Ask Slashdot: Getting Hired As a Self-Taught Old Guy?

StonyCreekBare writes "How can an autodidact get past the jobs screening process? I have a long track record of success, despite limited formal education. Despite many accomplishments, published papers, and more, I cannot seem to get past the canned hiring process and actually get before a hiring manager. Traditional hiring processes seem to revolve around the education and degrees one holds, not one's track record and accomplishments. Now as an older tech-worker I seem to encounter a double barrier by being gray-haired as well. All prospective employers seem to see is a gray-haired old guy with no formal degrees. The jobs always seem to go to the younger guys with impressive degrees, despite a total lack of accomplishment. How can an accomplished, if gray-haired, self-educated techie get a foot in the door?"

Comments

Re:Write code!

[superwiz]

Seriously. Write some code, publish it on Github.

No, don't do that. Never give away free code. That's for the suckers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. oss goodness.. blah blah blah. I read enough oss code to know that most of it is crap which worked for 20 minutes under exact configuration which was relevant during those 20 minutes. And if an idea is original enough to be timeless it's worth a lot more than free self-promotion. I would NEVER under any circumstances hire anyone whose oss code I read. Not that they are necessarily terrible, but why take the chance? I saw their code. It sucks.