Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by esonderegger 5103 days ago
I'm in a pretty similar situation (30 years old, no full-time programming on my résumé, but a long history of technical problem solving).

One thing I'll add is that, at least for me, the problem of employers only looking for people with X skill right now is not as bad in SF as it is elsewhere. I'm in Washington, DC and the only interest I've gotten has been from companies in the Bay area.
1 comments
malyk 5103 days ago
That sounds crazy to me. Are you able to get a clearance of any kind? If you are eligible then there should be thousands of jobs in the DC area to choose from.

Of course, those aren't super exciting startup-like jobs, but they are places where you'll get a bunch of experience.

link
esonderegger 5103 days ago
I already have a clearance. I guess this means I've probably been talking to the wrong people.

For the contractors I've been talking to, when I tell them that I write python when I can, PHP when I'm patching stuff I wrote a few years ago, and javascript when it needs to run client-side, and that I spend my days maintaining systems running Ubuntu server I get a response something like "yeah... that's not really what we're looking for.

And maybe I've been too quick to dismiss working in a Windows/ASP/VB shop. Those folks have challenging problems to solve too, and reasons for using the tools they use. Thanks for reminding me of that.

link