Ask HN: Is there life after 40? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is there life after 40?

8 pointsn0tme5 comments

I am not 40 yet, only turned 36 couple of days ago. However, I am desperate and in need of advice.

I think I made a mistake when I was younger and chose a career path of a database administrator, even though I always enjoyed programming more. Moreover, I still do some programming, mostly for fun: little side projects, some codewars, some codefights, screeps. I really enjoy working with JavaScript and it's infrastructure: git, npm and all that. I also have experience with a lot of other languages, like PHP, python, basic/vb, pascal/delphi, c++ and do lot of shell scripting, PL/SQL programming, SQL and SQL tuning at work.

The problem is, I am 36. I can not switch jobs, because it would mean to get back to junior salaries, which really looks like a super bad option and bad decision + there would probably be more yesterday students, who would be happy to get this junior role.

So what I wanted to ask is what would you do if you were me. Please, do not tell me to kill myself or keep rotting at my current job/position/career path.

Thank'all.

I'm 36 as well, I've always worked as software engineer (full stack, but front end oriented), and last year I changed role. I was lucky enough to be contacted by one of the big tech giants, and I discovered that the evolution of a software engineer could be picked among a number of different options.

I think your premise is wrong: "I can not switch jobs because it would mean to get back to junior salary". Why do you think that?

Of course, part of the equation is also your location. I don't know where you live, but if you're willing to move, you probably can find a lot of opportunities to sell your senior experience.

It's not really clear what is the advice you're looking for. - Do you like your job? Stick to it and grow in your current role. - Do you like your job but not your company? Change company! - Do you want to switch to another job? Well, you probably won't choose something super different (e.g. a doctor!) but you with your experience you could apply for team leading roles, sofware (or infrastructure) architect, production engineer, developer advocate, partner engineer, etc.

My suggestion is to understand exactly what is your need / problem here, and to give it a name. Then start from there. You're a programmer, think analytically :) And don't think about bad choices (I don't think it was a bad choice, though) you can change what's next but not what you already did (yeah apologies for the philosophical sentence, but that's it)

I'm not going to tell you to keep rotting at your current career/path, however I am going to say this could be a good opportunity to perhaps start your own side gig. Small projects for smaller clients, depending on the amount of free time you have. Considering you already have a job, you wouldn't be losing any money and maybe, just maybe it will blossom into it's own thing where you won't need the database admin job anymore. I say this as a 40-year-old, employed full-time in IT Consulting who's decided to finally get around to making comics and graphic novels.

There's lots of code that puts data in databases and gets data out of databases. That code is usually intimately involved with the database schema. I suspect that you could get a job doing that without having to go back to junior salaries... but not necessarily at your current company.

You also might not be able to do it in JavaScript. You might have to use Java or C#.

You might look around at your current situation. Identify the people who write code that interacts with your databases. Ask their manager/lead (and your own) if you can, part time, work with that team, or if you can transition to working on it full time.

Build build build. I don't mean a little side project like you're already doing. I mean build something substantial. Clone something on the App Store. Write your own Twitter client. Create a replacement for a SASS product you admire. Whatever, doesn't matter.

Why? Because you need experience and you aren't going to get that looking for a new job. You need the experience first so you can get that new job. Once you have demonstrable skills, try to pick up a freelance client or two. Then you can decide if you like freelancing or want to apply for a salaried position.

"I can not switch jobs" - yes you can.

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