Ask Slashdot: Am I Too Old To Retrain?

Talcyon writes "I'm a 40-year-old developer, and it's become apparent that my .NET skillset is woefully out of date after five years of doing various bits of support. I tried the 'Management' thing last year, but that was a failure as I'm just not a people person, and a full-on development project this year has turned into a disaster area. I'm mainly a VB.NET person with skills from the .NET 2.0 era. Is that it? Do I give up a career in technology now? Or turn around and bury myself in a support role, sorting out issues with other people's/companies' software? I've been lurking around Slashdot for many years now, and this question occasionally comes up, but it pays to get the opinions of others. Do I retrain and get back up to speed, or am I too old?"

Comments

If you are too old to retrain...

[davidwr]

... it's not because of your chronological age.

Buckle Down

[Kagato]

40? Seriously? You've got another 24 years until retirement so you better get your head in the game.

Tried management? Okay what went wrong? Did you just hop in without any personal and professional development? Take classes, do things like toastmasters, you need to refine your skills.

On the other hand maybe you want to stay on the technical side. First realize you are in control. You let yourself get out of date YOU need to fix it. It's not like the concepts are all that foreign. Put your nose to the grind stone. Take classes, join open source projects, Most importantly you're going to need to change jobs. You are likely typecast as the old guy with out of date skills. Figure out what strikes your fancy be it more .Net or Web Stuff, JavaScript whatever.

I would only leave if you truly aren't enjoying computer work anymore.

Keep On Truckin'

[handy_vandal]

I am 51, and currently enjoying the best phase of my career to date. Front end development -- lots of work for JavaScript/jQuery developers at present, here in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The best part is, I seem to be getting more respect as a Senior Man in my field ... mind you, that's not my job title, I'm just another contract developer ... but I hold my head high, let my confidence shine, and enjoy the generous measure of respect that people seem to give me.

Twenty years ago, my assumption was that I would be obsolete within twenty years, and that I should expect to degrade (as gracefully as possible) from developer to technical writer. That hasn't happened: I'm still a developer, and more in demand than ever.

This is only possible, I suppose, because I love to learn; in effect, I am constantly in training. If you have a similar mindset, I would advise you to Go For It.

Re:You Tell Me If You're Too Old; What Is Your Goa

[DuckDodgers]

As Anonymous Coward said, you just about said everything that needs to be said.

I'm in a partial management role. I suck at it. I've bought books on the topic and I'm trying to learn from my mistakes. But as much as I enjoy teaching other developers and learning from them - and I genuinely do - I like designing and writing code more.

There are free online learning courses at coursera.org and codeacademy.com and MIT Open Courseware for learning. If you're not ready to write an application for Heroku or Red Hat OpenShift, take a few free courses to learn the concepts.

Something I finally started to learn in my early 30s is that for most people most of the time, if you get really good at something difficult, it will become entertaining for you. Learning how to write my first programs sucked. Even working on code in a lot of my 20s sucked. But in my late 20s and now 30s I had kids and if I didn't get pretty damn good at my job, I couldn't command the salary I needed to pay the bills. I started busting my ass to go from low-mediocre to something better, and suddenly I was having a lot of fun. I can't judge my skills now, I'd like to think I'm competent but I may be barely past low-mediocre. Regardless, I can do a lot more than I could before at a lot faster pace, and I get to tackle interesting problems instead of relatively routine things. Those changes make the job fun in a way I never imagined even as a teenager dreaming of writing video games.

Re:You Tell Me If You're Too Old; What Is Your Goa

[samkass]

If you enter the work force in your early 20's, at 40 you're less than halfway to 65, which is a "normal" retirement age... in other words, at 40 you're still in the first half of your career. No matter what you decide, it's not because you're "too old" that you'll succeed or fail. But in technology it really pays to like what you do and be willing to try lots of technologies, languages, systems, etc. Do side projects you like and if you find one you REALLY like see if you can make it your job. Or just find the highest buck-for-the-bang, slog through your workday and spend the money on insanely fun weekends and vacations. There are a lot of paths here, and I don't think Slashdot can tell you how to live your life.

(Disclosure: I'm 39)

Defeatist or reality?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't get it. This is such a fatalistic and defeated attitude!

The original poster wants a reality check. He wants to know a realistic path and idea of what he can do.

If you keep at it not wanting to be a "quitter" and never getting any bites or feedback, one eventually has to wake up and smell the coffee. And in IT, the attitude is if you're out of work then there's something wrong with you so get the hell out! So we're SUPPOSED to "quit" because we're no good. So, _I_ can't blame him at all for his "quitter" attitude.

The parent's post above is a nice vague motivational "get your ass in gear" type of thing, but offers no concrete advice and is completely worthless.

I myself was in the same situation. No one was able to give me concrete advice. Just generic pep talks such as the parent's and I didn't want to be a "quitter". So I kept going and beating a dead horse.

Here's my 2 cents:

If you do not have paid IT experience in the last 12 months, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to get another job. Over 12 months? Just leave the field. That's how bad it is. I know - I lived it.

Moving from one role to another in IT is very difficult. Hiring managers want recent experience in exactly what they're looking for. If you do not fit that their requirements, you're pretty much screwed. I've been out of work for years trying to get back into IT, taking classes, networking, and I can tell you that I wasted too much time and money. Being out of work is the kiss of death and there's no way of getting back in.

Then after years of struggling to get hired, I was finally offered this advice from an IT manager - "maybe you should think of getting out of IT". Finally someone who was blunt and gave me feedback.I wish I got is YEARS ago!

Sometimes, the most prudent thing to do is give up and change course.

P.S. And the implication from others that I'm somehow defective, really wears on you to the point where you start to believe it. And I can tell you, the IT field is the biggest offender.

Re:You Tell Me If You're Too Old; What Is Your Goa

[Archangel Michael]

You know, 40 wasn't where it it me. It was about 46 or so. And then it HIT me. I love learning, so don't get me wrong, but a couple years ago, I really noticed that stuff was just not sticking like it used to. Abstraction helps, but specifics come and go. I no longer try to remember them, Google search everything.

Re:You Tell Me If You're Too Old; What Is Your Goa

[angel'o'sphere]

Old coders are *very* common.
Everyone who started coding in 1950 is now *old* considered by mainstream standards.
New coders only know new tools, but have no particular new skill. As a matter of fsct new coders (below age of 30) likely have no experience in anything (except a certain platform/language). For solving problems you need problem solving skills, abstraction and an ability to express that. This comes by experience. Experience implies age.
The main reason why this original question is not insightfull is: someone focuses on one platform (.Net) which runs basically only on one OS (windows) which implies: he has no clue about computing even while he is already 40, cough cough.
At that age I would expect some mainframe assembly experience, some old school languages like fortran or cobol, perhaps smalltalk, but certainly C or Pascal or Modula 2. With over ten years experience I would expect basic knowledge about UML, some random agile method, some also randome more traditional method of project planning/conducting/managing.
So: do you have those experiences? If so, what are you scared about?
If not, hello! What are you doing in the software business anyway? Running for jobs where some one told you they are paid well? That only brings you so far ...