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Comment by _delirium | Hacker News Reader

> If you've had ten years being a manager at BigCorp, maybe you'd better sharpen up your coding skills

This runs into the "overqualified" problem, though. If you haven't been a programmer for a while, you probably can't be hired as a particularly senior programmer just based on programming skills, but companies also aren't willing to hire you as a junior programmer if you have 10 years of managerial experience, because you're too senior for that. Even if you really genuinely are fine with an entry-level position, most companies won't be willing to hire you into one.

Basically it's really hard to fake being a 25-year-old, even if you are 100% as qualified as a 25-year-old for a job (or even more qualified) and aren't asking for any more money than they are, because companies view the 25-year-old and the 55-year-old as fundamentally different when evaluating hires.

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Not what I'm finding. I'm midcareer myself, trying to build up consulting work, but without coding experience (I've teaching myself to code). Clients seem most interested in what I can do, and how reliably. It feels slow starting, but I've only been at it a couple months and I'm seeing traction.

Mind, I don't worry much about rate just now. I'm more interested in the portfolio and the relationships. I figure if I can fill up my calendar, I can start to raise the rate.

I suppose it sucks to be doing "junior" work, but you know something? At this stuff, I _am_ junior. If my background and experience and whatnot mean something to a client, then it will show in the work and relationships. They'll be that much more willing to find a rate that works for both of us as I get busier. But I certainly don't bother talking about them, because they have nothing to do with the relationship I'm proposing.

Now if we're only talking about a coding _job_, no. I doubt could get one, and don't know how quickly I could grow the salary if I did. But I think even that might be be in a different position in a year or so.

That's an interesting alternative; thanks for mentioning it. Yeah, I was thinking of regular jobs, not consulting, but that's definitely an option, since it lets you sidestep some of the broader generalizations about age and under/over-qualification, and home in on what you can do for a specific client in this specific moment.

My uncle was an engineering manager at a large multi-national. He's in his mid-50s, having worked there for over a decade.

In 2008 his company moved all their engineering to India. He stuck around to complete the transition, train the Indian devs etc, and took the package just as the recession started.

He had a helluva time finding a gig. But last I heard he went back to being a contract programmer (probably a pay cut) and he's working on a project on the side. Happy as can be.

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