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Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

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Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

#121

Post by FranOntanaya »

zerr wrote: post #97
lacker wrote: post #86

"Spain" seems like the magic phrase here. Unemployment in Spain is 24.5% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Meanwhile unemployment in the UK is 6.2% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... I suggest looking for a job in London. A lot of tech companies are hiring there.

>Unemployment in Spain is 24.5% right now. Yes, but AFAIK developers are exceptions - at least in Catalonia. Especially experienced ones. Depends on how much salary is acceptable. As I researched, for senior devs, it is 35-45K EUR/annual, which is rather low... He may as well consider consulting.

Although that's correct, IT opportunities depend a lot of on businesses having plenty of activity and, in a sense, an expectation of having to scale up in the near future. That's definitely not the case in Spain.

When I was young(er), a lot of dev work in Spain looked like just building business database interfaces. My hunch (based in practically zero facts), is that many devs have been stuck there until those jobs ran out, and their skills may not fully align with more generic app problem solving.

Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

#123

Post by kokey »

sgt101 wrote: post #115
joshcrowder wrote: post #16

Has he looked into finance? The UK banking scene is predominately in his age group (not that it matters). I'm 24 and worked in a team of people ranging from 30-60 i suppose. Also the sector is moving towards noSQL so it could be a good fit

Please tell me that the banks are not running Mongo?

I worked at a pretty large bank (one of the biggest in the world and US) and I was working with MongoDB there. It was for a non critical reporting system for a configuration management tool.

Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

#124

Post by davfigue »

sgt101 wrote: post #115
joshcrowder wrote: post #16

Has he looked into finance? The UK banking scene is predominately in his age group (not that it matters). I'm 24 and worked in a team of people ranging from 30-60 i suppose. Also the sector is moving towards noSQL so it could be a good fit

Please tell me that the banks are not running Mongo?

Better, I'd like a list of the banks using Mongo, I wouldn't want to risk having eventually consistent money balance during the day xD.

Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

#125

Post by fasteo »

lacker wrote: post #86

"Spain" seems like the magic phrase here. Unemployment in Spain is 24.5% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Meanwhile unemployment in the UK is 6.2% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... I suggest looking for a job in London. A lot of tech companies are hiring there.

Don´t believe this figure. Spain has a huge black economy. Some estimations says that it is about 20%[1] of our GDP.

It is in Spanish, but this [2] is a good documentary about it.

[1] http://www.antena3.com/noticias/economia/economia-sumergida-...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5FRGu_W_6g

Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

#128

Post by [deleted] »

lacker wrote: post #86

"Spain" seems like the magic phrase here. Unemployment in Spain is 24.5% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Meanwhile unemployment in the UK is 6.2% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... I suggest looking for a job in London. A lot of tech companies are hiring there.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

#129

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

codegeek wrote: post #3

What about freelancing ? Try and connect with people you know who might be looking for a developer like him. If he knows Python/Django, I am sure there are lot of freelance opportunities. Also ask him to post in the Monthly HN thread of freelancers.

That advice is generally valid for all devs. In a poll (sorry, can't find the source right now) the older devs that were freelancers were the most happy ones. The market valued their experience, while employees in companies would be punished for their age.

I guess owning the customer relationship is key here.

Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job

#130

Post by majc2 »

[deleted] wrote: post #128
lacker wrote: post #86

"Spain" seems like the magic phrase here. Unemployment in Spain is 24.5% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Meanwhile unemployment in the UK is 6.2% right now. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... I suggest looking for a job in London. A lot of tech companies are hiring there.

[deleted]

> A 56 year old man with a family is going to struggle to just up and leave Spain and move to London though, isn't he?

No more than a 30 year-old or 26 year-old with a family. It might even be the case that he's in a better position becasue his kids are grown up now. We don't know - so we should take the OP at their word that they're willing to move.

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