Hola luisivan.
Could you somehow make me available your email? I would like to send you a couple of suggestions which I rather do in private.
Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
181–190 of 232 posts
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#182I don't know if his will help: I am 63, and I realize that I might not be as effective as I once was. What I do is offer a really low rate for telecommuting from home, and a much larger rate when working on site. So, for the last many years, I work cheaply from home and occasionally work on site (most recently at Google) for a much better consulting rate. I don't know if your father has the financial flexibility to f…
Like other responders, I question your statement "...I might not be as effective as I once was.". Judgement based on long experience can be enormously valuable. You may see in your client's current circumstances a dynamic you worked through 30 years ago. As a result, you may save your client a month or two exploring solutions you know won't work for them. That's incredibly valuable. Consider that when pricing your se…
But how do you sell judgement? People don't want to hear, "That won't work" type of advice. The culture rewards "I can do the impossible" overconfidence. When you find out the project is harder than you thought, you just work nights and weekends to make up for it because you have no spouse or kids to neglect. (Yeah I've used that advantage myself when I was in my 20's.)
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#183I would recommend that he jump on Guru.com or eLance.com and start looking for projects. It is not ideal but it will keep him active as he searches for work.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Github isn't your CV but one of the realities of human nature is that public recognition increases your standing in the eyes of job interviewers.
Europe is very conservative: Standing out might be even a downer. But generally good public (e.g. on github) standing should justifiy you a job (maybe even a highly paid one) EDIT: Wow, thanks for the downvotes: Just to let you know: I LIVE (and work since almost 10 years) IN Europe! I have 2 (relevant!) projects on github and usually don't talk about them at hiring situations (though they are mentioned in my CV and…
I didn't downvote you, but I found some of those statements odd. What exactly did you mean by "Europe is very conservative: Standing out might be even a downer."?
I live in Europe too, in the UK, and know it's important to talk about personal projects if you're not entering a super-corporate environment. That you choose to downplay your experience is up to you, but I wouldn't say it was sound advice for others.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
The legalities of age discrimination is one thing, and what actually happen on the ground is an entirely different matter. They don't even have to give a reason why he is not hired for the positions he has applied for.
> They don't even have to give a reason Yes they do. There is a lot of legislation about employment and documentation of the processes. Lots of smaller companies don't bother but larger companies are obsessive about it because they wouldn't risk exposing themselves.
yeah, and those large companies won't write "too old" in the documentation. there are a million reasons not to hire someone, including you simply found someone else you liked better. the case is pretty much unwinnable, why would anyone go through the hassle?
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#186hey luisivan, we're looking for a experienced php dev in Barcelona (working from home is welcome too)
email me at my username at gmail
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#187Has 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?
Banks are running MongoDB. The issue is not the industry, the issue is the problem they are trying to solve for in the app. I am sure banks have social applications too. Clearly, they won't be using it for financial transactions, as those probably are running on some mainframe.
Just like I hope that [your favorite social startup] does not have my user information in MongoDB. I don't want to lose my [points | badges | messages | likes | some other mundane detail that I cannot live without in my first world problem kind of way.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
With age you can become more effective! As a 64 year old Developer I tell clients that my USP is 'grey hair'. Younger developers may produce slicker code and better SQL structures - but having run businesses I can look at the requirements from a Directors/Owners point of view and guide them on how to get the most benefit for their organisation from the technology.
Youngsters these days can't do SQL. Its all MongoDB and Node.
That's rubbish. I'm young and know SQL fairly well, it's still a very valuable skill. If you base your opinions of young developers on HN articles then that's your problem.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#189"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.
This. Our UK office has hired and relocated two developers from Spain over the past year or so. EU employment law makes it easy to move to a new country and work there and low-cost flights make it cheap to visit home.
I know a bunch of people from the UK moved to Spain because of various reasons. They are earning less, but enjoy the other parts of life there.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
Unfortunately it seems to me that consulting is not really a thing in Spain. There are a lot of consulting jobs, but they are usually the domain of consulting companies (known as "cárnicas", meat factories, among developers), that do little more than acting as a middlemen between the hire and the actual company, pocketing the substantial difference between the consulting fees and paid salary. But I work in a more tra…
> There are a lot of consulting jobs, but they are usually the domain of consulting companies (known as "cárnicas", meat factories, among developers), that do little more than acting as a middlemen between the hire and the actual company, pocketing the substantial difference between the consulting fees and paid salary.
This also describes the situation in Portugal almost perfectly with the difference that we call those companies "negreiros" (slave traders).