From my personal experience, I disagree completely with the advice that "non-youngsters" switching careers to software development should aim for "non-fashionable" tech.<p>I started to learn software development at 37 years old (shoutout to freeCodeCamp.org!). That was in 2017. I went the frontend route, so I naturally started with html, css, and javascript. Then, since React was already the most popular framework then, I started to learn it and build projects solely on React. I skipped Jquery, pre-ES5 javascript, and things like that. I focused on what was fashionable.<p>It turned out great for me! I am a very happy and successful (in financial terms compared to what I earned early or expected to earn these days) web developer.<p>Funny enough, my first job was using Ember. But six months in, the company decided to migrate to React, since it was getting harder and harder to hire people that wanted to work with Ember. Then a couple of React jobs. And now I started a job using Vue. So still learning fashionable things.<p>Btw, I never noticed ageism against me. I worked on a big Brazilian startup and then on three small American startups. Of course, plenty of the jobs that I applied for and didn't get could be because of ageism, I'll never know, but I consider myself to be successful in getting jobs, so at least I think it is not something that affected the general outcome of my career.
Maintaining and extending legacy code is, in many ways, orthogonal to its underlying language.<p>You can make a 2x2 matrix with "legacy code quality" on one axis, and "language percieved desireability" on the other axis.<p>You can make truckloads of money, earn much respect, with nearly zero negative ageism, in at least one of those quadrants.<p>"Building new" versus "maintaining existing" are different mindsets, and often a choice.<p>For older people just getting started, "maintaining existing" is often the wiser first decision. From there, the particular mix of language and tech stack count, and often the more obscure the better.<p>Find a good niche.
There aren't many jobs in Cobol or Fortran, and they tend to be powering things that aren't very junior-friendly.<p>I would go for C#, Java, or (if you have a masochistic streak) C++. And SQL.<p>Honestly Go seems to be over its honeymoon period and is probably a safe bet also (there's 500 Go vs 600 C# jobs on my regular UK job search site).
How come most people say software devs are in demand and then there is this comment saying he receives 4000+ applications on a job and nobody in Europe should consider this career?<p>Can perspectives on reality be this far apart, or is he trolling?
Tangential to this piece: if you're worried about ageism, consider going into to defense and aerospace. Lots of older developers because of the clearance requirement
Not sure if I agree with some of the specifics of this, but the overall sentiment is still valuable. There's a lot of work out there for non-youngsters looking to get into software development. Lots of hiring companies will value your experience even if it's not directly related to coding.<p>Wrote these just after I switch careers ~4 years ago:<p>1. <a href="https://zmsy.co/blog/career-switch/" rel="nofollow">https://zmsy.co/blog/career-switch/</a>
2. <a href="https://zmsy.co/blog/switching-careers-to-software-engineering-part-two/" rel="nofollow">https://zmsy.co/blog/switching-careers-to-software-engineeri...</a>
Umm, excuse me, what?<p>The author is telling people to pick up Cobol/Basic/Pascal/MUMPS (and not Go or another modern language) as their first language in 2022? To make themselves more employable? How did this make it to the front page? I get that some people will like the old-man grumpiness in the post but put that aside and focus on the actual advice they're giving - it's just outright harmful career advice.<p>And also, think about it from first principles - why would people starting their programming careers 15+ years later than most people need to pick different tools? It makes no sense at all.
My dad has a few decades experience with MUMPS and he has a hard time finding a job every time he's had to go looking. There are few jobs and they seem competitive.<p>I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to learn it now for a job.
Well not only QA not only niche languages.<p>If you get semi-technical there are loads of product owner/business analysts roles to fill in.<p>Let alone if you just want any job there is first line support / second line support.<p>There are plenty configuration roles which don't require knowledge of coding but ability to learn configuration settings, operating browser, operating software on different angle than just using it - but being able to congfigure it for others to use.
>> new technology (fashion is about the new) often experiences a period of rapid change, and keeping up with change requires time and effort. Does somebody with a family, or outside interests, really want to spend time keeping up with constant change at work? I suspect no<p>BS.<p>I'm not one for terse responses but I cannot think of any better way to say it. This author evidently has never worked with anyone outside their graduating class. Without "outside interests" or "family" I predict they will burn out within five years.