from Hacker News

Tell HN: I just wanted to say: thank you, Hacker News

by d33d33 on 3/21/18, 5:48 PM with 131 comments

• by 50something on 3/21/18, 6:32 PM

  I am finishing my bachelors in CompSci at Harvard Extension and just got hired by Google. And I've got about 20 years on you. So yeah, absolutely, this can work!

  It was fun and challenging competing with top computer science students. In the long run, my organizational skills, focus, determination and world experience outweighed their raw brainpower and better memory.

  It's an ultramarathon, not a sprint.

• by hunter23 on 3/21/18, 7:22 PM

  You did something way bolder but I wanted to share another successful career restart story. I worked in tech startups in business roles (ops & product management) but was always excited about the engineering side. I decided to do a career restart at 32 and taught myself the basics of web development using Udacity and other web tutorials. I then went through a coding bootcamp and joined a mid size company.

  It's been a great ride, I've worked for about 3 years on both the front end and back end. I've been promoted twice and have started becoming assigned as lead developer on some projects. Overall, I think I'm about 6 - 12 months away from being promoted to a senior developer. As others mentioned, my strong soft skills (being able to project manage myself, communicate effectively, estimate tasks well and honor my estimates) have made me very attractive in comparison to other candidates who have been programming since they were 12 but are much more difficult to work with. The ability to "get stuff done" is underrated.

  Anyways, the main point is I am so happy with my career restart into programming at 32. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

• by austincheney on 3/21/18, 7:07 PM

  Is this age and sex bias a silicon valley problem?

  I am nearly 40 and most of the developers I have worked with in the past 10+ years have always been older than me (aside from college new hires). They have also been 20-40% female. I have spent this time working in the Westlake, Irving, Plano technology corridor of north DFW.

  I would like to hear what kind of demographics people encounter by geographic location. I always hear about age and sex bias online, but I simply don't see it in my area.

• by scarface74 on 3/21/18, 8:34 PM

  For all intents and purposes, I "restarted" my software career in 2008 when I was 34. I had been at one company nine years and stop learning in 2001.

  When I went back on the market in 2008, I basically had to look for junior developer jobs even though I had 12 years experience on paper - and a degree.

  Fortunately(?), by then I waa so underpaid, even junior developers were making more than I was so it was still a slight raise.

  It took 10 years, a lot of humility, and a lot of job hopping to get to an architect role and to get to the 50th-60th percentile of lead/senior developer for my local market. (After awhile your experience doesn't mean more pay if you're not a manager)

• by WheelsAtLarge on 3/21/18, 8:27 PM

  Just a life tip here, make sure you work your way up the ranks. Which means studying and learning how to manage people not learning the obscure computer language. Tech is very tough on old guys. Programmers and CS jobs start to disappear as you get older. The happy stories you'll read here are the exception, not the rule. You need to cover your bases. Good luck.

• by veza on 3/21/18, 8:54 PM

  Being in a similar situation (before degree), I totally agree that I need a solid CS education.

  BUT, given that resources like https://teachyourselfcs.com/ are available for free why should I waste money and time and energy on courses of a probable lesser quality, at least at my local university.

  The way I see it the problem is not the education itself but your credentials or reputation in front of a possible employer.

  So I noted down 3 ideas for myself:

     - build an Open Source reputation, by own projects and contributions - a stellar github account
  
     - get good at competitive programming - win kaggle competitions, hackerrank, top coder etc.
  
     - get a CS degree
  

  To me either one of the first two seem better than a degree (given that I learn CS on my own).

• by bane on 3/21/18, 10:42 PM

  HN is easily one of the most valuable "tools" I have in my toolchest. 20-30 minutes a day of front page browsing and the occasional post is like having a secret weapon in my tech arsenal. The number of times topics (not just tech) have come up in my professional life that I heard about first, and usually only, on HN...and then my ability to engage reasonably intelligently on those topics because of HN is countless.

• by AIX2ESXI on 3/21/18, 8:07 PM

  Hi, I'm longtime lurker and was compelled to create a HN account for this topic. I'm in a similar position in my mid thirties; currently struggling with a heavy course load while working full time. Most weeks I seem to get most of my work done on the weekends and a occasional week night, struggling with the math classes though. I think I'm about thirty units away from transferring to the University I work for tuition free as 3rd year student.

  As a sysadmin with tons of experience (rhcsa and aws certified by end of year) I'm tempted to just give up my studies and go work remote somewhere in a developing country since I love to travel. Though I remind myself an education is invaluable and that my university alumni is connected and full of prestige, I just imagine myself in Thailand making half of what I make and having a more enjoyable life as opposed to one I here in States.

  Most of my lower division classes have been online at my local community college, but the math classes are not online and I have a hard time following the professor's lectures and getting to class early. Youtube lectures helps with some concepts, but I think I need to supplement my college math classes with an online program of some sort or a private math tutor.

  Can anyone recommend some math online math courses that cover Algebra to Calculus please? Any tips that help with time management, focus and staying motivated?

• by aezell on 3/21/18, 6:54 PM

  Interesting. Here I am trying to figure out what I can do to get out of technology at 40+.

  Congrats on finishing school!

• by nemild on 3/21/18, 6:16 PM

  That's awesome, and an inspiration.

  And I really encourage you to find a good team (rather than just focusing on salary), it'll really level you up quickly — and set you up for lots of good opportunities as the years go by.

• by ccajas on 3/21/18, 9:17 PM

  I'm 35 and have been working in web development since 2007, but I feel like my career has went completely off the tracks since 2015. You see, I have been under-employed or unemployed for three years and I cannot convert any interviews into job offers anymore.

  I also have a non-STEM degree and the prospect of going to grad school for CS or Math related courses seems tempting. I don't want to work for local small web shops forever, and prefer to see myself in the long run working at a big semiconductor firm or aerospace firm. However, time and financial issues are holding me back from trying out college again.

  If OP's experience is more the norm, where tons of doors open for you simply for having the right degree and preparation, what should I do to make ends meet in the interim? How can I get a job to support myself while I'm attending college, when I can't interview worth a damn? I'm hoping I can get by with a campus job, waive part of my tuition (I've also worked on campus last time I was in college).

• by Jesus_Jones on 3/21/18, 6:21 PM

  Glad to hear it worked out for you! I think there's a lot of potential for people who non-traditional students who are capable of focusing on science, math, logic, getting retrained into CS and have a good career. We definitely need more people in the field, and I'm sure you bring a slightly different perspective coming in at a little bit later age.

• by robeastham on 3/21/18, 6:10 PM

  Well done you! Though 30 is not that old, I've never believed that old adage about old dogs. Grit, determination, self belief and a positive outlook are some of the main ingredients required to change course in life. Sacrifice will most likely be required too if the change of course is more than 45 degrees.

• by jdlyga on 3/21/18, 8:06 PM

  I love how pure Hacker News is. It's like Digg or Slashdot 10 years ago.

• by westoque on 3/21/18, 6:13 PM

  > it was quite challenging in every sense: time/money management, high drop-out rates (~80% fail or stop studying cs at my university), lack of math skills - school was far far away.

  This is where a mentor I believe does a great job. I know people that had a hard time learning because they don't have someone guiding them. Some aspects, like say, async programming or memory management could be hard to grasp by yourself but when someone explains it well, then it everything starts to come together. That's why when I'm teaching I always tell people to understand the concepts first cause you'll only learn it once and it will help you understand the pieces better.

• by morgosmaci on 3/21/18, 8:42 PM

  I find it interesting that you are not having a problem finding Jr SWE roles. I co-run a computer science career community (CS Career Hackers) and I often get a lot of complaints by new grads about the lack of Jr roles.

• by zombieprocesses on 3/21/18, 10:40 PM

  Congratulations on your new career.

  On a side note, anyone else a bit worried that there being a tech or economic bubble? Reading this thread, I can't help but be reminded of the dotcom bubble when everyone was getting into tech or the "I just became a realtor" craze before the housing bubble crash.

  Anyone maintain a list of indicators other than S&P 500 PE ratio or the interest rate?

  I'm generally optimistic on the economy because of the tax cuts and the expected infrastructure spending, but still, don't wait to be caught with my pants down like the 2008 financial disaster.

• by jackhack on 3/21/18, 6:12 PM

  I remember that question/conversation. So pleased it worked out.

  Mind sharing a few thoughts about your experience as an "older" student? Any surprises about the coursework/assignments/fellow students?

  Comparing my oldest child's recent university experience to mine (in the 70s) it's like a different world. Much more paper submission & grading online, much more 'handholding' and support from the instructors, more teamwork assignments, less reading.

  Thanks again for the followup, and congrats!!!

• by danso on 3/21/18, 6:44 PM

  Reading this made my day. Thank you for sharing!

• by MrDam on 3/22/18, 7:31 AM

  I made the same moves last year and have no regrets. I was 28 when I quit my career in finance in May 2017. It's definitely been the hardest thing I've ever done (System's Architecture and Computer Networks) but it's been the most rewarding. I'll be finishing Year 1 of 3 this June.

• by Ftuuky on 3/21/18, 7:31 PM

  You have no idea how helpful to me it was reading your post. Congratulations my dude, godspeed!

• by overthemoon on 3/21/18, 6:07 PM

  Congratulations! Did you work full time while in school? Is this in the US or Germany? I've thought about school, I'd love to get a formal education, but I just landed my first job and I probably won't end up doing it.

• by astro_robot on 3/21/18, 7:09 PM

  Thanks for coming back and sharing your success! It's very inspiring for me. I just graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree and debating going back for a CSE Bachelor's degree but unsure if it would be worth it.

• by joslin01 on 3/21/18, 6:03 PM

  Nice job, comp sci degree is not easy but man does it set you up for success

• by antonius on 3/21/18, 6:06 PM

  Good job. I received a degree in finance and ended up not wanting to go into banking so I went back and got my CS degree. Like you said, looking back it was definitely worth all the time and effort.

• by d--b on 3/21/18, 6:34 PM

  Awesome. Congrats!

  That said, it was kind of clear from your original post that you were headed in the right direction! Hell, just reading/asking Hacker news meant you already had two feet in the community :-)

• by stevepm on 3/21/18, 6:40 PM

  If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your degree?

• by 0xdeadbeefbabe on 3/21/18, 11:21 PM

  I'd rather think about an interesting problem than think about career building. I thought this was a common problem, but this thread is sure different.

• by kyoji on 3/21/18, 6:47 PM

  Thanks for sharing this, I just turned 30 and started a CompSci Master's track 1.5 years ago. Very encouraging to hear your success!

• by megamindbrian2 on 3/21/18, 10:54 PM

  How do you find offers when every resume submission is met with automated replies?

• by wpmoradi on 3/21/18, 7:52 PM

  This made my day, thank you! I am currently working on changing careers to CS.

• by pat_space on 3/21/18, 7:25 PM

  Way to go, my friend! Best of luck in your career and life!

• by soupflavor on 3/21/18, 10:25 PM

  Love this. Thank you for sharing. It is an inspiration!