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by collyw 4333 days ago
I am just about to turn 40. Been developing software for 11 and a half years professionally. I realise that I am a lot better developer than I was a while ago. Actually I have seen a lot more problems, and I have a good idea what will work two months down the line, and what will be a constant fire fighting exercise due to a half though through design.

How do I get this across to employers? All they seem interested is if I have experience in MongoDB (which in 9 out of 10 cases seems to be a crap choice).

4 comments

The typical interview in the silicon valley goes like this:

him: you're coding netflix, which db you use?

you: [insert any relational db name here]

him: but what if you have a gazillion users?

you: ok ok, i'll use mongodb (sigh)

If mongodb is in fact a poor choice for their problem set and they made it anyway, you're better off not being there.

If it WAS the pragmatic or correct choice, then I'd say spend a few days or nights getting up to speed with mongo. Learning to use it is not that hard, it's keeping things working smoothly/tuning when you have a huge cluster and many consumers of it that's hard.

Start consulting or doing independent contractor work? Apply to Fog Creek software or Trello, and let us know whether the reality is as good as the marketing?
I am based in Spain. The job market for senior developers is a bit tougher here.
Come work with us! We're growing fast and love people with lots of experience.

careers@benzinga.com

Would you consider remote? I am a Django dev (at the moment) and have experience in the financial sector, but I am based in Barcelona.
We do!

Barcelona is awesome. Our COO is actually from there originally

Judging from your team photo it doesn't look like that :-) But it is a thought what counts
Yes!

We have people in China, Poland, Russia, Pakistan, France, and India!