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The Unemployable Programmer

unemployable.pen.io

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Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#71

Post by anon4 »

I'm a bit past my mid-20s, so I might be talking out of my ass, but can't you rebrand yourself as an "independent contractor"? "Years of industry experience, broad skills applicable to your situation, comfortable with legacy code bases, able to get started immediately, flexible payment options tailored to your project, etc."

Better yet, find some more people like you, as you're trying to do, and start a consulting company together. You could each use your connections to find work for the others, put in a bit of your profits towards upkeep of the company, grow your network and so on.

You may be unemployable if you put yourself in the same bucket as the recent college graduates, so make your own bucket.

Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#72

Post by tokenrove »

magicbuzz wrote: post #42

The whole 'do an open source' project is a crock. I single-handedly wrote a large Javascript module for a well-known editor. It's used by hundreds of people around the world but all the folks employing 'front-end' programmers seem to bin my CV as my current fulltime job is 100% Python.

Single-handedly might be part of the problem; part of what employers looking for open source work want to see is collaboration.

Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#73

Post by notNow »

To the author of this piece:

Have you tried any of the following alternative in your quest to land a job:

1- Theme marketplaces like Envato.

The competition is really fierce but you could make it and establish a name and sharpen your skills and be up to date when the latest trends and movements in our profession.

2- Kickstarter campaign to crowd-fund a technical project that you're passionate about to showcase your technical skills and expertise and as an opportunity for you to reboot your career.

Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#74

Post by nrjames »

jcadam wrote: post #69

Hmm... I'm a 35 year old programmer and I work in Defense/Aerospace. If you think finding a good developer is hard, try finding a good developer who also holds a security clearance. If you're any good at all, you will always be employed and well compensated. The work can be dull, with Vogon-esque processes and procedures, but I have side projects to keep me sane :) Every couple of years (ok, at least every year) I'll…

That happened to me in a similarly restrictive field. I eventually just quit my job so that I would be forced to reinvent myself. That led me back to a graduate program in analytics, where my programming background was enormously useful. While the ~ 9 months in the program were expensive and stressful, the degree made me very employable, and the programming background gave me a huge advantage during the recruitment process.

Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#75

Post by Retric »

duggan wrote: post #44

> Being able to get work in this field without a fancy background is still possible, but only if you have the right connections. Like I said: it's no longer sufficient to be able to do the job This sentiment regularly comes up on HN, and I find it a little exasperating. Human interaction has always been an important part of career. There's a subtle (or not so subtle) contempt for soft skills in these laments. You can…

There has been a huge shift with the number of jobs someone has in there lifetime. If you work as say 3 jobs for 15 years each then taking 6 months to find a jobs is not the end of the world. But if you work for 3 years and then spend 6 months finding a job that's a huge issue.

So, while the value while looking may not have changed the number times people look for a new job has.

Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#76

Post by FLUX-YOU »

ddevault wrote: post #51
magicbuzz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole 'do an open source' project is a crock. I single-handedly wrote a large Javascript plug-in module for a well-known editor. It's used by hundreds of people around the world but all the folks employing 'front-end' programmers seem to bin my CV as my current fulltime job is 100% Python. It baffles me that they want someone who is both a CSS3/LESS/SASS design guru and understands closures/promises/OO/etc.

I almost always get an interview, which almost always leads to an offer, and my resume is laid out so that open source takes up 2/3 of the page. http://irc.sircmpwn.com/Drew-DeVault-CV.pdf

I watched a few of your live coding streams on twitch. Cool stuff!

Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#77

Post by erikb »

edw519 wrote: post #20

Here's the dirty little secret about "employability" you hardly ever read about in places like HN: It's not about you. It's about your user and what they accomplish with the tools you build for them. It doesn't matter who you are, what you know, what education you have, where you've worked before, what turns you on, or what you think is cool. It only matters what you can do for others. It's really that fucking simple…

It's nearly impossible for people to see how you do something useful for users, even if you already work for 10 years in a company. So I'd say that's the least important point of your employability. Other things like being able to integrate to the development team, that's way more important.

Re: The Unemployable Programmer

#79

Post by robotkilla »

mpermar wrote: post #47

Now, seriously, if a software engineer in his/her forties is unemployable in 2015, what the heck is an accountant, lawyer, a builder, a painter or a woodworker to just name a few? Come on. We are so lucky we did choose technology as a way of living. Sorry but stop complaining and start learning back new stuff. Can't believe what someone has to read. -- A developer in his forties.

You do realize that for the last several years we've been trying to churn out new developers who will accept jobs for very low wages (or even come on as interns and work for free) and they've got an edge on the so-called "new stuff" which pushes out the 40 year olds?

There's an even bigger push for this now. It seems like everywhere I turn someone is learning to "develop". Sad to say, most of these people only know how to pump out good SASS or HTML or know how to throw a bunch of APIs together.

This of course is a skill of its own, and clearly one that pays bills, but the market will become saturated and the bubble will burst again.

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