Programming career after 30+. Myth or reality?

Question

Career in IT

Good day, gentlemen!
Periodically I read this resource and I see that quite often they ask questions about changing prof. activities towards programming (I'm also interested in this). I also see that there are people who are looking for personnel.
Although they say that it's never too late to start, but I still assume that novice programmers with an age of 30+ are not in demand in the labor market. I myself am currently trying to start a career as a web programmer, and I want to ask people who are involved in this field: Have you seen or would you hire a junior with basic knowledge at the age of 30+? . I would like to evaluate the probability of my employment on the facts from your answers))).
PS I would also like to hear the opinions of those who make a choice in favor of young specialists (the last courses and university graduates), about the reasons for such a choice, because older people have undeniable advantages over young ones.

Answer 1

Myth - a good washing powder, not a programmer after 30

Answer 2

God, how many horror stories have been written!
Let me put my word in.
I started my professional career twice. The first time was in 2002. At that time I was 26. I worked with Delphi. Promoted to lead developer. But I had to change direction. And the second time I started again with a simple programmer learning Java and .NET. It was already at 35. Now I work as an architect.
From one good person I heard that the main tool of the developer is his head and experience. I would also add intuition and horizons here. Experience at the beginning of the journey tends to zero, but the head at 35 works better than at 20, intuition and horizons are much more developed.
As for the forces, yes, there are more of them at the age of 20. But internal motivation and simple wisdom are not enough, so the forces are wasted how much in vain. There is no experience in setting goals and achieving them. Having a family is also an important motivator.
Youth has its advantages, but they are not decisive. And young programmers also have many shortcomings. So I wouldn't say you're bad. At 30+, life is just beginning. This I know for sure!
PS People of different ages and genders work in our projects. Programmers in their 30s and older are a good core team. They bring stability. Including the code. But sometimes you need to motivate them to try something new. And here the presence of young people is important.

Answer 3

For the employer, the advantages of the young lie in the fact that they can be fucked in every possible way 24/7, asked to work on the day off for nothing and in other ways take their souls to them.
They have no life experience.
Young people can be motivated by the tomato lord's badges, public praise, a pat on the shoulder, and a $50 per year bonus.
I'm not exaggerating, I was a young developer myself (I'm still young - 33).
It's never too late to learn a new profession.
This is market adaptation.
Look around, study what is required in vacancies, study.
A year will pass and you are not June.
I myself changed several "language / technology" stacks and I think not the last time.
Retired people learn and develop foreign languages ​​- this is not a period of survival.
Being a programmer when you are under 60 is a reality. I know this.

Answer 4

Already somehow unsubscribed in a similar topic (there are a lot of them :)). I'm 36 in two weeks. I've been working for a little over two years. I was very lucky with the first employer - he believed in me. The main problem of employment at this age is not the lack of experience, but the fact that an accomplished family person, as a rule, simply cannot afford to go to work for a pittance - he needs to live on something. And yesterday's student, easily. He has the support of his parents as a rule. So get ready to beg for a year. By the way, some employers, on the contrary, take mature people with pleasure - they have something to lose :), therefore, they are more responsible in their work.
So it's not a myth :)

Answer 5

Do not fucking listen to anyone whose posts just read "dude, get over it, you're just a 30-year-old vegetable, you're nothing!".
I am about 28 now and with great zeal, desire and unprecedented perseverance I am now studying those things that I took up in my 20s and soon abandoned! And I don't care about students and other nonsense.
Not being a cool specialist , I have already received several job offers both for the position of a Linux system administrator (not to deal with enikey, but to administer for a hundred servers!), And for the position of a Junior backend developer, although in May I just read the theory about OOP, I began to understand what's what, and for the first time I began to code in Ruby (and code in general).

Most people, after graduating from college, go into life and find out that a high school or college education is not all that a person needs to succeed. The real world is far from academic knowledge, it requires something more from people. I heard someone call it "something more" - willpower. perseverance, activity, audacity, courage, dexterity, courage, tenacity, originality. The factor of having these qualities in people, ultimately, affects their future much more than school knowledge.

Answer 6

Feel free to start your career! With very low training of graduates, and a very low threshold for entering the specialty, a little desire, patience is enough, and you can easily master the specialty and even succeed well in it.

Answer 7

Once there was, and to be honest, there is still a 30-year-old junior, although I am trying to somehow develop, but I do not work in the office - and this is a big and main minus.
By and large, as I understood from the interviews, it is not age that matters (as well as education), but skills, knowledge, the ability to quickly search and find information, ask the right questions, and the ability to learn quickly. Those. there is a demand, but not for your body, but for your brain.
Yes, of course, maybe somewhere they will look askance, it will be difficult to study, be distracted from family / children or something else - but what's the difference - do you have checkers or go? We must step over a little through our pride, pride and ambition and try to gain experience as quickly as possible. Gaining experience in a team is always easier than at home - so you need to be a little junior.
At the expense of the pluses of the young - this is the elementary absence of family problems and readiness for constant processing. Yes, and more often they want less money + they also need experience.
ps: to cheer up

Answer 8

I was taken to the entry level position at 30

Answer 9

In all the companies where I worked, we took people regardless of age and gender. Especially less than 40 years, what are we talking about in general.
Here the problem is different. You need to have a good knowledge of the subject area (yes, yes, a junior too). It will be very good to show your works (including works "on the table"). Then everything will be OK.
And “fresh” graduates are always terrible, 90 percent of them cannot program in any form at all. I can't stand it, seriously.

Answer 10

Everything is very simple. Any person, like a mechanism, wears out.
Working with brains is one of the hardest activities. Those. this is exactly the same exhaustion of the body.
Studying is also exhausting the body. Starting at 20 and starting at 30 is a huge difference. You can spend 4 hours with a girl at 20, and at 30 - 5 minutes. Therefore, everyone understands that a 30-year-old junior is at least a specialist who has not taken place anywhere. You are old enough and you have no advantages over the same 20-year-olds - they have more strength.
You can try, but you will be interviewed by boys younger than you. They will drive with rags and you will feel your insignificance. If you get a job as a junior, you will work with them - with children. And your peers are managers, team leaders and directors.
You need to devote a huge amount of time to self-study. And the family? Even if there is no family - this is the time. A lot of time. Are you ready to spend all your time to become a mid-level developer by the age of 35?
I'm almost 33.

Answer 11

I've been following this question for a long time. I'll write a couple of my comments.
Is there life in IT after 30? Of course there is. It is now all so young, recently just graduated from high school or still students. But what will happen in 20 years? Will there be no more programmers or what? They will, of course.
Suppose now there is a young graduate programmer, 22 years old. And there is already "like a grandfather", 32. So the difference in experience between them will be erased in 20 years. New technologies and languages ​​will appear. Programming in general can be turned upside down. Remember, not so long ago VBA and Pascal were popular, but now they have been supplanted by younger languages. This is what I mean by having to re-learn all the time. And "youth" with "old men" will be practically in the same position. It doesn't matter how old you are - 20, 30 or 40.
They write - "at 30 it's too late." But after all, 7-10 years have passed since my studies! And it will take another 30-35 to work. Which is several times more, agree. You can learn any language in a year or a year and a half. let at a basic level and radically change your life. And then develop at a basic level.
I'll tell you about my experience. Two years ago I had to write one program, purely for myself. With parsing from the Internet, data processing, writing to a text file. Nothing out of the ordinary for me right now. The choice fell on python. I completely immersed myself in work. In the process of writing the program, I rummaged through a ton of information on the Internet in search of answers to my questions and read half of Lutz. All this was accompanied by the simultaneous writing of code. For half a year, I was already more or less confident in python. He could write small scripts or modify others, understand third-party modules and use them in his programs.
This is all to the fact that if there is an incentive and desire, then it is never too late to learn to program (and start earning a living from it). In addition, if you do not try now, you can greatly regret later and blame yourself for indecision. Good luck!

Answer 12

There is such a thing as "victim behavior"
Surrounding people cut through it in a second. At the moment you enter the office (in all seriousness. investigated)
If you have a feeling of deep guilt in your head about your age, then you won’t get anything anywhere, regardless of profession and age.

Answer 13

Here, problems of a different kind usually arise. When the boss is younger than you say) And are you ready to follow the instructions of such a person? Other than that, I don't see any problems at all.

Answer 14

I'm afraid there's a bigger problem here. all spit how much you. Unless, of course, you are applying for the position of a secretary and your boss has CLEAR requirements. there is more age. if you thump, do not go in for sports, lead xs what lifestyle ... then you have little chance in a new field. and you have plenty of time. now the average life expectancy is 65. so decide for yourself

Answer 15

To the above , Maxim Kuznetsov would like to add that it is important to find a good place (this is especially important if you start a career after 30), where your skills will grow rapidly, you can sit for several years and get nothing from work, or you can significantly increase your level and be ahead of those who started it 5-7 years ago.

Answer 16

Why do you want to go junior then?
Actually, there is the Internet, there are a lot of tasks around, already people in 20-21 seniors are coming.

Answer 17

I am also worried about this topic, I even asked a similar question here.
But what is the meaning of your wording - I do not understand.
You ask the locals if they have seen 30+ at the starting position. Even if 100 locals tell you that they have seen it, this will not mean that you will be able to find such a job in a year or two without taking advantage of wild luck or coincidence. That is, you will not evaluate the probability in this way. "Probability" - maybe.
I would like to believe that among those who say that they do not see this as a problem, there are a lot of those who hired a thirty-year-old junior, but alas, they are either few or none at all, so their answers have little to do with reality .
It seems to me that the only thing that can well increase the chances in such a situation is a good portfolio on github, that is, evidence of some kind of real experience. As it was correctly written above, in this way it is already possible not to go to the junior, but a little higher. Good luck!

Answer 18

Ceteris paribus, having a choice of a 20-year-old junior and a 30-year-old junior, without hesitation, I would take a 20-year-old. If there was no choice (although this is rare), I would think for a long time, and rather wait until such a choice appears. Since a set of juniors is not something that is done urgently and quickly.
Reasons:
1. It's easier to study at 20 years old
2. Young people spend more time on average at work, for them it's "oh, cool, interesting!", And for older people it's a method of making money in the first place. Excitement and progress go somewhere nearby.
3. At the age of 20, the thought "why these little ones teach me" will definitely not arise. And they will.

Answer 19

Curiously, if a generalist programmer over the age of 35 with experience in several languages ​​​​(Delphi, Oracle PL / SQL, Java) tries to become a Java developer, is his effort also doomed to failure?

Answer 20

I don't see any problem, what's the difference how many years. True, those who started programming at the age of 15-20 will tear you like a heating pad, and you can’t do anything about it. It's like starting to play football at 30.
So keep it up.

Answer 21

What to do if 30+? Find some old school friend who has already become the boss and go work for him! You will, at the direction of the chief, idly spend time fishing - YOU NEED TO MAKE CONTACT WITH THE MANAGEMENT! in nightclubs / saunas in the company of a female - MEETING SAME! etc...
By the way, don't forget to program sometimes - it's also interesting... )

Answer 22

Honestly, no one can answer this question except yourself.
What you need:
1. SMART goal
2. Practice
3. Answer one question for yourself: Why do you need to change activities? Are you unable to succeed in what you are doing now? Why can't you become successful in the area in which you are now? What personally prevents you from being successful without changing your field of activity?
Theory:
A change of activity for any person can cause a protracted stressful situation, and after 30-35 (depending on the type of personality) a person who has not yet decided on a profession risks becoming just an alcoholic and worthless person because of his own failed head.
Facts:
Risk is a noble thing, but you, as a person, must be prepared:
1. As mentioned above, young people will tear you like a heating pad. It will be very difficult to occupy a niche.
2. The young man has no one but himself behind him (as a rule) and he makes money on fashion and trend. His task is to be status in society (Apple trees, watches, clothes, clubs, $ in his wallet ...) everything that influences the opposite sex so much is his T in point No. 1, from which his motivation is many times higher than yours. If you are motivated to succeed, then you do not need a change of activity, you can succeed in the area in which you work.
3. You should go to any professional training on self-motivation and goal setting rules. Only then think about changing your profession, as you will understand how much you need it.
Experience:
In fact, the job is given to the one who proved in the first 10 minutes of the interview that he can, but does not want to be able to. If you are a competent specialist, even if you are 50, I will take you personally. If you know how and where to copy-paste, I will not take you, but I will keep it in mind.
The critical age for employment in any field is after 45 years. You still have time to get everything from life that you don't have yet.

Answer 23

Wangyu: now a turning point is coming: soon the business will realize that the level of knowledge supply has dropped significantly and then ... there will be completely different priorities when choosing an employee.
In the meantime, like this:
If objectively - there is no difference: only knowledge, skills and experience at the moment are important.
If subjectively - everyone looks at age and it turns out to be a priority of knowledge.
Bottom line (of course, if you have knowledge): And experience and knowledge are only for those who do not stop improving themselves throughout their lives.
1. Either get a job at first for a penny and then prove your professional suitability
2. Or you need to immediately prove your prof. suitability at the interview and ask for a decent salary.
A programmer's career at any age depends on his ability to create high-quality and competitive business tools at minimal cost to the business.

Answer 24

In the question about Jun... Hiring Jun at any age is a big expense. It's easier to hire a couple of seigneurs, regardless of age. Although it also depends on the complexity of the work. In general, there are many factors, there are also many different tasks. Even a june will not be left without a job

Answer 25

And what is the basis of all the foundations in the it sphere? I think math and english. If a person does not know English and has forgotten school mathematics, then it is necessary to start from the basics. To do this, you need to become a Spartan and over-discipline yourself for training. For example, I don’t know English and mathematics well, and my horizons are so narrowed that I want to go back in time and give myself bream). English is like a navigation system that allows you to sail confidently across the ocean, and mathematics is the hull of a ship.

Answer 26

Hello everyone! I read your answers.
I want to join the issue only from the female side.
I have such a situation that I entered the university and realized that this is not mine (not for programming).
To transfer to the desired faculty needed money. There was no other way, and there was no money for it.
I got a job in an IT company, but I needed money, and there was zero salary increase, I worked in another area at a higher salary, but I want to work in this area as a programmer, I have the time and opportunity to learn new skills right now, at 29 years old . What do you think, are there any chances for a woman with children at my age to start learning programming and can you advise where to start for a person who is not very versed, but has already settled down and has a great desire to understand the subject very well?
I just clearly decided for myself that I need to grow in skills while on maternity leave, parents help me with their children as best they can and there is time to learn painlessly for the family budget. I just couldn’t before, and in my current place I don’t see the potential for myself + a lot of 65+ contingent (who seem to have a lot of experience with knowledge, but next to them you turn into sour milk) and a few years 20-24 (it’s easier with them ) in the environment both at my enterprise and in many places at my position. There is no layer of an adequate settled down healthy age (most in the field of IT and others).