Ask HN: Is it (un)ethical to advise older people to switch to a tech career? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it (un)ethical to advise older people to switch to a tech career?

8 pointsklunger10 comments

I have recently had two older acquaintances independently ask me about how to get into programming. One is a retired air traffic controller (51 y.o.) and one is a lawyer who is burned out (47 y.o.). I told both of them what I tell anyone who asks me this question: it would be hard but possible for them to make the switch. I was very clear that it would require that they put in significant time, focus and work and that it would not be easy. I gave them a bunch of resources to start with and told them they could ask me questions any time. They are intelligent enough and I honestly believe that if they put in the time they could be pretty good.

The thing is, I am not sure I did the right thing. Age discrimination is a reality in this industry. Sure, there are older guys working as developers, but all of the ones I know have been doing it for 20-30 years. None of them got started so late. So, what kind of opportunities, realistically, are these guys looking at, provided they put in the time? I guess I am putting this out there to get other thoughts on the matter because I really just don't know.

You did the right thing by providing the information requested. You can help them more by introducing them to older programmers and programmers who have made a career switch from another field to development.

Personally, I have changed career fields multiple times. What has worked for me is to build a bridge between what I know (the domain I was working in) and where I want to go next (targeted market).

For example, the lawyer can easily migrate to legal tech company and still be considered very valuable. Similarly, ATC can easily migrate to related industry tech company. Actually, their domain expertise will be considered valuable even now without programming knowledge in sales, sales engineering, and consulting roles for domain related tech companies and that might be a bridge worth walking on. Once they have entered tech space, it will get easier to build network and relationship and migrate toward development roles. This also avoids the need to restart from the bottom.

One thing I will suggest not to do is to quit their current jobs and go do some programming bootcamp/academic program. Their domain expertise is valuable as long as they are in the domain so leverage that to find a role in tech company focusing on their domain.

I think the alternative, not recommending resources or help based on their age, is worse.

Age discrimination is real across all industries. It may be more pronounced in some, but that's a risk they are taking regardless of what they field they are trying to switch into.

As long as you didn't build up their expectations by telling them they'll have no problem finding a job if they do xyz, it should be fine ethically speaking.

There are still many fields where experience is in high demand.

> So, what kind of opportunities, realistically, are these guys looking at...

Much depends on the niche/skill-set they acquire. Right now, in the United States, there are nearly 350,000 job openings for cybersecurity professionals > http://www.csoonline.com/article/3206688/it-careers/firms-lo...

Relative to Age Bias, that's hard in every industry. The smart hiring manager who values maturity over youth and inexperience will find loyal, dependable employees.

There are plenty of people around technology that have no idea how it works. You might even get one for a boss someday lol. A lot of what it takes to make a company successful is managing people as much as the product. Since one is a retired ATC, he definitely has experience in leadership and that can be more valuable to management than how well he can code on a whiteboard. Just because they are new to programming doesn't mean they lack real world experience. There are far more times you need a person with street smarts over book smarts. Unless he's trying to be a professional athlete, its never too late.

I think people with a lot of experience in a different industry can certainly move into tech. Moving into a direct programming role might be hard, but handling project management, specification and requirements gathering, technical documentation, quality assurance, and legal aspects are some great areas that both of those people could contribute to.

The question are they going to want to take junior level pay to get in the door?

This, to me, seems to be the biggest issue. What former lawyer is going to accept a $45k salary as a junior dev?

That said, there definitely are product/management roles that would benefit from having programming knowledge.

I did. I was a shitty lawyer, though. Best decision I ever made.

Old age? 50 is the new 30 and 40 is the new 20... no one is retiring soon, so they have plenty of time to learn...

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