If it helps, we work with startups/brands/agencies that primarily hire remote developers across a range of languages at FlexDevs:
http://FlexDevs.com
Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
71–80 of 232 posts
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#72I 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…
Don't undersell your experience. You might not realise it, but occasionally an insight to use a particular approach might shave days to weeks off the development timescale.
It's not all about how fast you can hammer out bits and bytes.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#73He's worked as an executive, but never moved onto something more senior like a project manager????
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Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe include his github/bitbucket profile instead of linked in.
Not everyone works on open source projects.
I simply suggested that it might also be helpful to include a link to github or a repository where some work/project examples would be contained. It seems pretty reasonable to suggest that it might be a good way to showcase some Mongo projects or other things he is working on while teaching himself a few new pieces of technology.
Most coders have a much larger github repo than Linked In page. Guess everyone disagrees with this...
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#75I'm not convinced that 56 is that old for companies, especially large ones. I'm not sure this is anything more than the current financial problems that Spain is experiencing. There is 25% unemployment and many banks have purportedly been teetering on collapse. There simply may not be jobs available for him in Spain, unfortunately. His best bet is to move around in the EU, and go to a country that is willing to hire h…
I think that will depend on the country you are working on.
I work in Malaysia, and by that age, you will have hard time finding work as a developer, since people are expecting you to start manage other people after a certain age.
The economics are different, most jobs here are based on projects, there is not much product work. Even if you get infinitely better over time, there is not much economic on leveraging the knowledge, especially if you are the only one on the team that can be that good.
Companies tend not to keep people long and people are keep moving on companies once projects are done, unless new projects are on the line.
Since the turnover rate is high, it will only make sense to keep thing simple, hence there is not much use of much advanced knowledge of anyone.
Because of that, up to a certain age, you very much reached the plateau of the max knowledge expected at the market. Keeping your development skill better may help you with your job, but it may not bring much to the negotiation table. That also means, it make sense to hire cheaper, younger talent if both have reach past the plateau, no matter which one is better. I am guessing this is a reason that people are expecting you to move "up" to the management ladder past the age.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#76I 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…
Are you really less effective ? I would assume that experience would be a big help in making a developer more effective? Or are you saying you may be as effective, but not as able to work the crazy hours that still seem to be far too common in the industry?
Yeah I get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time at 42 than 19, but the 20 hour days are really punishing, although offset by being able to work some of it remote, but for companies that chart success by sheer number of hours and face time clocked rather than projects completed these are in general a poor match for any effective developer.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#77Drop me a line at my username @gmail.com if he would consider working for a startup based on SF but with its engineering team based on Guadalajara, México. We mostly do django, flask and angularjs and are not worried on getting someone with his experience on our team.
Any chance I can shoot you an email too? I'm currently living in Guadalajara and looking for a new gig.
Please do!
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#78This is crazy. Were I hiring, I'd kill to have someone that experienced and with likely far fewer "life liabilities" (I'm doubting he's going to start having babies or go absolutely insane over some girl he can't get out of his mind... or disappear playing video games for two weeks straight)
Have him keep at it. Someone will appreciate what he's got.
Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#79This is crazy. Were I hiring, I'd kill to have someone that experienced and with likely far fewer "life liabilities" (I'm doubting he's going to start having babies or go absolutely insane over some girl he can't get out of his mind... or disappear playing video games for two weeks straight) Have him keep at it. Someone will appreciate what he's got.
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Re: Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job
#80https://www.djangojobs.net/jobs/207/python-programmer-medica...
Well that position has expired, anyway just showed djangojobs to him, thanks :)
Didn't notice earlier, but what has expired is only the posting the hiring is ongoing. Will have the posting corrected. Contact me directly (email in profile).