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Comment by QuotedForTruth | Hacker News Reader

I've worked for the federal government last 10 years as a Systems Engineer on mostly software projects. My first degree is in aerospace and mechanical engineering. I've grown super tired of the slow bureaucracy and the fact that I never get to actually create or design anything beyond requirements.

I'm halfway through the 2 years it will take me to get a bachelors in CS from my original University. Im still working full time and thus I won't have any industry internships when I finish. I'll be 33 then.

Is this going to severely limit my opportunties for a first development job? Should I play down my previous experience to reduce the middle aged junior problem? Any advice will be appreciated.

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I was in civil service for the DoD including time as a system engineer for NAVAIR at Pax River from 2012-2017. I had an undergrad degree in MechEng and finished an MSCS in 2016 at age 33. In 2017 I moved to SV and last week I started a new job as an ML engineer at a FAANG company. I don’t know if a second BS is better/worse than MS, but it is definitely possible to switch.

So far, I feel conspicuously older than most folks in my group, and I’ve effectively rebooted my career so I don’t have the same seniority and professional network I had in civil service. I worked around the middle-aged junior problem by taking small contract remote work at below my normal pay rate to bank some experience. I’m still comparatively inexperienced (and the offers I get reflect that), but I’m not being paid like a new grad or anything, so I feel like I have time to work up.

Wow. Thats a pretty parallel path. Thanks for replying. I thought about doing an MS but didn't feel qualified since I hadn't covered much in undergrad and it was so long ago. I've thought about switching now that I've taken a significant amount of the CS core curriculum, but it would add an additional year at least to this whole process.

How did you go about getting the contract work? A service like upwork or similar?

I took a side-gig as a TA in grad school and eventually that led to networking that connected me to some small-scale remote work opportunities. I’d be willing to try something like upwork these days though.

I'm in a similar situation. My first degree was in Finance and I'm currently getting a second degree in CS.

I'll be finishing my degree this fall and will be 31. I work in Finance now in a sort of 'tech-adjacent' systems analyst and business intelligence position.

If I remember, I'll follow up this post in a few months with how my job search is going. I'll begin searching around June in the Philadelphia area.

I had a few interviews last year and have gone to one or two tech meet-ups, and I'm reasonably optimistic that my age won't be much of a deterrent. Most people I've spoken with like the diversity of my background and the obvious passion I have for CS. In a sense, going back to school while working full time is an "actions speak louder than words" situation. It takes a lot of effort to get through a second degree while working full-time, and I think that speaks for itself in terms of work ethic and interest in the topic (though it doesn't hurt to highlight as well).

That being said, I still have the nagging fear of ageism affecting my job prospects. I think my work experience will lend itself well, but I'm going about this without ego. I know I'm trying to break into a field competing with many other people, so it's probably going to be a numbers game in terms of applying. I'm also a little concerned about the Philadelphia tech scene as it's not as robust as one would expect for a city this size.

I know this isn't advice, as I can't offer much, but I can commiserate in having similar feelings and concerns. My guess is that your background will ultimately assist your search (though obviously not everywhere). The one piece of advice I can offer is to start applying early, if only to get interviewing experience and knock off the rust. You said you've been in your current role for 10 years -- has it also been 10 years since you've had a proper job interview?

If you want to chat further or even just bounce ideas around, I'm happy to chat further. What city are you based out of?

I'm in Orlando (also a pretty meager tech scene) but I'm pretty willing to move for the right opportunity. And yes its been that long for a job interview too.

You would think that it would be more of a plus than a negative, but the stories of ageism are pretty frequent. We may not be experienced devs, but we are experienced workers. We know how to work in professional teams and deliver to deadlines. And as you said, going to school and working full time is not trivial.

Applying early and often is definitely good advice. I'm on r/cscareerquestions a lot, but it tends to be very new traditional new grad focused. We need a community for potential and current middle aged juniors!

Prior experience is good. I mainly care about internships because I don't want to deal with a recent college grad who has no concept of the world beyond the classroom. Prior experience serves the same purpose.

If you're looking for a job at a FANG company or similar, start preparing for job interviews by practicing algorithm and data structures interview questions. Solve problems with a pen and paper, or better yet, at a whiteboard. Practice walking through your solutions out loud. It's all a bit silly, but if you can do this well, you'll find a job in today's market.

You're right. It's all a bit silly.

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