Ask HN: How do you find a new career in your early forties?

[newcareerwanted]

Hi HN,

A little background: I have a bachelor in CS and worked a few years as a developer until I got too bored. Then I discovered investing and spent the last ten years as a self-employed micro cap investor.

Now, having failed as an investor, I'm looking for a new career. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do next and how to figure it out...

My current approach is to look at all kinds of open positions, but it feels ineffective, like looking for the needle in the haystack, without even knowing how the needle looks like. In parallel I'm relearning about software development as a plan B, however, I'm struggling with motivation problems and self-doubts, and somehow I can't imagine myself as a developer anymore.

Any advice? Thanks.

[CodingPanda42]

Do you want a new career or a new job?

If you want a career then I'd start backwards: Where do you want to be? What can you imagine yourself as? And then works from there what you need to get there. And likely what you have to do is upskilling somehow before you can even apply, you can probably take a lot of learnings from your past 10 years and apply them to your new role but there are likely a few things you have to learn first.

On the developer point specifically: Can you not imagine yourself as a developer because of self-doubts or because you really don't like that path? If you already didn't like it 10 years ago you might not like it now either but if it's just because of doubts whether you can do it then it's a different story. It's certainly also going to be difficult to get back into a developer role but with the current job market it is probably still easier than most other career options IMO

[newcareerwanted]

Thanks for your answer.

> Do you want a new career or a new job?

Both.

> Where do you want to be? What can you imagine yourself as?

Hm, difficult questions I can only partially answer. One part is definitely to become an (part-time) investor again.

> Can you not imagine yourself as a developer because of self-doubts or because you really don't like that path?

It's a mix of both. I have doubts whether I can do it. And I have difficulty to imagine doing it 100%. What I liked in the past was working at the design level, with paper and pen. But at the two developer jobs I had in the past, this was only a small part of the work. Most of it was coding, which for me is more of a necessary evil. Or to say it in another way: I like designing a house, not building it.

[mattbrewsbytes]

Sounds like you want to be a Product Manager - defining what a product does and managing the efforts to get it implemented. Titles might also be project manager but product is usually a key word that an organization is less concerned about typical PM's and more about product delivery vs. IT. Business Analyst might also be a path towards a product manager.

Maybe look for something in the investment space since you have knowledge about that.

[CodingPanda42]

If you don't like the act of writing code then you def don't want to go down the developer route. I agree with some of the other comments that looking into product management might very well be worth it and your background in investment can help with that if you find a company in that field!

[tmaly]

Are you good at writing requirements or doing project management work? There are tons of opportunities in Fintech that need those type of skills. Having some tech background is a huge plus.

[newcareerwanted]

I don't know whether I'm good with those things as I have never done them.

[tmaly]

If you have a good analytical mind, you can pick these skills up rather quickly.

[sonalgoyal]

This is a great reply !

[RemingtonLak]

Hit me up. I feel the same and actually did roughly the same. Are you in the bayarea by any chance? email: lakota gmail

What you and I area looking for in essence is a life coach. I'm not one but fatherless all my life, it seems having someone to bounce ideas and finding purpose may help. Not necessarily that i have an answer for either of us but having no one to talk to doesn't help. Wife is not someone whom this topic is either ideal or would go too well.

Again, I'm not selling you anything but to tell you I feel the same. Just looking for a chat bud who is maybe willing to share each other's burden but also maybe the sounding board will shed some light in the end of the tunnel.

In my 40's w a 2yr toddler and wife, I'm about to be jobless after my contract ends. thank god! but not thankful not knowing what to do next....

[austincheney]

You can start life over as an old military officer. You would be one old lieutenant but I have seen people do it, deploy, and enjoy it. This will pay less but the expectations are high.

As a developer in his early 40s myself I can say it’s hard to start over. Whether or not there is ageism explicitly it is certainly there implicitly. It does not matter your experience or skill set. If you want to be employable you have to learn to hang with the cool kids and play with the cool kid toys. You have to be willing to work with fresh junior developers fresh out of school on a level they understand and concede a certain level of immaturity regardless of the position claiming to want years of experience.

Immaturity in software is rampant. Immaturity suggests having your cake and eating it too, such as a phobia of writing anything and yet high expectations for written guidance. A better example is wanting simplicity in the code and doing the opposite out of convenience. As an older guy you might know better, but as someone restarting their career you must learn to expect this hypocrisy is the anticipated preference.

[newcareerwanted]

Becoming a military officer isn't an option for me (I live outside of the USA). My military "career" ended more than 20 years ago at the mandatory recruiting event when I was considered to be unfit for it.

[codegeek]

You could try to get a Customer facing job as a Technical Business Analyst, Project Manager or even Sales Engineer where you don't have to necessarily write code but you can use your knowledge effectively. Customer facing roles are also very critical and if you become good at it, you have leverage and lot of options for yourself.

[niros_valtos]

Based on this description, it looks like you are an entrepreneur. If you failed with investing and software development is boring, challenge the perception of people to manual or ineffective tasks that excite you and then figure out how to solve it. For example, how annoying it was to get a taxi before Uber?

[nextos]

Finding a new career is easier if you can link your education with your new desired career, and pivot there in a step wise fashion.

I would suggest looking into CS niches that you enjoy and where age would be an asset. For example, formal methods (e.g. in finance or in aerospace), automation/robotics (e.g. in biotechnology), or data engineering and modeling (e.g. in banking).

[JesusRobotics]

I’ve been wondering similar things myself. I abandoned front-end development and have been trying to relearn things I used to know as well as new things. I don’t even have a clue what kind of employment I could be worthy of and required steps to take to pursue it.

[kleer001]

What work have you done already that points to a new focus for your time? Look into that.