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Comment by docker_up | Hacker News Reader

My point is that it's the reality. Change and adapt or die along with the COBOL programmers. I watched the COBOL programmers get laid off in droves after Y2K and the dotcom bust so it's a lesson I won't forget. Sure there are some COBOL programmers making mint as consultants but the total number were laid off with prejudice.

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Okay I can appreciate that point. I guess why I disagree is that while I agree that you need to adapt to new technologies, you should never need to adapt to absurd hoop jumping in terms of working nights and weekends just to get hired. Ie. I do not accept the idea that, "well x hours of interviews and code trivia is normal so you need to just go do that."

At that point I would rather die than adapt. I'll go do demolition with Peter Gibbons and see my kids evenings and weekends.

I wish I had other options, but the only thing I've ever done in my life is code. I can't even put together IKEA furniture very well, so I'm effectively useless everywhere else.

That is incredibly sad to hear. I wouldn't hire you based on your inability to adapt and learn new things. You may get through the coding questions but with an attitude like that (without lying) you aren't going to get threw the interview. Not to say that you ACTUALLY wont... I really hope you do but just keep in mind they are looking for more than a robot.

I'm totally okay with you not wanting to hire me. Even at my age, I get about a 50% acceptance rate from my onsites. I would rather take a coding job that pays me well than start from the beginning in any other industry. If all it takes is a few months of studying, I'll take it.

That sounds like a perfectly valid approach to me.

What I often get caught up on, and really hope to see more people in this field consider, is that there's more than one way to live a life worth living. And often to find that, it means walking away from a high-stress, long-hour FAANG-like job, even if your salary suffers.

I've known a few people who gave their 20s to Silicon Valley and didn't have a whole lot of joy to show for it after.

But again, this doesn't mean it's wrong to make the conscious decision to stay in that life. Especially if you've found a way to make it all work and you're happy.

Adaptation does not require shutting up and being silent about faults of the thing you are adapting to.

It does not mean one needs to pretend everything is super great.

The problem here is that you are just wrong. You are speaking in universals that don't apply universally. I've been in software for near 25 years and have never interviewed anywhere that shared the practices you describe. Sure it's just a personal anecdote, but so is yours.

No, you are wrong. The OP was talking about his experiences in Silicon Valley. I was also talking about my experiences in Silicon Valley not about yours outside of it. I can guarantee if you are in Silicon Valley, this is par for the course.

The OP mentions SV but doesn't restrict its comments to it. It states "But it's the reality of the industry right now." not "..reality of the industry right now in the valley."

I have no problem with your claims when restricted to the valley. They are pretty much spot on for it and a good reason not to live there.

You're assuming the current rules are somehow fundamental reality, they're not. There's no law of nature that says technical interviews are axiomatic. Part of the adaption process can be forcing the abstract silly rules to adapt.

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