Pretext
I wrote this article on Medium a while back and the response was overwhelming. I had more than a dozen companies contacting me about work. Some offered me a job on the spot and I'm now employed, but more about that in the next article.
Being a middle aged junior
I thought I’d share my experience of being an unemployed junior programmer at the age of 40. It’s not a very inspirational tale, but perhaps it is one some can relate to.
I started programming 34 years ago, at the age of 6. Writing code has been part of my life in different ways throughout my life. 18 years ago I worked as a web developer, building advanced systems in ASP, but being a person with ADHD and a mind that couldn’t rest while there were problems to be solved I started working 16 hour days and 7 day weeks and it wasn’t long until I found myself faceplanting that famous wall. It happened because I had forsaken most social contacts in the pursuit of becoming rich and successful. I was on the right track to succeeding, bringing in more money each month than I’ve done in any 6 month period since, and yet I crashed. I ended up laying in bed for three weeks, only leaving it to care for the most basic of needs. Then one day I woke up and made one of the most important decisions of my life, I stopped caring about money, prestige and what I at that point viewed as being successful.
During the next 16 years I shifted focus and focused on work in areas that included human interaction. I’ve worked in education, both as a student assistant, teacher, and lecturer. I’ve spent years as a computer game journalist and e-sport event manager. I’ve lead projects for unemployed youth, projects exploring art in 3D worlds and other equally unrelated areas. I drove an ice cream truck for a year, I worked in a home for people with Autism, I had my own marketing company and I’ve started two non-profit organizations. I have done a lot of things and during all this time I’ve been an unemployed programmer.
Now I’m 40 years old and I’ve decided I want to get back to doing what my brain is built to do, program. I figured that the market is screaming for coders and I’ve been coding all my life so I should be able to get back into it without much hassle but with no formal education in programming and no current work experience in programming I find myself being a 40-year-old junior and that is not the greatest selling point. After a year of struggling with catching up with the market and almost getting a job several times I find myself doubting. I doubt my skills, I doubt my capability, I doubt my worth and I struggle to keep writing code.
Most of the jobs out there aren’t for companies that need you but for staffing companies, and they are looking for a product that is easy to sell and a newly graduated 22-year-old is more attractive than a 40-year-old with varied work experience.
I’m afraid this piece doesn’t have an inspiring conclusion or a pearl of deeper wisdom to impart on you. I hope that I soon will be able to write that article though, the article that tells you that perseverance wins, that it’s worth sticking to your dream, that if I can make it, so can you. Now I’m going to open Unity and Visual Studio, code for a few hours, spend time with my wife and kids that is the reason I’m not afraid of hitting that wall anymore and tomorrow I’ll send out another batch of job applications.
Top comments (21)
I'm part of the hiring process at my company, specifically evaluating technical skills. The whole experience thing is really weird. There are people that apply with 2-5 years of experience, and then there are people with 10+ years in the field. 90% of the time the ones who state they have 10 or more years, write pretty bad code, like, really bad. It's like they learned the technology 10 years ago and that's it, they stopped learning new things, keeping up with standards, etc. What we always look for in candidates is that they have learned at least one modern framework, are reading about standards, best practices, patterns, that they are really passionate about coding and they try to expand their knowledge base constantly.
Once I gave a test task to a guy who said he has 30 years of experience. After looking in to the solution, he had basically wrote PHP 4 style code, nested tens of if's, loops within loops within loops, custom class autoloader. Well, yes, the code probably worked, but where have you been these years? There's Composer, there's PHP7 out for years now, there are PSR standards, there are good coding guidelines, etc. What has he read in the past two years, for example?
It's just a rant, I guess. The main suggestion from my side would be to stay humble, keep on grinding with those online tutorials, blog posts (I'm very skeptical if an actual school is worth it, there are so many free resources out there). The technology doesn't have to be bleeding edge, too. Somethings' that's out there for at least two years and is popular is definitely worth learning.
Right now I'm working in react and graphql with Gatsby. I believe flutter is the best thing that has happened for mobile development. My personal favourite language is C#.
I kind of live by the sentiment that if I don't feel like a newbie at least a couple of times each week I'll have to admit I'm old. Still seems like a distance future.
Someone at IBM said that we've gone from iq to eq and now we are moving to aq, adaptability quote. The new standard is that your work will be totally different a year from now?
That insight about AQ feels right to me. I'm noticing a shift in that direction.
This is a very helpful response. Thanks. As a 50yo with some recent skills (self taught) and dated skills I understand better why career coaches are pushing to drop old experience from the CV. And I think I better understand how to emphasize skills that don't age and fresh skills.
Wow, I feel compelled to respond to this as I can sure relate to it. I'm 42 years old. I've been a registered nurse for over 12 years, spending 8 in emergency departments in 2 different countries. Before I was a nurse, I did my first degree in media studies and my electives over my 2nd and 3rd years were in web production and that's how I first learnt about coding. I fell in love with it but at the end of my degree, I had attempted to get a job in web development but I did not have enough knowledge and there was no way my family could afford to put me through another 3-year degree course. So, after years of trying to find a job anywhere and as I approached 30, I gave up and changed careers to nursing.
Over the past 18 months or so, I've became burnt out in nursing... so I thought I would give web development another try. But I thought that I should go through some sort of formal training in web development, so I undertook (at great expense) a 12-week, full-time course in web development. Unfortunately, since I finished the course late last year, I've had no luck in my job hunt. As I am single, with no other source of income and no more savings left, I've had to go back to taking casual nursing shifts and finding time to continue working and learning more about coding when I'm not working and/or sending out job applications.
I've tried applying for everything, from graduate roles to internships to junior roles, from small, less than 10 members of staff, companies to large, international digital agencies, I've also tried applying to Health/MedTech companies since I figured that my combined knowledge might give me an edge... but no luck anywhere. Almost all had stated in their ads that they are looking for candidates with CS/IT degrees, but I still tried to send in my resume, but nothing. It's been demoralising and quite soul crushing.
I find myself back on the crossroads, I'm not sure which way I will go.
Hey Karguo, I also feel compelled to respond to your comment since it is related to me as well, I'm 36 years old, I have graduated from the Faculty of law 19 years ago and where I live we usually work in a field not related to our degrees, however, I've tried to work as a freelance lawyer, but That wasn't me, I'm such a tech geek I can't live without a computer, so I've managed to get a job in a local internet company 10 years ago, I'm still working there, things never been down like those last two years.
In the meantime, I was so much interested in a bunch of cool stuff around, from playing with so many of Linux distro with different package managers and desktop, to dive into one of python books and courses, then moved to CS field catching up with two or three courses at a time "CS50 was the coolest one" then I've managed to get a scholarship from Google 2017/2018 I was one of those who won a full nano-degree at that time, I was doing so good until some family matters take over all my time and effort at that time and I couldn't carry on with the course, I didn't graduate.
Nowadays, I've burnt out in my current work as a senior online sales along with being a quality keeper over a telesales team, my current job right now offer me nothing but a salary, I seek to get the knowledge to be able to shift my career as an Android developer, after a few weeks I've been able to build some apps on my own nothing that I'm so proud of however I've got the basic skills and I'm looking to learn more about it, working as a dev person open some many doors for you to meet new people like those devs out here on this awesome community, it is also required a PC or laptop with a good performance and an internet connection, and also a signup in one of those freelance websites you can learn, work, meet and earn from it.
My last word, I thought I was alone struggled to learn to code and to catch up with the most insane growing field, but it turns that there are many many people like me and you, I promise I won't stop until I reach to my goal.
I wish you could land on a job you've dreamed of so soon.
My last word, I though I was alone struggled learning too code, and to catchup with the insans
I know that feeling well. I was also on the verge of giving up when I finally got my foot in the door. Then again, it was the third time I was on the verge of giving up at that point.
I hope that you've found some strength in knowing that you are not alone in being where you are and that it's possible to get that first job, even after 40. I tried so many approaches and there were so many times it could have just as well gone my way but didn't, that is until it finally did. Now I am with a small company of fantastic individuals that truly put their values first.
There are companies that find value in age and experience as well, even though it doesn't always feel like it.
Stick in there, you never know what the next wave will bring.
You totally skipped over the part where you modernized your skills to get hired, and how you did it. What gives?
To be honest, I wrote this piece simply to vent my feelings a bit. I didn't actually think I would get much response on it. If I had written it to be used when looking for a job I'd probably have written it a bit differently, and as it turned out I'm glad I didn't. Of those that actually wanted to offer me a job in the first phone call none of them wanted to see a CV or have me submit samples of my work, and that includes a very large and old media company in Stockholm.
I have a couple of more articles planned to follow this and one of them will include what it was like diving head first into the ocean of languages with the goal of becoming a developer and not just because it's so darn fun.
Ah yeah, i kinda got that by the end of the article. I don't know why i got the idea it would include such a story, but i did. This article felt like a teaser for a larger story.
I'm in the situation you described. Mid 30's and spent way too many years working on legacy projects and fell behind in what's modern and new. I've gone to a few interviews and realized i'm unhireable until i get up to speed with all the latest buzzwords. If you decide to talk about the process of modernizing your skills, i've followed you and will read.
I got chills 😳 I've recently been looking into ageism in our industry more; never thought about it like that before. It's good to hear you've gotten your foot back in the door now! I know a couple of other folks in the same situation, it can be so discouraging. Is there any advice you'd give specifically to older folks who've yet to get their first programming gig?
Thanks for your article and for sharing! 🤘❤️💯
I'm working on that "perseverance wins" article =) One quick note though, be clear about your goal with those closest to you, their support is needed.
I am 36 now. "16 hours 7 days per week" since primary school, watching for 3 kids in a parallel thread.
Sending unicorns for you.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Even though I am a lot younger than you. I can relate 100% to a lot of the things you mentioned. Struggling to get back to coding after two years being a mentor to unemployed youth getting into the tech industry. I am doubting myself and my abilities. How did you overcome all these felling of self doubt?
Wow, I went back to Uni. a few years ago at 51! And I was older than some of professors, talk about odd. I left a lucrative industry as an "Expert" in my field to be a tiny cog in a brand new one. That can be tough and illuminating. I would love to see what other responses you received from the first article. Is your article still up?
Thank you for writing and letting me know that I am not alone,
Actually I think many companies would be interested in someone like yourself, given your different experience and skillset typically not seen in most software engineers.
Different, but not conflictual perspectives are a breeding ground for innovation.
Happy to hear you are in work and wish you best for the future.
Why do you even want to be a junior developer at the age of 40 having such beautifully balanced technical and humanistic experiences, jobs, skills ?????? (Please, be reassured I am positive, here.) You should be starting your own lifestyle/passion business, when if not now? There is a growing movement out there (see Indie Hackers, passion economy) and most of all it is healthy at so many levels including aligning your work with yourself. You just need to read signs and gather your courage. Work is not just a job, but so much more; you may feel useful but your whole mind should be engaged, immersed, on fire (life is so short especially when you are middle-aged) and I doubt that is the case for you in a junior position given you started coding at 6 which is a clear indication of being gifted.
Keep going.