

Ask HN: How to get a programming job after a year away? - norbertweiner

I would like to take a year away from programming to write a book. It's sort of about programming, but not really. Is there a way that I can ensure that I can get another programming job when I'm done?
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rada
I've taken a couple 2-year breaks from programming - once to start a company,
and another time for personal reasons. Like you, I didn't not know how the
time gap itself and the reasons for it would affect my conversations with
potential employers. Well, turns out it's a non-issue. I've never had a
conversation about it one way or another - every employer that I've talked to
only cared about my skills. In particular, I had thought that being a former
startup founder would raise some red flags (would she fit in at a "desk" job
etc) but like I said, it's never even come up. That's one of the perks of
being a programmer I guess - if you have the skills, you have the skills.

Just out of curiosity - what is your book about?

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exline
I don't anticipate it being an issue at all. I've been involved in the hiring
processes, and I don't care about gaps. What I care about is skill set and
personality. It doesn't matter to me if you took 10 years off, if you had the
skills and personality I wanted, I would hire you.

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noodle
you'll be fine. the underlying skills and abilities that make you good at
coding won't disappear with disuse.

just be honest to future employers about what happened during that time, and
if you feel its necessary, start doing some personal projects to ramp up your
skillset again and have some recent coding experience/examples before you
interview.

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gaius
If it gets published, you'll have no trouble at all. If not, say you were
"traveling".

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borisk
Start an open source project related to the book.

