Ask Slashdot: What Training Helps Older Programmers Most?

brown.dragon is an older programmer moving to Australia. He writes: I want to start an online solution that other programmers find helpful, and right now I'm wondering if I should go with "learning new technologies" or "getting really good at the basics". Both are targeted towards giving a career boost to older programmers...

Would you like to keep in touch with the latest technologies because that's what makes it easy to get jobs? Or would you like to be really good at answering (Google/Facebook/Amazon) algorithmic interview questions?
He asks programmers looking for an online educational tool, "which of these (if any), would interest you?" So leave your answers in the comments. What training do you think would help older programmers most?

Comments

Re:Do older programmers even need help?

[WalrusSlayer]

If you are over 50 and you are trying to get a job by going through HR, then there is something wrong with you.

Someone with decades of experience should have a deep network, and plenty of ex-coworkers to tap for opportunities. If they don't, that is because those co-workers don't want to work with them again. So why should I hire them?

Unless they've spent a large chunk of their later career keeping their small startup venture alive and generating revenue, effectively keeping them cloistered while they apply their skill set. Yeah, I've got a small network from when things were more robust and I had to hire out some of the engineering work, but most was done by yours truly. The one thing I could have done better was keep more of those contacts alive, as a lot of them are pretty stale. But that time period coincided with kids showing up on the scene, which triaged that pretty far down the list.

So sure, the side-gigs I've gotten over the past 5-6 years have been solely through my small network, that's a good thing. But as the startup slowly winds down, my small network is not as lucrative as I'd like it to be. I haven't had to go the head-hunter route yet, but that's probably the next stop on this train.

All that said, when/if I'm to the point where I'm considering opportunities that involve an HR dept, then I'd say things would be in a pretty desperate state

Weightlifting and regular walks

[mi]

What Training Helps Older Programmers Most?

Overall decline in health is, what threatens aging professionals the most — not ignorance of the exciting new technology of the week. Learning a particular tool has never been especially valuable — education is supposed to teach you one thing, primarily: how to learn new things on your own. If you are a developer already, you must've mastered that long ago.

So, strength training and regular walks and/or yoga (while still legal).

Re:Do older programmers even need help?

[TheRaven64]

Some people are not good at networking

Networking is a form of communication. If they're not good at this form, what others are they bad at? Code monkeys are cheap and plentiful, people who can communicate their designs, collaborate with others, and work on a team where everyone benefits from the specialist expertise that each individual has are rare. The latter are the ones worth hiring.

Also, it is probably a culture problem, but in Germany it is often impossible to bypass H

Bypassing means different things. If a company wants to hire you, then they'll put out a job ad that has a checklist of things for HR to approve that happen to be exactly the same things that you have on your CV.

My colleagues are not my friends. Regardless of job I had. I never would invite one to my birthday e.g. And for the same reason: I don't see any point to stay in contact with a colleague after he or I leave the company.

Maintaining a professional relationship with someone doesn't mean maintaining a close personal relationship with them. Can you name 10 people that you've worked with in the last decade who you'd want to hire? Most competent people know which of their coworkers are also competent and which aren't. If they're given the choice, they'd rather work with someone competent. If you moved jobs, who would you want to come with you and who would you want to leave behind? If none of the people you've worked with recently seem competent to you then either you're in a job below your ability or you're the incompetent one on the team.