Ask HN: Is there a path to employment for a 30 yr old, career-change programmer | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is there a path to employment for a 30 yr old, career-change programmer

3 pointsthrowaway17_172 comments

So, after looking through the last few who’s hiring and who’s looking for work, I find myself wondering if there is any viable path for an most 40 yr old, self-taught programmer, with advanced degrees not in CS. Part of the issue may be that I am not interested in Web based programming, which seems to be, by a huge margin, the place jobs happen.

So, am I stuck in my current job (which isn’t horrible or anything), or is there a place for people like me in the industry.

The following are a few specifics about me, in case that would alter your advice or opinions: - Currently a practicing lawyer in the US - Competent in several languages, like C, Assembly, Haskell, ML (not Ocaml fluent though), and at least familiar with vanilla JS - non-professional experience is mostly in graphics, compilers, and language design/implementation - I live in the Southern US

I would think so.

The web is kind of the lingua-franca of the public facing world, so it is no surprise that that is where most of the job ad's are.

However I think that there is a growing need for experienced programmers who are also well-versed in one or more problem-domain areas, like law in your case.

The problem here is that often employers are not aware they need you, so it takes more of an proactive approach to find them. Network, get to know their challenges, show them how you could help.

Speaking as a 50-something engineer with over 30 years of development experience, but no degree, I can only say this: I have no problem at all getting excellent development positions.

But from what I've heard from colleagues my age, it depends a lot on what specialty you're into, what part of the world you're looking at, what companies you'd consider, and how up-to-date your skillset is.

I find that very experienced developers are in huge demand -- we're a shrinking group, and have knowledge and skills that are pretty rare in the younger crowd. But that demand is often not in the normal places that you may think of. Good places to look include industries that aren't directly software-oriented. Most largish businesses need developers, even if what they are in business to do isn't software development.

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