that, to be the case at all. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I'm on the East Coast and from what I can see, if you have a "hot" skillset (Hadoop/Big-Data, MongoDB, Clojure, Node.js, Angular/Ember, etc.) you won't have any problem finding a job, regardless of your age. Personally, I'm 41 with 15+ years of IT experience and I have never felt any sense of age discriminati…

I agree, there's a difference between having 10 years of experience and having 1 year of experience repeated 10 times doing the same thing. Me, personally, I enjoy learning a lot and I get restless if I don't feel I'm developing my skills and keeping current.

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#6

Post by mindcrime » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 4:01 AM UTC

ekm2 wrote: post #4

mindcrime wrote: post #2

I haven't found that, or anything even close to that, to be the case at all. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I'm on the East Coast and from what I can see, if you have a "hot" skillset (Hadoop/Big-Data, MongoDB, Clojure, Node.js, Angular/Ember, etc.) you won't have any problem finding a job, regardless of your age. Personally, I'm 41 with 15+ years of IT experience and I have never felt any sense of age discriminati…

Can you recommend some good beginner books on Clojure?

I haven't gone very far down the Clojure path myself, but Programmming Clojure[1] from Pragmatic Press is one of the ones I started with. The other one I used is Clojure in Action[2]. There might be better books out there (or not), those just happen to be two that I'm slightly familiar with.

[1]: https://pragprog.com/book/shcloj2/programming-clojure

[2]: http://www.manning.com/rathore/

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#7

Post by escherize » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 4:21 AM UTC

ekm2 wrote: post #4

mindcrime wrote: post #2

I haven't found that, or anything even close to that, to be the case at all. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I'm on the East Coast and from what I can see, if you have a "hot" skillset (Hadoop/Big-Data, MongoDB, Clojure, Node.js, Angular/Ember, etc.) you won't have any problem finding a job, regardless of your age. Personally, I'm 41 with 15+ years of IT experience and I have never felt any sense of age discriminati…

Can you recommend some good beginner books on Clojure?

I worked with the guy who wrote the Manning book my sibling commenter mentioned, and it's quite good. But if you want to jump into clojure quickly, I can't reccomend Clojure for the Brave and True enough. http://www.braveclojure.com/

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#8

Post by SFjulie1 » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 5:01 AM UTC

grumpy old 10+ myself, I can answer for me: because for me it is boring to play the comedy.

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#9

Post by bikamonki » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 5:38 AM UTC

Because they are expensive while not necessarily better.

Re: Ask HN: Why is that 10+ years experience folks struggle to find work

#10

Post by sanre6 » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 5:48 AM UTC

ekm2 wrote: post #4

mindcrime wrote: post #2

I haven't found that, or anything even close to that, to be the case at all. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I'm on the East Coast and from what I can see, if you have a "hot" skillset (Hadoop/Big-Data, MongoDB, Clojure, Node.js, Angular/Ember, etc.) you won't have any problem finding a job, regardless of your age. Personally, I'm 41 with 15+ years of IT experience and I have never felt any sense of age discriminati…

Can you recommend some good beginner books on Clojure?

i like this book http://joyofclojure.com/