Ask HN: Advise for career changer in mid-thirties | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Advise for career changer in mid-thirties

9 pointsroronoa17 comments

Hi HN, I would like to ask for your advice. I see a lot of information for younger people but not as much for older career changers. I am a former chemical engineer turned programmer a couple of years ago, currently doing web development full time (Python/Django)

I have been trying to compensate for my lack of formal training by following the Stanford CS program as many courses are available online. I can’t believe all those excellent courses are available for free (thanks Coursera!). In particular I have been enjoying the lower level stuff compared to my day-to-day job as a web dev. The cryptography, networks, algorithms, FP and compilers courses have all been real eye openers for me (look mom, built a compiler!).

Anyway, I don’t have any mentors or the like to bounce my ideas, so that’s why I am posting here. I am thinking about contributing to open source projects to get more experience, and perhaps switching jobs to something related to my new interests?

I am also thinking about focusing on newer fields, where you are not expected to have 10 years of experience to get in the door. List includes: security (not easy, but very interested, I think I can leverage my web dev background, probably will start the Matasano challenges soon), SDN, cryptocurrencies…got to focus…but definitely not chasing the next web framework…

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

I would strongly recommend reading Clay Christensen's book How will you measure your life? He discusses a general approach to working out what you want to do with your life without telling you what he thinks you should do.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Will-Measure-Your-Life/dp/006220...

Thanks, will check it out. Had no idea that the author of the Innovator's dilemma had a book like this...

As a former Chemical Engineer who switch from Petrochemical to Technology over a decade ago in mid-30s, a few suggestions:

1. Get a MS in CS (part-time) degree. It will go a long way in solidifying your role in technology industry specially if you want to be in development and as individual contributor.

2. You have another 15 years of runway before you are considered as "over-the-hill" if you remain in development and as individual contributor. Focus on maximizing income, maximizing savings, building "expertise" that you can later leverage as consultant, building persona, and building "revenue generating" side projects.

3. Don't chase the next "fad" instead focus on an established and growing domain such as data science, security etc. which you expect to be around with demand for next couple of decades. Think of in terms of what is the outlook for next 20 years instead of whether entry requires 10 years experience. Pick one and stick with it for next 10 years at least.

4. Be visible in the domain you chose. For example, through conferences, books, articles, blogs, open source contributions, and discussion lists.

Thanks for the good advice, especially #2, I need to start seriously working on the income/savings side. There's food on the table for the family, but need to save more for these 15 years for sure...

I looked into doing an MS, but I already have one (obviously not in CS) and with all the information and tools freely available now...I am leaning towards building stuff and using it as leverage for #4.

I am after the skills more than after the degree, I can move much faster that way. If a field really needs the degree I will try another one, this strategy worked with web development, so I will try that first and see.

I used to lead development in an image processing company. I can tell you that anyone with interest and skills in low-level programming is hard to come by, so when we found it, we were interested.

From Matasano's careers page, I understand that they feel the same way about crypto. Are you in one of NYC, SF, or Chicago -- if so, I would just apply there.

I am in Australia...so no Matasano for me.

Honestly, I had been thinking about getting a little more experience before applying to companies like that, but you have a good point.

Use interviews to find your weak points and get practice. You don't want to come across your perfect job and have that be your first interview.

For my part, when I look at low-level programmers, I really just want to make sure they have a handle on pointers and the allocator, stack vs. heap, strategies for making that understandable (RAII in C++ or reference counting for example), how to debug access violation (and what it really means). Most everything else can be taught.

Also, for crypto, there are lots of entry-points for web developers -- web penetration is a big part of it.

Good tips, thanks. I haven't really interviewed in a while.

I am looking at pentesting as a potential next step. Based on my initial research it seems doable and might lead to good opportunities down the road...

Whereabouts in Aus are you?

I'm in a vaguely similar boat. Electronic Engineer, doing low-level software for the last decade, and now having to pivot to more web stuff, because there's little other work where I am. And yes, also in mid-thirties.

Might be interesting to talk f2f if you're local?

Melbourne...

I am kind of approaching this from the opposite direction (looking for lower level stuff, but not really embedded either)

I think there's an opportunity for knowing both (IoT, and things like that), but definitely more action on the web stuff in general.

Might be interesting to share tips and strategies. My email is on the profile.

I am in somewhat of the same boat, being an embedded developer wanting to get into cloud computing / web development.

I've had lots of callbacks and a few interviews, but no big breaks so far. It's been pretty tough on my ego.

My only advice is to stick with it, as when you do find a place that's willing to look for someone with interests and drive rather than if they're used the latest toolkit, you'll probably find that they have other positive qualities as well. At least, that's what I've been telling myself.

> At least, that's what I've been telling myself.

You and me both...

Good points, it definitely took a lot of effort to switch into web development.

There is a lot of good information here in HN for web/cloud stuff, that's how I started in web development (and doing all courses/projects I could get my hands on)

After that, I started doing freelance work on Elance, for next to nothing initially but it picked up really fast.

For cloud/web development there are a lot of meetups depending on where you are as well.

If you have some questions about the web side of it you can contact me on the email in the HN profile...

If I may ask, what is your motivation for transitioning from embedded to cloud/web?

Local Meetups would be an ideal place to network with others in this field, chances are-- they would know of potential job openings > http://www.meetup.com/OWASP-Sydney-Web-Application-Security-...

Also, http://www.meetup.com/Sydney-Information-Security-Profession...

Yes, I will be attending all meetups I can find on security, but haven't found many options here in Melbourne (those two are in Sydney). Here I've found a local OWASP and Ruxcon, but they are not that frequent.

This is very different from the web development world, where you can find dozens of relevant meetups every month. I guess that's part of learning a new area, perhaps security people use a different channel to connect, we'll see...

I just wanted to add that with your background you might consider working with GE and their new cloud/Internet tech: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527381/ges-1-billion-so...

Also, SAP is huge in the chemical industry.

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