
Ask HN: Is there a path to employment for a 30 yr old, career-change programmer - throwaway17_17
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.<p>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.<p>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&#x2F;implementation
  - I live in the Southern US
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jascii
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.

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JohnFen
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.

