
Ask HN: My 56-year-old father is a developer having a tough time finding a job - luisivan
Hi everyone,<p>My father, who is a 56-years old software engineer and introduced me to software development, got unemployed some months ago and is having an extremely tough time getting a job here in Spain.<p>In his whole life he has worked as a developer, businessmen and executive at various companies such as Xerox.
However, he went the developer path these past decades instead of moving on to something more &#x27;senior oriented&#x27; such as being a project manager.<p>He has been always learning new stuff, so right now he has a MongoDB certification and is totally fluent in Django. But most of the companies he applies to just see his age and step back.
And I&#x27;m also worried because here in Spain large companies are seeing the crisis and the really high youth unemployment as an opportunity to hire youngsters under really poor conditions, and they can actually hire five young developers for the price of one senior dev.<p>So I&#x27;m not really sure how I can help him, I actually know a lot of people in the startup ecosystem but startups usually want people in their 20s and 30s. I have also read a lot of posts regarding &#x27;old developers&#x27;, and he has read them as well.<p>He has a fresh mindset, wants to move to another city&#x2F;country if it&#x27;s required, and has tons of experience, so it&#x27;s very hard for me to see him having this tough time... Any tip would be very helpful<p>Thanks a lot
======
lacker
"Spain" seems like the magic phrase here. Unemployment in Spain is 24.5% right
now.

[https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&e...](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=spain%20unemployment%20rate)

Meanwhile unemployment in the UK is 6.2% right now.

[https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&e...](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=england+unemployment+rate)

I suggest looking for a job in London. A lot of tech companies are hiring
there.

~~~
zerr
>Unemployment in Spain is 24.5% right now.

Yes, but AFAIK developers are exceptions - at least in Catalonia. Especially
experienced ones. Depends on how much salary is acceptable. As I researched,
for senior devs, it is 35-45K EUR/annual, which is rather low... He may as
well consider consulting.

~~~
Kurtz79
Unfortunately it seems to me that consulting is not really a thing in Spain.

There are a lot of consulting jobs, but they are usually the domain of
consulting companies (known as "cárnicas", meat factories, among developers),
that do little more than acting as a middlemen between the hire and the actual
company, pocketing the substantial difference between the consulting fees and
paid salary.

But I work in a more traditional environment and possibly this is different in
the case of web development.

~~~
pt765756
> There are a lot of consulting jobs, but they are usually the domain of
> consulting companies (known as "cárnicas", meat factories, among
> developers), that do little more than acting as a middlemen between the hire
> and the actual company, pocketing the substantial difference between the
> consulting fees and paid salary.

This also describes the situation in Portugal almost perfectly with the
difference that we call those companies "negreiros" (slave traders).

------
flinkblinkhink
The advice is the same to everyone. Work hard on personal projects, get them
online and live and running and impressive. Join a well known open source
project and do 200 commits. Tweet, blog regularly. Prove you know your stuff.

Same advice for everyone. Almost no one does this stuff and those that do
greatly increase their chance of getting work.

People sit around hoping not to have to do the hard yards, hoping they'll
somehow be given a job. In 2014 you have to make it happen through active,
public work.

If you build enough of an online reputation then you'll get work without even
meeting people and they wouldn't know if you were an 80 year old giraffe.

~~~
zerr
The thing is, if I have some interesting personal project that is useful for
some group of people - I'd make a small business from it rather than dumping
it online and just mentioning it on my CV ;)

~~~
mqsiuser
No! - You likely won't, because of Spolsky [1]

And... your parent commenter is right: "When it comes to hiring, I'll take a
Github commit log over a resume any day.", jeresig [2]

[1] The development abstraction layer
([http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/DevelopmentAbstractio...](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/DevelopmentAbstraction.html))

[2] John Resig on Twitter
([https://twitter.com/jeresig/status/33968704983138304](https://twitter.com/jeresig/status/33968704983138304))

~~~
zerr
At least you should try. Maybe start small (and stay small..), there is always
some path to escape from cubicle nation.. ;)

As for "github is your CV" hype:

[http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-
an...](http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-and-the-oss-
community)

[https://blog.jcoglan.com/2013/11/15/why-github-is-not-
your-c...](https://blog.jcoglan.com/2013/11/15/why-github-is-not-your-cv/)

~~~
mqsiuser
On "the ethics of unpaid labor": YOU haven't been to a good university ?

And on "Why github is not your CV": Your animated gif is not advancing the
discussion AND nobody said that github=yourCV.

You can bend reality (to your favour) but just not too much!

~~~
zerr
> Your animated gif is not advancing the discussion

Hmm, sorry, when I opened it used to be an article actually (and it is not
mine). Here is the cache:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yFBroqO...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yFBroqO-1nkJ:https://blog.jcoglan.com/2013/11/15/why-
github-is-not-your-cv/)

>You can bend reality (to your favour) but just not too much!

This might be reality in some hipster web startup scene. I'm glad I'm not in
that domain.

~~~
mqsiuser
The URL _is_ valid (copy and paste or type it in).

BUT: If you go there from HN he dispays just the gif

Wow, ... he seems to protect his article from the HN-crowd :-D

------
mark_l_watson
I don't know if his will help:

I am 63, and I realize that I might not be as effective as I once was. What I
do is offer a really low rate for telecommuting from home, and a much larger
rate when working on site. So, for the last many years, I work cheaply from
home and occasionally work on site (most recently at Google) for a much better
consulting rate.

I don't know if your father has the financial flexibility to follow my plan,
but it works for me.

~~~
gridspy
Don't undersell your experience. You might not realise it, but occasionally an
insight to use a particular approach might shave days to weeks off the
development timescale.

It's not all about how fast you can hammer out bits and bytes.

~~~
snarfy
"Weeks of programming can save hours of planning."

This is where experience really counts. Younger developers who don't know any
better will invent another logging framework, I guarantee it.

~~~
joslin01
Haha, I did this (created another logging framework) at 23. It was a plugin-
driven Python framework and it was beautiful (at the time), but was it
necessary? Most probably, certainly not. Ah but I loved writing it. Really
made me a better coder.

------
mblevin
Remote work online is absolutely going to be his best bet, and it will pay
better.

Check out:

[https://weworkremotely.com/](https://weworkremotely.com/)

[http://hnhiring.com/](http://hnhiring.com/) (search for "remote")

[http://remotenation.co/blog/top-5-sites-for-finding-a-
remote...](http://remotenation.co/blog/top-5-sites-for-finding-a-remote-
developer-or-designer-job)

~~~
IndianAstronaut
Are those sites good for those looking for part time remote work?

~~~
rmetzler
[https://gun.io/](https://gun.io/)

------
albertoavila
Drop me a line at my username @gmail.com if he would consider working for a
startup based on SF but with its engineering team based on Guadalajara,
México. We mostly do django, flask and angularjs and are not worried on
getting someone with his experience on our team.

~~~
idontcache
Any chance I can shoot you an email too? I'm currently living in Guadalajara
and looking for a new gig.

~~~
JoshTriplett
> I'm currently living in Guadalajara and looking for a new gig.

Drop me an email; we're hiring.

~~~
josu
I'm currently living in Mexico City. I'm surprised to see these many startups
in Gudalajara, and yours are not certainly the first ones that I read about.
Is Guadalajara becoming the Silicon Valley/SF of Mexico? What are the reasons
to establish your startups there?

~~~
albertoavila
GDL has a thriving technical community and getting bigger every day, the
founder of the startup for which i work for has an special interest on making
Guadalajara Mexico's technological hub and wants to create success stories to
bring more inversion and companies to the city.

I think a big advantage of Guadalajara over Mexico City is that it's a big
enough city without the downsides of a huge metropolis, and is very affordable
for engineers to live on pretty good areas, i bike about 10 minutes to work
every day and love it.

------
steven2012
I'm not convinced that 56 is that old for companies, especially large ones.
I'm not sure this is anything more than the current financial problems that
Spain is experiencing. There is 25% unemployment and many banks have
purportedly been teetering on collapse. There simply may not be jobs available
for him in Spain, unfortunately.

His best bet is to move around in the EU, and go to a country that is willing
to hire him. Place like UK, France are likely doing better than Spain is, and
will probably have more jobs.

~~~
luisivan
Totally agree, the thing with countries like France is the language barrier.
But he is fluent with English, so I may tell him to apply for UK jobs as well.
Thanks!

~~~
shebson
Berlin may be worth considering as well. Opportunities for developers in
Berlin are comparatively plentiful, and while it would be nice to know German
if you live there, many tech companies in Berlin use English as the official
language because employees come from so many places around the EU and the
world.

~~~
luisivan
That's good to know, weren't aware of that

------
_dps
I may be able to help. As a fellow Southern European (living in California), I
make it a point to try to help people from that region with employment where I
can.

I employ people (fully remotely) all over the world, and I help several other
companies do the same (I assume basic professional/IT English). I'm not
actively hiring right now, but I know a few companies who are.

My email is in my profile. Best of luck regardless.

~~~
luisivan
He just emailed you, thanks anyway :)

------
MicroBerto
This is crazy. Were I hiring, I'd kill to have someone that experienced and
with likely far fewer "life liabilities" (I'm doubting he's going to start
having babies or go absolutely insane over some girl he can't get out of his
mind... or disappear playing video games for two weeks straight)

Have him keep at it. Someone will appreciate what he's got.

~~~
humanrebar
Your intention is probably admirable (reassuring someone about a rough
situation), but your list of life liabilities basically appeal to other
prejudices based on age, gender, and possibly relationship status.

I'm not particularly impressed by this logic.

~~~
collyw
Its reality though.

The age group of my current workplace probably averages early 30's, and we
have a lot of people taking time off to have babies. I seem to be the only
person that does any work a lot of the time.

~~~
illumen
I bet you pay more tax than them too for the benefit of doing all their work.
But the world needs more babies! Um... no it doesn't.

~~~
collyw
The continual growth economic paradigm requires more babies.

------
ctdonath
Everyone's going to advise leading-edge technology options.

Consider the other extreme: long-established businesses are desperate for
developers capable of working on _old_ systems like COBOL, 370 Assembler, etc.
His "tons of experience" mean he is familiar with old-school tools & mindset,
things which new developers can't fathom in a world of smartphones & clouds.
Such developers made a pile of money 15 years ago when a burst of manpower was
needed to solve the then-looming "Y2K bug"; those talents are still very much
in demand, and there's a lot fewer developers able & willing to work on those
systems.

Mainframe developers are still needed. Society isn't creating any more of
them. Supply + demand = write your own check in this niche, so long as you'll
work on anything anywhere.

------
atlantic
Your father should try to find development work online. Nobody cares about
your age, or even your qualifications. It's all about your track record and
your capacity to get things done. It takes a while to get your first few gigs,
but once you build up a small client base, work goes smoothly.

~~~
nlh
Have any good resources to suggest? (aside from oDesk, where I sense it's
become a race to the bottom price-wise.)

~~~
atlantic
Don't think in terms of offering the lowest price. When you are selling your
services online, price also tells the client how much your work is worth.
Never compete on price, just ask for whatever you think is fair, given your
knowledge and experience. I work on oDesk, and I've always obtained well-paid
work. Just a question of patience and establishing a reputation.

~~~
collyw
Getting a reputation would seem to invove doing at least a few projects at a
crappy rate from what I gather.

~~~
atlantic
You can start off at, say, half your target rate, and/or on smaller projects
than you would usually take on. Once you have two or three decent
recommendations under your belt, then your online career will take off.

~~~
johntaek
You don't have any contact info in your profile. I would like to run some
questions past you, if you have the time?

------
zubairq
Ask him to email me. I have 100% success rate to find people like your father
jobs, and I do not charge them anything, in fact I will pay him $1000 if I
can't find him a job. zq@nemcv.com. I have helped other people on hacker news
and never failed yet

How do I do this? Because I change the mindset away from looking for a job
based on skills to showing the value your father can add to a company

~~~
philbarr
Wow that sounds great! Could you maybe provide some examples of how you did
that? It might be really useful...

~~~
zubairq
Sure. You or your father are welcome to join the Google Group and we can work
through until your dad has a job. I will post my phone number in there so that
I can talk to your father directly too:

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nemcv](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nemcv)

------
dalys
We, Lifesum, are located in Stockholm and are looking all over the place for a
senior backend engineer that can work with Python / Django! Please have him
take a look at: [http://jobs.lifesum.com/jobs/1103-senior-platform-backend-
py...](http://jobs.lifesum.com/jobs/1103-senior-platform-backend-python-
engineer) and see if it's a good fit.

Feel free to contact me (info in profile) regarding any questions. :)

------
haddr
Spanish market is really tough these days, but it is possible to get a job. \-
there are many possibilities in Madrid and Barcelona. Consider relocation. \-
knowing Java or PHP can help further increasing possible job opportunities. I
hardly hear that someone is looking for MongoDB developer. \- person with such
experience is probably considered by HR to be demanding in terms of salary. I
would not advise asking for more than 35k€. \- Also there might be a question:
why still developer. I suppose there is a convincing explanation for that! (I
also know many >40 years old people beeing developers). \- have a look at
banks. santander & bbva usualy have some job offers. either directly or
through some consulting company.

I hope your dad will finaly get some nice job!

-

------
jwaldrip
I would suggest he start contributing to open source. Write a fea utility
libraries or even a few general purpose applications. Being able to point
people to a github with work to show off some skills can be integral to how
employers view your technical aptitude.

~~~
informatimago
I'm all in favor of free(dom) software, but you still have to feed your
family, and until farmers (1% of the population) and transporter (another few
percentage of the population) can work and deliver food for $free, us
programmers won't be able to provide (all) our software for $free either. Not
counting the taxes that also have to be paid.

For this reason, I'm in favor of the universal revenue, lifetime income,
citizen income, whatever you call it.

------
fasteo
This whole thread made my day. It is heartwarming to see so many people trying
to help here.

------
joshcrowder
Has he looked into finance? The UK banking scene is predominately in his age
group (not that it matters). I'm 24 and worked in a team of people ranging
from 30-60 i suppose. Also the sector is moving towards noSQL so it could be a
good fit

~~~
sgt101
Please tell me that the banks are not running Mongo?

~~~
hyperliner
Banks are running MongoDB. The issue is not the industry, the issue is the
problem they are trying to solve for in the app. I am sure banks have social
applications too. Clearly, they won't be using it for financial transactions,
as those probably are running on some mainframe.

Just like I hope that [your favorite social startup] does not have my user
information in MongoDB. I don't want to lose my [points | badges | messages |
likes | some other mundane detail that I cannot live without in my first world
problem kind of way.

------
juanre
Contact me if you want me to show his CV around HP's lab in Barcelona. Hope it
works out well for him!

~~~
collyw
Can I contact you? Only just turned 40, but I am based in Barcelona and
looking for a new job.

~~~
juanre
Of course!

------
4ad
I don't understand the reluctance of the industry to hire old people. I am
young, and I love working with old people. They know their craft so well, they
have so much experience, they have seen everything; they _do stuff_.

For comparison, I don't like working with young people. Always excited about
new technologies, but they usually have no experience in anything and manage
to delay every project and make a mess out of it. And there's also the meta-
activities associated with young age. We don't just work, but we do all kind
of meaningless forced social crap and boast about life and show our gadgets.

With older people, it's much more professional. It's just professional work,
which gets done, and doesn't expand into our private lives.

------
codegeek
What about freelancing ? Try and connect with people you know who might be
looking for a developer like him. If he knows Python/Django, I am sure there
are lot of freelance opportunities. Also ask him to post in the Monthly HN
thread of freelancers.

~~~
luisivan
Yeah, that's what he's trying to do, but at least here in Spain both Python
and MongoDB are still considered as 'young technologies for startups' that
aren't usually seen in the enterprise or in the normal freelance jobs.

Anyway, thanks for the tip about the Monthly HN thread - he will definitely
post there :)

------
Mandatum
Unfortunately if he can't get a job that pays what he's asking for based on
experience, he'll need to lower his rate. Outside of getting into a more
"senior" orientated industry as joshcrowder has suggested, banking, finance,
etc.

However Xerox itself is a very senior-orientated company, at least here in New
Zealand. Has he reached out to his network to see if there are any positions
going where he'll get a palm greased?

~~~
luisivan
That was really funny because he almost went to work to Xerox New Zealand when
he was an executive. He has been trying to contact people from his network,
but they have all changed from company, role and even industry (most of his
contacts are from a couple decades ago)

~~~
Mandatum
Haha, well the work environment at Xerox here in New Zealand is actually
really good. Too bad he didn't, I've met with a lot of their senior engineers
(also at Konica) and they're extremely knowledgeable and friendly.

Unfortunately the pay would likely be why he turned it down.

~~~
luisivan
I think it was more the fact that he got married and had two child than the
pay

~~~
Mandatum
Perfect reason to move here. :P

------
le_doude
I left Italy because I was looking at a future in which I would have been one
of those 5 young devs that got hired instead of someone like your dad.

I am still young and am always relocating to find better projects and
conditions, and its been working for me in this past 5 years. But now I know
that there is also a lot of companies out there that are willing to hire
people from across the globe and let them work remotely.

Those jobs are not easy to find, and are a small minority in the job market,
but they are a beacon of hope for really good devs for which relocating is not
an option. You (royal you ... which means potentially your dad) will generally
get good money but might have to set up your own taxes, insurances and
benefits, so it's not as hassle free as just being a normal employee.

Relocation, IMO, is always an option. Just speaking English is enough ... and
English is not hard.

~~~
luisivan
Yeah, these kind of jobs are hard to find. Well, he is actually willing to
relocate and he speaks English, so let's hope that works out

------
misulicus
I can totally understand how hard can it be. I`m 28 years old from Romania and
looking for an IT related job. Its difficult and for me because i never had a
9-5 job. Always worked from home as a freelancer since college so i got no
past experience and no one hires you without 2 years or more experience :(

~~~
illumen
So you've been working since 20? That sounds like 8 years experience to me.
Maybe you just need to sell it differently.

------
wilhow
Self Marketing. Age is definitely a road block, it might be worse in spain,
but it happens everywhere else.

The thing is that if you provide nothing for potential employers to see, then
all they would see is resume and eventually your age. Make him get out there,
make friends, build connections, show case what he has done online, get
potential employers to see past his resume and age. When you provide nothing
for them to see, they'll see what's in front of them. That is an older man
trying to live in a young man's world.

When you are an older developer, it'll definitely take more work to get hired.
You have to do more to stand out. Just sending out resumes isn't gonna do much
good in this day and age. Your connections is what going to get you hired.
It's true in Spain, London, EU, Asia and everywhere else.

------
BenoitEssiambre
>"they can actually hire five young developers for the price of one senior
dev"

I'm sure your dad's experience warrants a premium over others but anybody
asking 5x what other devs make are going to have difficulty finding a job
unless they have exceptional reputation, contacts and some luck.

~~~
luisivan
Well, the thing is not that he wants a premium salary, he actually is below
market price, the problem is that there is too many people willing to work
almost for free

~~~
BenoitEssiambre
If there is a significant supply of people willing to work almost for free
then market price is almost free.

This would also mean that the problem is not specific to his age but to the
whole market for devs in your area.

------
luisivan
BTW I forgot to add it on the post, but this is his LinkedIn profile just in
case
[https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=75046358](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=75046358)

~~~
Jare
I visited that link but only see a minimal box with very little info:

    
    
        Software Architect & Developer
        Madrid Area, SpainInformation Technology and Services
        Current	Proyecto Asturix, Asturlibre
        Previous	MeetPays, Yestilo, UPTA España
        Education	10Gen
    

May want to correct that, and/or set up his own microsite as a first link of
reference (GitHub pages is convenient if he is already using Github).

General situation in Spain is quite shitty and age / gender discrimination is
unfortunately still rampant here. My advice would be to keep his eyes open but
definitely look for options in UK / Germany.

~~~
luisivan
He's not currently using GitHub, but this is his personal webpage:
[http://cuende.net](http://cuende.net)

------
mmaarrccoo
I am 10 years younger than your father and had a though time finding a job
too. I have a bachelor in Information Engineering, founded and sold two
successful startups in the InfoSec space, have raised venture capital and love
programming, but still took me about a year to find a job. Granted, I wasn't
ready to compromise too much, but heck, as the months go by, it becomes more
and more frustrating, especially when age seems to be the #1 discriminating
factor.

I am moved by all the support shown here to your father: hopefully it will
help him boost his morale. I encourage you to keep digging too - it's payback
time.

------
imacomputer2
I think startups usually want young employees because they usually don't have
families. It's not really about age, it's about time commitment. All those
startups with "epic snack rooms", beer coolers, ping pong tables, pool tables,
etc. have all that crap because they expect you to live at the office. They
want you to work 12 hours a day. Not all of them, but a lot of them. It can't
really give that many hours if you have a spouse and kids to take care of.
Most people can't, anyway.

It's not age discrimination, but it's still crappy.

------
josu
My suggestion would be for him to learn FORTRAN or COBOL, if he doesn't
already know. At least banks still need programmers for these languages, and I
can assure you that not many youngsters learn those languages anymore. The
work might be monotone, and he'll be fighting a 40 year old mainframe, but
chances are that he won't have a problem finding a job.

He should send his CV here:
[http://www.geoban.com/es/estaticas/index.asp?wm=320&id=95](http://www.geoban.com/es/estaticas/index.asp?wm=320&id=95)

------
hardwaresofton
Does he have an up-to-date portfolio on what he's been working on? how are his
side projects?

I think that's one of the most effective ways to convince someone that you
haven't been resting on your laurels/are still innovating.

Also, he could take the chance (assuming you guys are not 3 steps from being
on the curb) to try and bootstrap a small startup -- 56 years is a ton of
experience, he has to know some pain points in some markets/communities that
he can fix (maybe his own?) and charge people money for.

~~~
luisivan
That's an interesting point. He's been working for some months on his own
project, that is an app for managing SMEs' salesforce. He has some experience
on the enterprise so he really understands the problem.

The thing is that he is actually 3 steps from being on the curb (I live alone
and am economically independent)

~~~
hardwaresofton
wow, sorry to hear that... that makes things way more difficult.

In that case, I would suggest that he applies to some of the bigger companies
(like... real big), like HP/Dell, and market himself as a "tech-lead" \-- it's
got more hope of being near code than a project manager, and they value
experience (and it's relatively easy to get into big companies)... Though I
don't know which big companies are in spain (AFAIK that's where you are?)

------
maigfrga
I am software Enginner from Colombia, I move last year from Spain to Dublin,
at least 25% of the staff in the company where I work are in ther 50s, my
suggestion, move to UK or Ireland

------
peterb
My advice is to apply his engineering skills to the job hunt itself. Send out
CV's every day, network, hunt, analyze data, look for patterns, etc. As he is
discovering, job hunting is a full time job.

In Canada, there are organizations for older job hunters that help with resume
preparation and cover letters, job hunting techniques, how to network
effectively, etc. Working with others in a similar situation is great for your
morale. I wish him good luck.

------
erikig
I would recommend that he jump on Guru.com or eLance.com and start looking for
projects. It is not ideal but it will keep him active as he searches for work.

------
ExpiredLink
The situation for developers in Europe currently isn't good. Forget those
nonsense 'skilled worker shortage' articles. Europe's economic recovery does
not proceed as fast as expected, forecasts are even lowered due to the
sanctions against Russia. The 'best' you can do is sit and wait until next
spring because spring usually is the high season of the IT job market.

------
pjgomez
Feel free to contact me if you want to move his CV in a couple of companies
that I know are hiring (Salamanca and Valencia).

Good luck to you and your father

------
zb
This may or may not be something that would interest him, but OpenStack is
written in Python (no Django, but parts of it use MongoDB), and pretty much
nobody who is deeply involved in OpenStack development has any shortage of
recruiters trying to employ them.

[http://www.openstack.org/community/](http://www.openstack.org/community/)

------
bronlund
Forget the job adds, they will only attract a lot of competition. What he
needs to do is finding firms which are growing and send them a letter. This
way he will sidestep that whole hiring process and the firms appreciate
someone who takes an active approach.

And those who points out how important it is to be active on the net are
right. At least set up a nice LinkedIn account.

------
luisivan
I have to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the overwhelming
support, I never thought he would get all this help.

I'm an avid HN reader and a somewhat active member but never imagined this
could go up to the frontpage, you all are awesome.

I told my father about all the opportunities and interesting comments here,
and will continue helping him get a job. Thanks :)

------
firichapo
Maybe he can edit his resume/CV and remove the date from items that would hint
toward his age. This way the companies might give him the chance to show his
experience in Django during an interview.

How about remote work within the European Union? I am in the US so I am not
familiar with how common that is in Europe.

------
wooptoo
Is moving to somewhere like London an option for him? There's a lot of demand
for good developers in London and the companies tend to not discriminate. I'm
talking about more established companies especially. Source: I previously
worked for a company that hired a 55 year old developer.

------
mctx
There are a few conferences coming up in Barcelona, he could go to network?
[http://www.papis.io/](http://www.papis.io/)
[http://velocityconf.com/eu](http://velocityconf.com/eu)

~~~
luisivan
Yeah, he usually goes to startup and software events in Madrid, but he should
probably do it even more. Thanks!

------
acd
Full respect for your father learning MongoDB and Django. I do not see his age
as an issue with that mindset. Maybe he can work remotely? Also may I
recommend joining relevant IT recruitment interest groups on LinkedIn and
Python/Django on Meetup.com.

------
nt591
Where in Spain? The author of the Typus gem (a Ruby admin tool) lives in /
freelances from Barcelona. Your dad may want to reach out to him for tips or
advice.

[https://github.com/fesplugas](https://github.com/fesplugas)

~~~
luisivan
Oviedo, in the north. But he wants to move to Madrid/Barcelona. Oh cool, I see
he's a senior as well, he will contact him and let's see :)

------
rbitar
If it helps, we work with startups/brands/agencies that primarily hire remote
developers across a range of languages at FlexDevs:
[http://FlexDevs.com](http://FlexDevs.com)

------
aantix
Is he willing to move to San Francisco? Flightcar needs a fullstack Django
dev.

~~~
luisivan
Hell yeah, he would actually love to live in another country :)

------
lmedinas
I just want to say that I know your situation and just encourage him to keep
doing something and not sit in a chair waiting for something. Psychological
problems come and they are not easy.

Wish you both the best of luck.

------
kmt
[https://www.djangojobs.net/jobs/207/python-programmer-
medica...](https://www.djangojobs.net/jobs/207/python-programmer-medical-
science-computing/)

~~~
luisivan
Well that position has expired, anyway just showed djangojobs to him, thanks
:)

~~~
kmt
Didn't notice earlier, but what has expired is only the posting the hiring is
ongoing. Will have the posting corrected. Contact me directly (email in
profile).

------
lgsilver
Luis, We're recruiting for mongo experts—and happen to use django too for
other parts of our system. We're an early stage co based in SF & NYC. --
Lindsay (lindsay (at) socialight.io)

------
yCloser
A 25 years old programmer in a country similar to spain will get 1100€ per
month.

A 56 yo will probably expect much more, and companies won't be willing to... I
mean, they are just evil.

------
terramars
not sure how helpful this will be since we won't have a ton of activity at
first, but Hired is about to launch in the UK. we'll be taking candidates all
over Europe although we'll only have a London office until sometime next year.
if he's interested in moving up there, it's worth a shot. his skillset sounds
relevant. [http://join.hired.com/x/WF25Mp](http://join.hired.com/x/WF25Mp)

~~~
luisivan
I just sent him the link to sign up :)

------
factorialboy
It should be easy for him to move around the EU to places like Germany or the
Netherlands. We have plenty of opportunities here for senior developers.

------
adolfoabegg
hey luisivan, we're looking for a experienced php dev in Barcelona (working
from home is welcome too) email me at my username at gmail

~~~
luisivan
Cool, he will email you :)

------
morgante
If he's open to remote contract work, I'm always hiring freelance developers
(knowledge of Python & JavaScript).

morgante@cafe.com

~~~
luisivan
Thanks, he'll email you :)

------
iMario
Hola luisivan.

Could you somehow make me available your email? I would like to send you a
couple of suggestions which I rather do in private.

~~~
luisivan
Sure! me AT luisivan DOT net, thanks a lot :)

------
dragonbonheur
with his experience, he should set up a virtual classroom through Hangouts or
Skype and make enough of a living short term tutoring people who want to learn
how to code fast. Maybe he would not be able to offer certification and
diplomas but there is enough interest in learning programming internationally
that it may work.

------
henvic
[https://www.liferay.com/careers](https://www.liferay.com/careers)

cheers from Recife.

~~~
luisivan
Thanks!

------
tw04
He's worked as an executive, but never moved onto something more senior like a
project manager????

~~~
UK-AL
Would not say project manager is more 'senior'.

Over here, on most graduate schemes you can straight in as developer,
consultant, project manager depending on what you chose. You usually start of
as assistant project manager though.

It's a separate career path, not a senior role.

------
cjbenedikt
How is his English? Would he be prepared to work as a freelancer for a while?
Can he code in C++??

~~~
luisivan
He's hasn't a perfect English but enough to work, and yeah, he would be
prepared. He coded in C++ several years ago, not sure he's up to date...

------
rileytg
we love experience! jobs@fcflamingo.com ny/la/remote dev/design/consulting

~~~
luisivan
Thanks! He'll email you :)

------
auganov
Start a startup with dad.

------
alexdowad
Pick up some freelancing jobs on oDesk?

------
tooj_
abdullah

------
icantthinkofone
I have a friend who's about 60 here in the US. He doesn't have to work cause
he's all set but he wants to. He's brilliant. Has wide ranging experience but,
if he's not used your tech in the past, I guarantee he'll pick it up quick.

If you ever had eye surgery or used a vending machine, you've probably used
his equipment. You've probably visited a couple of web sites he created for
large companies. He's worked on Hollywood movies and you can see his face in
some of them. I would almost go as far as say he's the most interesting man in
the world.

Over the past year, he's gotten zero replies to any of the resumes he's sent
out. Two companies complained they needed their sites updated and managed in
their want ad yet, today, those same sites have changed little and are still
awful.

Yet, I look out my home office window and see him working in his garden this
morning.

------
alikazmi
This is really cool, you are father doing having stage of retirement. I
appreciated to your father with this act, that's it.

------
robomartin
He should start a business, it's easier than ever:

www.ProjectAmericanDream.com

Seriously, it could change his life in a major way.

~~~
heyutoo
You don't seem to have a history of spamming on HN so serious question, is
this spam or are you being sincere?

If the former, given your experience on this site, I don't see how you can not
know how wrong that is here.

~~~
robomartin
Not spam at all. On many points. I'm on my iPad so I'll be brief (hate typing
on this thing)

On advising he start a business. Launching a successful business is the
greatest liberator. For OP's father a nice lifestyle business would provide
him with security as he gets older. What happens when he is 60, 70, 75. None
of these people talking about helping will hire him. That's an illusion. My
statement could be wrong in this particular case but it isn't for the
overwhelming majority of older engineers.

If your comment is about the link. No, it isn't spam at all. The registration
period is now closed so I can no longer provide links to the content. I
personally know somewhere in the range of 50 people doing this program through
being a mentor for a local meetup group for members. There's an annual
conference for the program. I believe the next one is in February. Sir Richard
Branson will be the keynote speaker. So, no, not a scam or spam. The fact that
people down-voted it or dismissed it as such is only a reflection of HN bias.
I hope the OP did get a chance to consider it before this was voted down to
the bottom and the registration period ended.

------
informatimago
Here is a very meta solution, but it has to be considered. The problem of
unemployment in Europe is directly linked to the European Union Treaty and the
Euro ( google for TARGET2, ver por ejemplo [http://tinyurl.com/salida-
euro](http://tinyurl.com/salida-euro) ). Entoncez, deberia promover la
aplicación del artículo 50 del Tratado de la Unión Europea para salir del EU y
resolver nuestros problemas.

