Tips for starting a developer career at 40+

Career AdviceCareer

For anyone over 40, starting, or starting over, a developer career may be challenging. This is a job description that flirts with young people more than other job descriptions do. So do candidates with more life experience than programming experience even have a chance?

The answer is of course yes; But there are some details to be aware of. The career change will certainly not be child's play, but it won't be as bad as you might fear either.

In this article, we've put together a few helpful tips for our 40+ audience to get you started (or restarting) your developer career right away.

Know Your Stuff

That should come naturally to you. If you want to land a job in software development, you have to really know your “stuff”. Your prospective employers will give you specific tasks to complete at home, ask specific technical interview questions, or conduct whiteboard interviews to determine if you're a good fit for the job.

The best strategy here is to learn a specific language and the most important frameworks for it. Mastering a specific skill set within a programming language or framework is great. However, employers want to reassure themselves that you are not a “one trick pony”. Focus on a discipline like web development, but don't be too niche.

Networking

Personal networking can be very tedious for many, but especially for introverted developers. Networking via social media is perhaps less strenuous, but no less critical.

Nevertheless, we suggest starting networking via digital networks. First follow developers with careers that are also worth pursuing for you. Don't forget those like you who are just starting their developer careers.

People tweet and share more on social media than they do in person. Networking with code enthusiasts in your area is also smart, as they will be posting about Meetups in your area.

Always be positive and friendly when networking. If you're negative and rude, people will quickly distance themselves from you. The tech community is very small, even in cities like Vienna or Graz.

Have an online developer presence

In addition to being digitally connected, you should be easy to find online. This definitely doesn't mean you have to post your phone number online, but you should have a profile where people are looking for developers like you. LinkedIn is definitely a relevant channel. For many, a profile on LinkedIn serves as an online resume, and employers often use it as a cross-reference. So make sure your profile is always up to date.

GitHub is also a good place for developers. While you may not have hosted any projects, or few, using gits is a good way to show that you've created a lot of code snippets that can be used in projects.

A digital way to present yourself adequately, which is very often both overlooked and underestimated, is a blog. Compared to the measures presented, your own blog is certainly the best place to show off your technical knowledge. A blog article about using frameworks, tools or hacks is an easy way to prove your knowledge. Recruiters and HR managers also give you more trust as a result.

Do side projects

There are already countless websites for freelancers. We recommend a profile on sites like Upwork, so you can test yourself to see if you can land a part-time job. I would like to issue one more personal warning. On pages where you bid for various jobs, there is an automatic race to the bottom. Just look at these projects as a good opportunity to learn something. Completed projects can still be used as bait for recruiters and IT recruiters.

Even if you have been part of a larger implementation team, you can prove your skills through the part that you implemented in the project. Of course you can also publish your projects on your blog or in various profiles

The old tech elephant in the office

Ageism in tech, also called tech-ageism, exists and sucks. Unfortunately, you just have to learn to deal with it. However, by following our guidelines above, you can easily show that it's your skills that count, not your age. HR managers and IT recruiters just want to make sure you can do the job. So being older than many developers shouldn't be a factor.

You should be open about your age and explain why you started your development career later or why you rebooted. You'll probably have to explain yourself more often than fresh grads, but you deserve the job no less than a kid.

Even as a 40+ programmer, you'll spend a lot of time staring at the monitor, wondering why the code isn't working. You don't have to be 23 years old to do this.