Ask HN: How do you start a new career with minimal qualifications?
A big problem (and it is a <i>big</i> problem) with the tech industry is ageism.<p>It&#x27;s freaking jaw-dropping. When I encountered it (I left my last job, of 27 years, at 55), I was gobsmacked.<p>If you are over 40, forget it (unless you are C-suite, or have gobs of money). If you are in your mid-30s, you need to have a lot of relevant experience. It&#x27;s very, <i>very</i> difficult to break in, at that age, at a junior position. If you complain about it, expect to be mocked by folks that are secure in their own employment.<p>I say go for it, but be prepared to roll up your sleeves, tuck in a bib, and eat some humble pie. I have been doing that, for most of my life. After encountering the current tech scene&#x27;s blatant, unapologetic, ageism, I gave up, and am working for free, doing stuff I love. Fortunately, I can afford it. I doubt that&#x27;s the case for the OP.<p>I have a GED. I have nothing but a couple of years of tech school. But I&#x27;m good at what I do. <i>Really</i> good. I always have been, and I can prove it.<p>When I was younger, selling myself was easy. Companies were clamoring to hire me; despite my lack of qualifications.<p>What I did have, was <i>experience</i>. Even now, at my age (I&#x27;m now 59), I have an unusual degree of experience, <i>architecting and shipping</i> software. I can prove a lot of it. I&#x27;ve been doing it for a living, since I was about 23 or so, and a great deal of my work is open-source (mostly because I was a manager, and did OSS to keep my tech chops up). My very first engineering project, in 1986-7, was a full-scale architecting and construction of a custom microwave switching interface. Many folks don&#x27;t get to do that kind of work for years. The fact that I was cheap labor, helped.<p>It&#x27;s just that, these days, experience isn&#x27;t the currency that it used to be.<p>I&#x27;m not saying don&#x27;t do it. I&#x27;m just saying that you&#x27;ll get lots of advice from young, and&#x2F;or career-secure people, with a lot of theoretical advice, based on their own experience of not having trouble (but they may be in for a bit of a shock, as their well-coiffed pompadour starts to take on a fetching shade of grey. I can tell you that happened to me, and it sucked). It really sucks to be mocked for it. Being told that what is clearly happening, isn’t happening, is quite demoralizing. I guess that I sort of deserve it, because I wasn’t always sympathetic to the plight of others.<p>Comeuppance is a <i>bitch</i>.<p>The rewards can be worth it. The pay in tech; even for younger&#x2F;junior folks, is quite good. If you love solving problems, and working in creative teams, then it can be an amazing experience.<p>But I think, like in any career, it&#x27;s important to <i>love what we do</i>. I spent 25 years as a manager. I did a lot of tech work during that time, but I hated the management part of the job. It was absolutely soul-crushing. If I hadn&#x27;t had my OSS on the side, I would have gone mad. The pay was mediocre. The frustration, however, was first-class, top-shelf.<p>I think that it is a mistake to approach a career, based only on the money to be made. For myself, I have always loved software, and worked for a lot less than many (the companies took full advantage of my lack of formal schooling, to keep my pay down). I can&#x27;t even imagine doing this, if I didn&#x27;t love it. The stress of writing shipping software is pretty damn intense. Every single day (even now), I generally start the day with an existential problem that has me defecating masonry. I solve it, but there&#x27;s a lot of sweat involved. I write about that, here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;littlegreenviper.com&#x2F;miscellany&#x2F;thats-not-what-ships-are-built-for&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;littlegreenviper.com&#x2F;miscellany&#x2F;thats-not-what-ships...</a>