HN Explorer

I'm 50, can I find a computer job? Some Elixir for getting Agile or Lean?

19 points by nottoday88 ↗ HN
One thing I can say in my favour is that I'm a deep thinker, I try to understand and grok what is needed. What kind of computer related job would benefit from a deep thinker?,

How could I sell or promote this ability?

17 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 50.9 ms ] thread
nottoday88
To be brutally honest, waiting for feedback stole my needed snap for deep thinking.
tomcam
To be brutally honest, you may have illustrated your own problem. I'm in my mid 50s and have always, always studied hard for my next job. I strongly suggest you either work diligently on someone else's project on GitHub or you create and publish something important to you, even if you might not get paid for it. The simple fact is, we old guys are like women or blacks--we have to be better than the average candidate to get the same consideration. Not a nice situation, but it's always been true. I have known this for 30 years and have been preparing ever since.
nottoday88
Thanks, that is a very good advice. Quoting Louis Pasteur Chance favors only the prepared mind. I wish you the best with your auction enterprise.
tomcam
You're brave and took some harsh criticism well. My auction enterprise has done very, very well since I purchased it in late 2000--but I still prepare for failure every day.
eecks
I would say that all programming requires deep thinking. Do you know how to program? If not why not?

If you don't want to program you could try become a business analyst. They also require deep thinking about the business, it's needs, it's data and it's systems.

nottoday88
Thank for your opinion, just out of curiosity I was reading about the 28 questions you have posted on HN to try to guess what kind of job you do. The questions are so general that I can only imagine someone trying to learn but not specialized in anything.

I can program in many languages and I have a steady job (math associated professor with tenure in Spain).

Sometimes I think I could try to use my computer skills to create something valuable. Perhaps something related to machine learning.

CyberFonic
Seeing that you are gainfully employed in academia and with expertise in an unspecified area related to math (the vague description makes it hard to make good suggestions) I would think that you could explore commercialisation projects related to engineering, bio-engineering, etc. That is, areas that could use both your deep thinking and math abilities and open the door to industry without jumping the academic ship before there is a viable new avenue. From what I have seen both Barcelona and Madrid universities have some excellent research which might be ripe for commercialisation. Of course, you should probably explore potential projects with other universities. Academia - Industry collaborations with a view to commercialisation generally needs entrepreneurial input.
mswen
I interviewed [1] Łukasz Kidzinski and Michał Warchoł who started deepart.io. Your situation in academia and interest in possibly building something more commercial mirrors their situation in certain respects. Maybe their story will prove inspiring in some way. One of the most interesting parts of our conversation for me was how they were taking software development methods like Agile and applying them to the research they are doing in academia.

Given your age and a secure role in academia it seems to me that side projects and possibly consulting is your route into the commercial world.

[1] http://computationalimagination.com/interview_deepart.php

dc17
Thinker with an experience and knowledge in particular domain may be a very valuable employee as a visionary. Sorry, maybe it sounds very tough, but probably you haven't any chance to find a computer job at that age if you never worked in that industry before. And anyway good luck in your journey!
acangiano
Depending on your background, you could get into Data Science.
nottoday88
Recently I was reading your programmingzen blog, I think that elixir can be a good replacement for ruby and rails.
acangiano
Thank you for reading it. Feel free to email me with questions as you go through the process of moving into a career in computing.
bbcbasic
* Solution Architect would require deep thinking.

* Research Jobs. Microsoft Research for example.

* PhD - you may get some living allowance, which will allow you to 'survive" if you have no mortgage or family to support.

If you want to think deep then choose carefully who you work for. If they need to "move fast and break things" then you may not get the chance to think deep.

max_
As a Math Professor, I think you would best fit in a Machine learning/Data scientist role in any tech company.

It's where Most people of your demographic (I can think) of are.

Its also one of the most difficult fields in tech, so your "deep thinking" is an obvious advantage.

How to promote/sell your ability?

I advise you to may be get into the industry (also learn some python) http://www.deeplearningbook.org/

Write some papers on your orginal thoughts/ideas and publish them on the http://arxiv.org

pmarreck
I'm 44 and Elixir is a fine choice to start work in, although it's still a small (but growing) market. One possible impediment (for me as well) is subtle age bias- A lot of Elixir folks are really young (relative to us).

If you're great at math/linear algebra, an online certificate from one of the machine learning classes out there would probably help get your foot in the door somewhere!