Ask HN: Can I have successful career in software engineering starting at 40?

The single most reliable way to come to a loathing of the software development process is to engage in it for a living.

Why would you say that? Most devs I know dont loath their jobs and I know many who actually love it. Never heard dentists, accountants or schoolteachers sound as passionate about their craft as I have devs.

Just curious, but how many dentists do you know personally? I work in a field adjacent to dentistry and interact with many dentists daily.

It’s shocking to me how many of them are deeply passionate about dentistry and teeth/gums/etc. This may be a situation where I tend to mostly work with successful happy dentists, but the same bias may exist w/ you and developers.

Not as many as you. I do know quite a few accountants that hate it though. And lawyers.

Development is fun, but a lot of work involves non fun stuff, such as unreasonable deadlines, code reviews, grinding algorithms, being to learn a new language in a few hours.

I'd say it still is a lot of fun as long as you optimize for the fun bits and not the highest salaries.

Loathing is a bit of a strong word IMO

But I agree in the sense that working as a developer is very different from coding-for-fun

To me they are very disconnected activities.

At work I don't even write code like 60% of the time.

And even when you write code the interesting bits are the minority of what you take care of. Writing tests, making sure that errors are handled correctly and CRUD take a significant portion of time and they are simply not interesting if you've been doing this for a while.

Paradoxically, you might have an easier time than your average 40 year old software engineer with 10+ years experience (hi!) because you've done the coding bootcamp recently, and can probably handle the data structures/algorithms-based coding tests more easily.

There's a lot of recruiters hungry for software engineers, especially if they can pay lower than the average right now (several companies haven't gotten the message it's a hot market it seems, judging by the low ranges I'm getting from some recruiters "The best the company can do is 120k, no bonus, no equity, no 401k match, for a senior role in the US...is that alright?"), so now's probably a good time to get the next boost in your software engineering job if you can do well on those coding tests.

Myself, I'm finding it really hard to have the time and energy to jump through the hoops for the companies requiring them, especially when other companies are moving a lot faster and relying more on a couple of phone interviews.

I'm already tired just juggling phone interviews and a full-time job, having to do multiple 1+ hour coding exercises/system architecture designs with few details/self-directed video interviews after work on top of that doesn't feel worth it most of the time, especially when the company doesn't sound terribly interesting or is offering an attractive salary.

But if you are willing to do some of that, you can get something that people like me would likely pass up, that might be really good for your career.

Do they teach algorithms during bootcamps? Anyway the comparison is wrong, OP will be interviewing for junior roles and you for senior roles, its a whole different challenge for him. Likely much harder.

Is your primary goal to find a more enjoyable day-to-day existence? Or is your primary goal to become very successful?

If coding is what you enjoy and nothing else matters, taking a junior developer job and just enjoying it despite the hit to your financials is a fine choice. You need to be sure that you actually enjoy programming more than managing, though, because it will quickly become an unhappy experience if you discover you can't take orders from a manager and you spend your days trying to backseat drive the project or usurp your manager's authority.

If your goal is career success and accumulating notable achievements, starting over as an engineer at 40 isn't optimal. It's possible to go all-in and accumulate achievements over the next decade, but it's not the most likely outcome. Even if you spend the next 10 years working hard, you'd still only catch up to a 31 year old who has been all-in on software development since graduating college. That's not a bad place to be, but it could be disappointing if your real goal is to achieve notable career success above all else.

Programming as a job can be soul crushing. I enjoyed programming a lot more in school and when I was solving fun things.....right now I'm working on enterprise app and some things just plain suck. Need to write docs, answers silly questions, figure out weird bugs and chase them for days. Sometimes I can't shut off my brain as I get fixated on the issue.

I would probably prefer management if I could work remote non-stop.

You pretty much answered the question yourself. If you can get a job as a developer, you can have a career. Whether you should do something that pays less but you enjoy more is I don't think something anyone else can tell you. Trajectory can be anything really, I don't think there's any limits. Keep in mind you're 40, not 60, you've got more time ahead of you then you've put in.

My personal philosophy which is neither new or very sophisticated is that anything you don't enjoy doing is wasted time and money is a means to an end and not an end in itself, so if you enjoy coding more go for it, no point in being the richest guy on the graveyard.

I did it at 35, it was hard work, but it paid off. In my experience had to really work hard especially for first 3 years.

Once you get comfortable in your domain you'll need to expand your knowledge to algorithms, systems and stay current with developments in your ecosystem. After 5 years on this path you'll be well grounded in the profession.

Ultimately, you can do it, but you must want it.

A Sales Engineer role may be a better fit. It’s a great combination for someone with good tech skills and business acumen.

In every SE role I had I still had to code so it’s a good way to dip you toes in without going all in.

Product Management is another area where some companies will value the combination of management consulting experience and some technical ability - especially if it's the "creating better products and more efficient workflows" aspect of coding that appeals

I had been thinking about it on and off and as a 40+ old engineer trying to pivot into Software, and i get cold feet whenever i think of the hazing practices currently in place to "weed" out bad hires. I am not against the concept of white-boarding but why bother with arcane algorithms that no one uses in the industry. But at present, I am focused on getting my first product out rather than pivot into Software Engineering as a career. A god way to really gauge my interest and also my persistence as a solo founder.

These practices aren't universal. Most jobs I've interviewed for have asked me practical questions. Just don't do the interviews you don't want to do.

I think if you are going to start as a software dev in a role where you wont be interacting with management or clients, your stellar business experience wont be utilized, and you would be downgrading your career tragectory,

If you are able to secure a software dev job with mostly management - interacting with clients or VPs and management - you will be able to utilize your previous busienss experience. I'm not exactly sure what type of role that is, so thats something you will have to explore further, but im sure there are roles that fall into this category.

A lot of the IT consulting firms need good engineers who will interact with client dev leadership/client business leadership, that sounds like a role that might be a good fit, but the IT consulting firms really need good people who are willing to work their tails off in those roles if you are up for it.

Yea you can… a uni graduate would take 10 years to reach Architect grade from there it’s just more of the same and layering experience.

You already have much experience to bring to the job.

All devs have to learn new frameworks and tech every five years. You are not as far behind as you think

Your peers are going to be 18 years younger than you. Be gentle with them and you will learn much from each other - you have life skills and experience they can learn…

"I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried." - Jeff Bezos when deciding whether or not to start Amazon

Do you think you will regret not taking the leap 5, 10, 15 years from now? It's a big decision that only you can make.

If you were coming from a different background (ex: manual labor / blue collar) and it would be a step-up I would consider it. For you, no matter how you slice it, this will be a step down and even if you were to get parity with your current profession it would be a grind. I'm in my 40's and have been slinging code my entire career. I still (mostly) enjoy it but it is work and I no longer do much coding outside of work for fun.

Sure why not. How old is the president of the united states again ; ) ? Besides it is a great combination. So you could always get back to management consulting, with coding experience. I think it just adds value to your skills. PS: Career as a software dev also means managing people as well. So in the end it is rarely just coding.

I hate to suggest this, but this a very naive question to come from a 40-year old. A job is a job. Most software jobs are just jobs. Even if you love it, it has all the pangs of any other job.

It’s a hyper competitive, saturated field, like everything else. Keep whatever advantage you have now, and ride it out. Life sucks, don’t try this.

Your comment can be read as being a little mean but I love it.

I think anyone can ask any type of question but being in management consulting for so long should have allowed him to have a better idea of what it would like to make such a change.

Not sure why the downvoting. This is a very valid outlook, OP should at least consider there is some risk he is taking. Its a pretty ageist industry and his junior colleagues will be 2 decades younger, this could get demoralising. Its possible for sure but not easy and who knows if OP will be happy eventually. My gut says try finding some product managememt role that is a bit technical.

I started right before I turned 36. I'm doing great. I've leveled up 6-8 times in the last 6 years and I'm right about the same level as my peers are now. I've passed up a couple of promotions recently because I'm really happy doing what I'm doing and the team that I'm on.

You will tire of it a few years in. The culture is heavily ageist and having to play second fiddle to people with much less experience gets old real fast. Stick with your current career but maybe look at moving to another industry if you feel like you are no longer excited about the work.

Well, you just have less time to develop your career as an actual programmer than you would if you started a bit younger. If you enjoy writing code, why not give it a shot? You will need to prove to potential employers that you can provide them useful work, though.

I properly started my software engineering career at the age of 40, after 7 years of grad school. I turned 50 last week. I recently accepted a software engineer position at Microsoft. You can do anything you want -- if you really want to.

PS: I love programming.

Yes you can.

Dont read anything else on this page. Just go forth and develop. You can do it.

yes go for it. Be willing to make the sacrifices in the short term. If you already enjoy coding, it is one of the safest jobs out there. You just have to get better at it with time/practice but if you can code, you will hardly be unemployed. A lot of management consultants/MBAs struggle if they are let go from their corporate jobs. An average developer ? Not so much.

Just don't expect the same salary and perks in the beginning even though you can catch up quick if you are really good.

I don't see why not! And if you get started now - who knows? maybe you'll be able to work your way up to management consulting in 10 years or so.

You can have mine.

Sure it is definitely possible, go for it.

What you described about your programming experience is already way more than what junior devs have.

you might start at a lower level, and then people would judge you for being older but "only" a IC2 or something