Ask HN: Is 36 too old to (re)start a career in tech?

First step would be to stop looking to YC or the general VC tech sphere for any kind of validation or role modeling.

If you want to do something, have realistic expectations/goals and do it for you. Anything else is setting yourself up for failure.

At 36 you're still in your thirties, only just done being a kid. Many new engineers bring skills from previous careers over (such as communication, which I would argue is the most important skill, at least in software). So in many regards, compared to someone just starting out in their early 20s, you've actually skipped a few steps.

That said, if you're not willing to put in time _practicing_ and _learning_ in your off-hours, it will be very difficult to break through and be successful on the job at work. And to be hired, you'll need more than a generic code boot camp portfolio.

isn't the average startup founder 48 and has at least a masters degree? do whatever you want. life is short, if you want to work in tech then learn some technology stack and go work in tech. i agree with /u/halfmatthalfcat, don't care about what other people are doing, just figure out what you want to do and go do that.

I recently met someone who completely reinvented his career in his 40s, going from one very skilled artistic field (professional classical musician in NYC) to a specialized technical/construction trade in which he had absolutely no background when he started.

He said he didn't like the uncertainty of being a musician, which required constant auditions, as well as the ephemeral nature of the performances.

He started taking masonry classes, worked up to a certain grade in the specialized subfield, and pretty quickly started getting jobs. He now has more offers of work than he can take on, and is a qualified instructor.

He's 70, and he loves what he does.

I don't know about Sam Altman or whatever, but IMO the world is in desperate need of Software Engineers with perspective outside of software.

If your concern is more about whether you can actually get hired, you can.

It is never too late to start something you want to do. Never. Ray Croc was a an average mediocre salesperson until 52 when he got into the McDonald's franchising stuff. Colonel Sanders was 60+ when he started KFC. Eric Yuan was 40+ when he launched Zoom. For every example of a 20+ whizkid, there are plenty of examples of people in their 40s or later who have started something and became successful.

36, you have just graduated out of being a kid (Source: Age 42). You got plenty of time to do things. Age is not your issue. In fact, use the experience you now have to your advantage.

Find the actual source of your inferiority complex and root it out.

What have you been doing until age 36? Did you work in sales? Did you work in some other field that gave you some unique experience and skills?

Even if you feel that you have some weakness in technology, you might have some strengths that other people in technology won't have.

As somebody who's much older than 36, who also recently landed a job. My advice is don't worry about your age. The most important thing is to get out there and try. I think you'll be surprised at how much opportunity there is, regardless of your age.

This isn't magic.

Identify the skills you need. Acquire them. Identify people who need them. Show them.

Repeat until hired.

This works in every industry, to a certain extent, but in tech, it works very well.

>> Maybe I’m deluded. Perhaps 36 really is too old and that’s the harsh truth that no one has the heart to express?

Although ageism is a real thing in tech, cross-disciplined developers bring a lot of soft skills and creative solutions to teams, at any age. Many companies recognize this.

My larger concern is why you would think this at your age. I hope you don't hold hidden biases against people that are over 40 and attempting to restart their careers.

Not sure where this prevailing myth comes from. I’ve went through y combinator twice, one of the batches I was in had an average age above 36. Many have never started a startup before. Paul Graham and his cofounders were 30 and up when starting their first company and much older for y combinator.

People will doubt you if you doubt yourself.

36 is not too old for anything. Even if someone says it is, it doesn't mean you should listen to them.

IMO it is a little too late. You won’t be able to land an internship and your career path is tougher than the others. I would suggest doing freelance and see if this is something you want to do before fully committed.

I sure hope not. I did my degree in CS in 05 then burnt out, got a masters degree in counselling psychology, and have been doing outpatient since then. Recently I’ve been getting a bit bored there so I brushed up on python and picked up some freelance work on the side

It was pretty tough to get my foot in the door. I had nothing on my resume since 2007. But the abbreviated version is that I put together a portfolio and kept trying and eventually got something. Then that went well, and I got another. Hoping to keep the momentum. Will see how it goes I suppose. Keeping my practice going in a smaller capacity just in case and will maintain my license probably forever. I may go back to school as well but I’d prefer to avoid that at this age as I’m a little older than you

Man, 36 is young. I'm a self-taught programmer who started as an engineer, and although that obviously gave me a huge leg up, I started at the bottom as a Junior dev. I was about your age when I took my first coding interview.

The harsh truth is actually that you could do a computer science undergrad, complete a master's degree, and start a PhD, and still be younger than I am now!

I know two guys who were in non-tech field their whole life and successfully switched to software engineering in their fifties (so about 15 years older than you). They started as QA engineers and then switched to software development after a few years.

So I don't think it's impossible.

Are you serious? Age has nothing to do with it. If you put obstacles in your own way and read nonsense by people who feel backwards into success at a young age you will fail, regardless of age.

The average age of a business founder in America: 45.

https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes...

Who cares what you think Paul Graham or San Altman might think? Do you imagine they solely have the power to decide who succeeds or fails, or what age you can decide what to do? One thing successful people don’t do is worry about what other people might think.

Tech is entirely a mental game. It's not a sport, where athletes hit their prime in their late 20s, nor is it like mathematics, where peak research seems to happen in their 20s and 30s. You can literally sit in a chair all day and type, and produce a billion-dollar company.

I started a career in tech several years ago when I was 35, so I think it's definitely possible for someone just a year older than that.

Unfortunately, now, I want to get out of tech, or transfer from ecommerce to a utility company or something. Having a classic mid-life crisis where I look back and think "boy, tech hasn't been terribly fulfilling."

No.

Lots of people feel that way, but that feeling is an inaccurate representation of reality.

Someone at 36 has at least 2x more work ahead of them than behind them.

They do need to pick their work and projects carefully. Thirties is when it is fair to expect that someone knows their own self to a degree, has some basis for understanding the perspectives of others, is responsible about commitments, knows to a degree what they know/can do and don't know/shouldn't do, when working with others. In short, an adult.

An adult tackling a problem in a responsible way is how things in the world actually get done. Welcome! You are now in that club.

There are many lucky savant children in the world, who are good at one thing and idiots at many, and for whom drama is a way of life. One of the joys of working with adults is just not having the drama, staying focused on the issue at hand.

Those trajectory tropes are just fairy tale narratives crafted by publicists to instill a sense of awe and reverence, just like you fell for. Zuckerberg is the closest we have to a failed example of this, only because he's been under the spotlight since he was a teen. Do you think if you'd grown up with Altman, had to listen to him chew or watched him struggle to fit in with his classmates, he would still glow with such heavenly light in your eyes?

Many of my clients didn't pick up steam for their biggest projects until they were in their 50s, 60s, or even 70s, because that just happened to be the age that they started feeling like they had to start working towards them.

Put differently, you're going to turn 37 whether or or not you try, so wouldn't you rather be older and at least have tried doing tech?

Potential is worthless, otherwise we'd be ruled by burned out child geniuses.

No. But you're sabotaging yourself if you're thinking you're too old.

FWIW, I am much older than you and retiring soon and am contemplating a career change. My grandfather went from sales to programming in his early 70s and made a literal fortune[1] contracting.

1. Many millions USD, doing programming on IBM platforms around Y2K. Coincidentally, 2036 [2] and 2038 [3] are coming up.

2. http://www.lieberbiber.de/2017/03/14/a-look-at-the-year-2036...

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

People don't want to hear this but: it depends how smart you are. A smart 36 yo with a reasonably quantitative background (training or career) can become a competent software engineer quite quickly. Most people cannot.