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Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

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Re: Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

#131

Post by dsfsdfd »

hnal943 wrote: post #106
dsfsdfd wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone has the luxury of "considering another line of work".

That's crazy. There are tons of other things you can do that aren't programming related to make money. Especially if you are not passionate about keeping up in the tech space, you're likely to have interests elsewhere. True, some doors will be closed to you, but the economy is amazingly diverse.

Eh? So I'm going to switch careers move to the bottom of the ladder and keep up payments on my mortgage, while maintaining the quality life of my family? The sad truth is that once you have committed to a career, you're stuck with it.

Re: Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

#132

Post by 1971genocide »

danieltillett wrote: post #126
1971genocide wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"knowledge of biology" I am not sure you fully appreciate what " knowledge of biology" means. As a programmer who did a lot of molecular biology in the past - doing molecular biology is not simple. The learning curve for a lot of biological topics - especially the ones that get close to organic chemistry is really steep.

This is something that I have seen people with a CS or EE background really underestimate. The amount of biology information you need to keep in your head is huge. There is not a core of day-to-day knowledge that you can use and look up the rest when you need, you need to keep all of it in your head just to get the most basic things done.

Its the same everywhere.

Programmers underestimating the value/knowledge of accountants/lawyers.

Businessman assuming tech work is simple.

People by default assume what looks simple for someone to do must be simple - even if they spent 10,000+ hours practicing it.

Re: Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

#133

Post by cholantesh »

nlawalker wrote: post #116
jrumbut wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joining the various social networks, LinkedIn, Github, Twitter, HackerNews, etc is the place to start. Having your own website might be a decent idea too. If you post even the smallest of code samples you'be shown an employer two things that will not be true of all, or even most, candidates: that you can write working code in at least one language and that you use some of your spare time for skill development. Beyond…

Thanks, this might be the nudge that I need to actually start doing this stuff!

I also recommend Indeed; probably the most success I've had in job hunting came from putting my resume up there earlier this year.

Re: Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

#134

Post by NoCulturalFit »

wyclif wrote: post #129
cafard wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you feel unhirable?

Did you notice his username? If he really feels like he can't be a "cultural fit" at age 30, something is terribly wrong with this industry and I blame ageism.

Ageism? No. Activists who brand people as heretic for not agreeing with Popular Political Opinion #37

Re: Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

#135

Post by wyclif »

NoCulturalFit wrote: post #134
wyclif wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you notice his username? If he really feels like he can't be a "cultural fit" at age 30, something is terribly wrong with this industry and I blame ageism.

Ageism? No. Activists who brand people as heretic for not agreeing with Popular Political Opinion #37

You don't think ageism has anything to do with the fact that a 30 year old developer is considered to not be a cultural fit in a given company just because of age?

Re: Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

#136

Post by NoCulturalFit »

wyclif wrote: post #135
NoCulturalFit wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ageism? No. Activists who brand people as heretic for not agreeing with Popular Political Opinion #37

You don't think ageism has anything to do with the fact that a 30 year old developer is considered to not be a cultural fit in a given company just because of age?

You're right, I am sorry.

Re: Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On (2012)

#137

Post by mikekchar »

vonmoltke wrote: post #113
mikekchar wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 20 years doing a mix of embedded and application development, I spent 5 years teaching English. I went back into IT at the age of 45. My first interview was absolutely horrible (sorry about that if you are reading ;-) ). After that I was fine. I ended up getting a web development position without much prior experience in the area (just whatever I had hacked around on in my own time). Of course with 20 years of…

The trick is getting the opportunity to sell yourself that way. If you can't get the interview in the first place, how well you can sell yourself is irrelevant. This begs the question: how did you manage to get those interviews?

My guess: http://jldrill.rubyforge.org/

If anyone looks at the code, it's pretty crap, but it shows that I like to write code.

Also, because I knew I was going back into IT, I built: http://mikekchar.github.io/portfolio/

It contains a bunch of egotistical musings about software. It shows that I probably think too highly of myself, but that I know how to write English fairly well ;-)

Also, after I moved to London, I made a point of attending events where I could make contacts. My return to IT was complicated by the fact that most of my career was in Ottawa, Canada. Since my family was moving to the UK, my contacts were useless to me. I got 3 interviews in as many weeks from simply meeting people at the pub.

As far as I'm concerned, these activities are "selling myself". The fact that I also enjoy them is beside the point (especially drinking beer and chatting with other developers ;-) ).

Lately I've been working on trying to allocate time to my side projects. As you can see, I haven't updated my previous projects in a very long time. However, it is vitally important.

In the end, the job I ended up accepting was through a head hunter. No idea how he got my name. Probably should have asked him ;-).

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