Am I too old to get an entry level programming job?

Question

I received my BS in CompSci in 2001, Im 34 years old and have never had a programming job. Due to a family business, I was obligiged to sacrifice my wanting to go out on my own so that I could help my parents with their business. Now that the business is doing extremely well and not in need of my help, I want to get out of here. :)

What should I do to improve my chances of getting hired? Or is my age and lack of experience just too great? On an important side note, I started going back to university this Sept to get a second degree in EE/CE. I thought that getting another degree might improve my odds of getting a job in either the software side or hardware side of computers.

Thanks for your input.

Answer 1

I would say keep up what your doing, learn a few languages, and contribute to some OpenSource projects, so that you have "code out in the world". Your never too old to be new to anything.

When I look to hire, I don't look at age, I look at attitude, then ability.

Edit:
Basicly what everyone has said holds true, there is not "maximum age" to coding, in fact there is a good chance that it will help you, most 20 year olds aren't the most reliable, and quite a few are not looking for a long-term position.
Being a bit older then the 'competition' gives you certain advantages:
1) Reliability, most often someone in their 30s is more reliable then someone in their 20s
2) Stability, more so if you are married, your not as likely to up and leave suddenly, or come in
drunk/stoned/hung-over
3) Maturity, need I say more?

Now the family business would be a bit scary to me, if I were hiring you long-term, defiantly more then your age. I would be concerned that if something happened you would abandon me to go back to that, so I would need to KNOW that you were intending on staying for a period of time.

Answer 2

You are certainly not too old... If you did well in your degree, you are clearly a coder and know more than many developers.

Some tips:

(a) be honest about your situation but be confident as well

(b) find an open-source project and start contributing. Even if it is just documentation... then write unit tests, then fix bugs. Before too long you may be able to submit patch ideas for approval. This is experience!

(c) Write an app (preferably web based) and use it as a "portfolio" so that people can see your work. Offer the code as a download for review.

hope this helps

Answer 3

In my company your age wouldn't matter. 34 really isn't that old...

A second agree might help you but I guess much more important is knowledge of programming concepts. I don't mean any high level concepts but you should know the basics, how to let computers do what you want.

As Unkwntech stated, learn one or better two languages and try to participate in your favourite open source project.

Answer 4

You might never if you go to the proper courses, will refresh your skills and get some real programming experience under your belt you could leverage your business experience to become an analyst or a project manager.

I would recommend getting some industrial courses/certifications over any 'academic' degrees if you want to get a real job. Being an MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) for example would help much more to get a job as developer than being a BS. They are not really helpful in term of real-world knowledge but they give you a healthy dose of theory and more importantly they are highly appreciated by the recruiting agencies (at least in UK)

Getting the first developer job will be tough without prior experience. But that's where a certificate might help really nicely. Also try to use your connections to see if there is any job opening at a friendly company who will judge you for who you are, not for your CV profile

Answer 5

I know a chap who 'retrained' into IT and was employed by my previous employer. However, that employer was modelled after the dotcom types, so they had lots of little empires filled with staff who surfed the web all day. Nowadays things are different and you might find it harder to get the break.

He was an ex-lorry driver, so don't think for a second you can't do it.

I think the best bet for you is to enter the industry in a support role (eg maintenance engineer rather than phone-monkey) and big up your customer-focussed, customer-facing, communication and organisational skills.

I doubt a degree will help, proven work will. A vocational training certificate will likely be much more useful as they have much more practical orientation whereas a degree can say 'you can pass exams', or 'you like to hide in academia' and says nothing about your ability in the real world.

If you have code examples (open source projects need your help and that'll look good on the CV) then so much the better, but be open and honest and explain that you like coding and that you're coming into the industry to get a job you love rather than coming in to escape a job you hate.

We also had someone who joined us from his own business, 2 weeks later, he just decided not to turn up anymore. Think of that role-model and explain to your prospective employers why you wouldn't be like that, 'cos that'll be one of the things they'll be thinking about.

Answer 6

If I received a CV (resume) from someone like yourself, I'd want to know:

1. What the family business was and what your role had been (to know whether you might have gained useful business skills, which is something many developers lack).
2. Have you been keeping up to date with software changes since 2001. The development world has changed a lot in that time and even if you remember what you learned back then, it might not be of much use.
3. Will you be able to separate yourself from the family business. If your parent's business goes bad in a year's time, will you likely leave to go back to working for them?

I certainly wouldn't regard you as too old though.

Answer 7

In theory you are never too old; in practice, you may find that you get overlooked for younger people, but there is no practical reason for this.

If you are prepared to accept the pay associated with your experience, and not with your age, you might have an advantage over younger candidates on the basis that you have a lot more professional and life experience. If you can bring this experience to the fore in your CV and in interviews, it might be an advantage. Very few graduates have any real business or professional experience.

A second degree won't do any harm, but getting some projects under your belt might be more beneficial.

If you can't get a graduate-level job inthe short-term, you might consider either embarking on a serious project of your own, or perhaps volunteering your skills to a charity (we http://www.it4communities.org.uk in the UK, you might have something similar).

Answer 8

I've heard of a physicist who turned programmer when he was about your age and became a project manager by the time he was 42.

So it's basically what Unkwntech said. It's all about attitude and deciding whether this is what you really want to do

Answer 9

The lead developer on my team was a musician until the age of 29, where he picked up programming.

Answer 10

The biggest difficulties I would see are practical, economic ones, rather than skilled, ability ones.

Many entry level jobs offer a comp package that is designed for the likely candidate - i.e. graduate or grad+a couple of years.

If you're in your mid-thirties, perhaps with a spouse, children and a mortgage, can you afford to take entry level coding jobs? This is a general issue with employing older, more experienced people. While years of experience come at a price, years of real life demand a salary of a commensurate level.

Answer 11

May I suggest you don't look specifically at entry level positions?

Many times the real purpose of the adds for entry-level positions is to get cheap freshly graduated students (A perfectly valid way to do things). So although you might get be able to get a position like that remember the "cheap" part.

You'd probably be better off finding a temp position (better pay) and proving yourself on the Job, that way you'll be working yourself towards a better career in less time.

Answer 12

I think MS certification can be useful as it at least shows that the candidate is interested enough to have bothered doing them, even if they don't necessarily translate into the real world of programming.

I felt that after a 15 month career break, having an MCSD helped me to get interviews if not the actual job. Maybe thats more of a UK thing.

Answer 13

Given that you have real, successful small business experience with your family, have you considered starting your own?

You know you can code. While working with your family, did you come across any problems where you thought that a program would solve? You have specific domain knowledge that I am guessing relatively few programmers share. While you might not have a great deal of "formal" programming experience, you do have important business experience and insight, and people are willing to pay for that. Moreover you're likely well-suited to striking out on your own, since you're familiar with the operations of a business.

Your family was your boss for a while, and that's fine. But this is your opportunity to work for yourself.

Answer 14

You aren't too old though I do agree about considering jobs above entry-level. Another note is to see what skills from the family business may translate into a developer or quality assurance position? Have you had to solve problems, suggest ways to work around technical issues, or delegate tasks in a manner showing leadership? These are just a few of the things I'd consider if I was in your shoes as well as considering a couple of other resources:

1) Your school - Both where you are going now and where you went for your first degree, do either have a career services arm that may describe jobs for graduates or alumni? Sometimes this can seem like you are going backward but really it can provide an excellent opportunity to apply for jobs that tend to have little competition at times. My first job out of university moved me across the continent all because of geography.

2) Recruiting firms - There are likely various IT recruiting companies like Robert Half or Volt for a couple in Washington State I remember where they may be able to help you with spiffing up your resume or what kind of position you may want to consider taking as maybe you go into becoming an administrator rather than a developer initially for another idea?

Having the desire for the job, enthusiasm to do it properly, and maturity may be a very nice combination for some companies to see. Maybe you could consider being a business analyst for a little while if you really got a feel for how businesses run from the family business.

Hopefully there is an idea or two in this answer that helps and good luck!

Answer 15

Screw the agism, man, just get out there and do it. I've hired people from other professions who have made great developers because they can operate in a variety of situations. Their business background was a plus, and it helped bring reality to those who thought they were subject matters experts, but because of their lack of experience, learned from "the old guy".

If you work hard, you can do it. Good luck to you and may you have great success!

Answer 16

Join an MS program in CS. Seek an internship. If they give you a job offer, take it. And, even if you get to get a degree, your thesis adviser will be more helpful to you than anybody else here.

Personally, after 7 years as a programmer, I took two years off in my IT career, doing something completely different. And, after that, it was hard to get even a phone interview for an IT job. Well, I already had an MS in CS. I got help from my former boss. I worked at his start-up for a year and half before it went under, and moved on. At this time of job seeking, getting an on-site interview was very easy.

Answer 17

My experience differs from some of the opinions given here. I wouldn't suggest you go for a support role. Everywhere I've worked I've seen an "us" / "them" divide between people who code and people who test / maintain / install / support. I think if you start in one of the latter roles it's hard to move sideways into coding. That isn't to say testing, maintenance etc. don't have their own rewards, just in my experience there are cultural barriers between these roles.

If you haven't had a professional software job then follow the advice of others and get some experience of real code on a large project. I'm sure you know more than I did, but in Uni I didn't learn things like source code control, peer reviews, requirements gathering, build processes, release control. These are part of everyday life in the real world and showing this kind of knowledge in interview will show you're more useful than a fresh graduate.

I'd say something in the open-source world you can say you've contributed to is more useful than to do another degree, by a long way. Don't go in as a fresh graduate if you don't need to.

Answer 18

You might try taking jobs at sites like RentACoder. These are great both your own learning experience, and for your resume.

Answer 19

No, you are not.

I spent an age working in academia, and after being made redundant I managed, after no small amount of trying, to gain an entry level programming job. Just be honest and say that this is what you are really passionate about, and are prepared to start from scratch and be very flexible with regards pay. I was able to show them some various code/classes/GUIs I did in my spare time and while working at a University, which I think helped quite a bit.

I would have been 37 at the time I landed my first programming job. In the UK at least, I don't think employers have a right to ask your age. In the meantime carry on learning everything you can and keep banging out code. Best of luck!