41–50 of 75 posts
And let's be real regarding ageism, you only get about 10 years of not being "too old", and then for the rest of your career it's going to be an issue whether big or small. Part of being a professional is navigating all of the BS you will get if you are not under 35, white, straight, and male.
Nice flame-bait.
But are you talking about employability? Because western tech employers literally compete for token females.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is gold! Can't thank you enough for your input. Just as a side note, while my professional life is very "narrow", I have been doing stuff on the side! I own 3 dropshipping sites (WooCommerce & Shopify) and 2 pseudo-SaaS sites (one MEAN stack and the other Meteor.JS). I started these projects last year just so that I can get my hands dirty in the latest web technologies (last time i made a full fledged website, I…
Off topic but I had the same experience as well. I had a side project which was twice as challenging and impressive as anything I had developed in my 9-5 job. But for some reason, interviewers only ever wanted to know what I did 9-5. I never did figure out why. My best guess is that they figure it can't really be all that great if no one paid you for it.
If you were in the same industry (potentially the same company) for 12 years, you may be getting tagged with a bit of a "career employee" stigma. I'm 49 now and took 5 years out between the ages of 39-44 to teach English in Japan. I'm back in the industry now. It took me about a month to get a job when I came back. The key is really flexibility. If you have a a very narrow focus, you will have difficulty getting work…
This is gold! Can't thank you enough for your input. Just as a side note, while my professional life is very "narrow", I have been doing stuff on the side! I own 3 dropshipping sites (WooCommerce & Shopify) and 2 pseudo-SaaS sites (one MEAN stack and the other Meteor.JS). I started these projects last year just so that I can get my hands dirty in the latest web technologies (last time i made a full fledged website, I…
Also, blogging about the industry you want to get into also helps establish yourself as a thought leader. You can re purpose the content for linkedin, medium etc.
In my case:
- Unix (via Python and devops) to programmer.
- Programmer (via product and custdev) to founder.
I am now preparing for a small-ish pivot. For the last 12 or years I have been a Drupal / PHP consultant, architected a few very large sites, including one at the time being in the Quantcast Top 100. I am now trying to branch out to Elixir or Go and can't really find a part time job doing either. I think this would be necessary to build up some experience before completely jumping the Drupal ship. I am 42.
Stay at it, get as much learning in as you can. E.g. do a very simple project that you can expose on github, publish to a cloud server somewhere .. this will let you show them what you can do. Perhaps also look at supporting stacks like Angular1/2, at least down here the demand is through the roof for them. I went from Coldfusion/Php for decades to C# / Asp.net after redundancy and it was not easy. Got there in the e…
Interesting. Another HN post a while ago mentioned they fought any ageism by being physically fitter than those younger than them - racing the younger ones up the stairs of the building without breaking a sweat.
Actually, here's the blog post, On Getting Old(er) In Tech by Don Denoncourt: http://corgibytes.com/blog/2016/12/06/getting-old-er-in-tech...
"A year or so ago, I was attending a two-week training session with about a dozen 20- or 30-something developers. The training was on the 22nd floor and, every day after we came back from group lunches, I’d always take the stairs. The first day or two, one or two of the kids would join me, but I got no repeats. It’s pretty hard to be considered a has-been when they can’t keep up with you."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is gold! Can't thank you enough for your input. Just as a side note, while my professional life is very "narrow", I have been doing stuff on the side! I own 3 dropshipping sites (WooCommerce & Shopify) and 2 pseudo-SaaS sites (one MEAN stack and the other Meteor.JS). I started these projects last year just so that I can get my hands dirty in the latest web technologies (last time i made a full fledged website, I…
Off topic but I had the same experience as well. I had a side project which was twice as challenging and impressive as anything I had developed in my 9-5 job. But for some reason, interviewers only ever wanted to know what I did 9-5. I never did figure out why. My best guess is that they figure it can't really be all that great if no one paid you for it.
This could be a number of things. For context, I've been in recruiting for ~20 years (mostly software startups) and I also write resumes and consult/coach job seekers on a number of topics. Getting rejected without getting to the interview stage could be for several reasons. Ageism - not all that likely in your early 30s, depending on your audience. Resume - if your resume doesn't convey your background well enough f…
I actually agree on most points, especially on the ageism bit considering I am not exactly old. It is been my sneakiest feeling that it is my resume and/or cover letter.
I saw in your profile that this is an area of expertise. Will it be ok if I engage you for some help? I will send an email via my personal account later in the day if it's fine with you.
I am at a similar position but have not yet to started to actually look for a job. I am a 37 yo marketing guy and now I am learning to code to become a software developer (web). My approach is to take some time to learn the basics, create some projects that a potential future employee would recognize as demonstrative of my hard skills and then start looking. When you talk about software development, this path is obvi…
Situation, Task, Action, Result
Rather than the usual "my responsibilities".
Then you can demonstrate the value you brought rather than the potential you might have because listing your responsibilities doesn't mean you discharged them.
This could be a number of things. For context, I've been in recruiting for ~20 years (mostly software startups) and I also write resumes and consult/coach job seekers on a number of topics. Getting rejected without getting to the interview stage could be for several reasons. Ageism - not all that likely in your early 30s, depending on your audience. Resume - if your resume doesn't convey your background well enough f…
hey dave, really awesome feedback! I couldn't thank you enough. I actually agree on most points, especially on the ageism bit considering I am not exactly old. It is been my sneakiest feeling that it is my resume and/or cover letter. I saw in your profile that this is an area of expertise. Will it be ok if I engage you for some help? I will send an email via my personal account later in the day if it's fine with you.