Just expect a very tough first year :-)

Can you elaborate a little bit more on this? Was it tough because you couldn't find clients and had to live off savings or was it tough because you were working long hours + stress. Or was it something else entirely?

The only thing thats stopping you from writing code is you, pick up a book, take a class (think community college don't spend a ton of money on it) -- if you have made it this far in business your probably fairly pragmatic already a skill most young coders have to learn.

It's a culture thing, not a skills thing.

I honestly am the best developer I've ever been. I am constantly learning new stuff and usually know more new frameworks and languages than young developers I interview. I don't rest on my laurels. I think that's key.

Marketing I agree with you is probably harder, depending on the industry you're marketing for and the company you're working for. Ultimately, though there are objective aspects to marketing (e.g. running tests and seeing what works) but if you are having to be a source of ideas, as we get older it may be harder for us to come up with marketing and product ideas that truly interest a younger generation. So if you really enjoy marketing and want to stay in it, you may want to move to a company who is targeting people in your age group. I think that's true for anyone, though. A 20 year old may not know how to market to 40 years olds as well as a 40 year old.

If you want to get out of marketing and are looking for other career choices that you can age gracefully in, I think the firs thing is to ask yourself what you would enjoy doing and then from that list pick what you think you'll have the opportunity to age gracefully.

All the marketing people I know at large companies have little or no knowledge of how metrics are acquired or whether they're accurate/precise. If someone like the OP added skills in data mining and probability distributions, especially if they could conduct experiments on databases to shape marketing campaigns, they'd be worlds ahead of a) pure marketers or b) pure data miners.

In general, neither expert (a or b) knows enough to properly propose and explore new marketing ideas. Someone who can 1) walk the analytic walk, yet 2) speak the language of business and 3) understand consumer psychology and sales priorities, ought to be an essential contributor indefinitely in a business niche that should outlast us all.

+ Work for less cool companies: If you've worked for some impressive tech companies, there are plenty of less hip companies that would like to learn how "the big guys do it."

+ Build up superb expertise in a specific niche: I've met many more senior folks that survive just by building an maintaining a specific niche. Often this relates to some arcane domain knowledge.

+ Go into consulting: Building off the previous bullet, if you can develop a niche, e.g. Healthcare + tech marketing, often startups will pay you a premium for the "greybeard" advice.

I think the key thing is to maintain your technical skills. Sure, there will be specific things like SnapChat that just befuddle "olds," but those skills are a fairly small part of the mix. Good luck and let me know if you come across any other good ideas.

You don't work on the new and exciting stuff but as you get older you will find exciting is more tiring than it used to be.

Hey, same here. Well, nobody actually calls me that but I'm the youngest at 30 on my team, working for a company that has a pretty large percentage of employees that have been here for 20, even 30+ years. I can't remember the exact number but I want to say that something like 40% have been here for 10+ years. We're a medium size manufacturing company, so that's a lot of people. It really is in stark contrast to what you tend to hear about the bay area.

I joined when I was 30, and I was the third-youngest employee. The second-youngest was born in the same month of the same year as me, and I never got to really interact with the youngest. Everyone else was in their 30s to 50s. Unfortunately, I (along with a third of the company) got laid off a year and a quarter in, but working there was an interesting experience. I had so many interesting conversations with my coworkers.

And the owner of that company is a university professor (full professor, not an associate) with two PhDs and a very impressive academic background.

When working for a Fortune 100 company, it's easy to do the same thing with the same tools for years. Then one day you awaken to find your skill area there is in decline and devalued. If your skills (and personality) are not already seen as a hot commodity within the company, then when you leave, you definitely won't be prized by other companies either. If you're also older than average, that's a bad combo.

So don't let yourself fall behind technically, and try to stay toward the forefront of your skill area. But I recommend you don't get too far ahead of the curve and jump blithely into a high-risk/high-reward role, since blue chip companies are often slow to adopt novelty and do so clumsily, which often leads to false starts and poor rates of success in new ventures.

BTW, I'm almost 60. Nobody calls me kid any more. :-/

What about retirement? Are you that excited with your work that you don't want to retire? Or were there personal issues?

Ugh.. not super kind. Hope you don't take it the wrong way, but it is super interesting to somebody who is mid-career like myself and interested in retirement (whether that means gaming all day or just working on stuff that is "actually" fun.)

A lot of people make the mistake of staying too long in the same place, and gradually getting less and less "hireable". It is easy to just stay doing the same thing, but you are hurting your future chances of finding a job if you have to.

Also, becoming a manager seems worse to me from an employability perspective. There is always a greater need for developers than for managers.

I also wrote about why developer is a good career here (applies to older people as well): https://henrikwarne.com/2014/12/08/5-reasons-why-software-de...

The big analyst firms like to hire people with expertise and a thirst for knowledge. The job requires speaking and writing skills as well as expertise. But I can attest that you can pick those up along the way.

I am writing a book on how to succeed as an analyst. Short version: pick a space (has to have vendors in it), write about it, speak about it, be the expert.

If you're doing marketing, embedded systems programming may not be the answer you're looking for - you might want something that's more like marketing. Look around, though, for the marketing area that requires and values experience. (I am guessing in ignorance, but maybe account manager at an ad firm?)

2. Find roles that are outside your comfort zone. If you're a developer, try sales engineering - a great mix of technology, sales and public presenting. At the very least get a role that requires presentation skills (such as consulting)

3. Network, Network, Network... If you don't go out on a limb to start something new, maybe your friends will. This will open up new opportunities. As you grow in your career your professional network is what will open up opportunities for you. Whether you start your own thing, or get poached to work on new projects it will depend on who you meet and your personal interactions with them. IF you don't interact with your peers you'll find yourself stuck in the same role with few options to change.

4. As an employee you are important, but not as important as the business as a whole. So you possibly will find yourself in a position where you need to change or leave. Embrace this opportunity to grow.

Go broad, then specialize!

2) Rainmaker - writer of proposals and attractor of funding for new projects. This is an acquired skill (through experience of contract writing, practice in the domain, past business contacts, and knowledge of feasible business margins). In businesses where contracts are the life blood, this role is simply the most important person(s) in the shop. And this work is almost never done by folks with less than a ~decade of experience.

So if you are holding the leveraged ETF for a month and the index has a positive return, it is still possible for you to have a negative return.

I'm not saying that's how these index funds work, I don't know. Just beware of anything leveraged.

Of course it's somewhat useless to tell you just become a C level executive. But building on top of what was already suggested, I think if you start your own company, you'd have better chance of closing deals, making connections or have people trust you because of your age.

With age comes trusts and experience, and you can use that your benefit.

You may have a harder time convincing venture capitalists to invest in your company, I mean at 50 years, 80 hour work weeks and ramen noodle diets are not viable options. But if you set up a consulting shop you'd probably close contracts much quicker, expand your network much easier and succeed much faster than a typical 22 year old. It's one thing to build an app and get all kids to download it, it's another to be able to sit down with a client and understand their needs and make them trust you with their money.

Experience and trust, use it your advantage.

Option 2: Startup. You will probably fail and this has far more to do with factors beyond your control than anything else, but you have a shot at being your own boss on your own term. Very low expected value, tons of stress, but potentially the best outcome.

Option 3: Academia. Go back and get a PhD in something you love and teach. You will probably be an instructor, as tenured positions are rare and highly competitive. There is also a lot of nepotism and favoritism in the more subjective fields. Low reward (financially) but relatively low risk and lots of lifestyle benefits if you aren't materialistic.

Option 4: Low cost lifestyle. Move to a low cost country and consult via online work. I don't have any experience with this option, so I don't know how risky it is.

As a meta-observation, only option 1 makes any sense for someone wishing to form a family, which is psychotic.

I just want to be a 9-5 mid-level software engineer until the day I die.

The danger of that path is you spend 10-15 years at one company, get laid off, and all your real value is in the internals of a company you no longer work for. You don't even know how to look for a job.

I'm coming to the conclusion that while work can contribute to happiness, it can also siphon so much willpower that I've got nothing left for kids, other pursuits, etc.

Good thing my career has nothing to do with frontend js. Most of my background is in platform & infrastructure, and I'm currently in NMS... I'll be happy if I never touch web/social/mobile.

I can see myself doing NMS for a telecom for many more years.

> build your own base of clients

That's incompatible with the idea of being a 9-5er working for a large company, which is specifically what I want to do for the rest of my life.

> it will be hard to allow for a consumeristic life-style.

Well, I'm currently living a pretty consumeristic lifestyle right now... I just want to keep sustaining it till I die.

Personally, for 4 I'd recommend Spain (Barcelona specifically) as a remote working location. Reasonably cheap cost of living, but European and not too cheap, so you still have fairly good common infrastructure, easily available fast internet etc. Plus there's loads of other expats, amazing weather & food, and Spanish is a useful, fun and relatively easy language to learn (as opposed to, say, Thai). And the Spanish lifestyle fits with the relaxed remote working lifestyle fantastically.

It's likely that the age bands will shift as people age.

Ha Ha, you'd be a baby on my team. I'm 61, on a team of 20 people in a department of 100 people. Age range 21 to 72. I find little or no correlation between age and anything that really matters. Like quality of work, deliverance of value, or wanting to be on the same team.

I look around and there is hardly anyone over 40 and no-one 50+ unless they hit executive level.

That's just where you're at. I know hundreds of people in their 50s and 60s doing great work who are not executives. Lots of them are programmers, too. The happiest and most successful are doing stuff they love (or have learned to love).

The industry is about new technology and working

No. Any industry is about satisfying customers. Don't confuse what's in front of your face every day with what really matters.

..so as someone that likes to plan ahead. What do you think are good career options for the 50+?

Exactly the same as for 49-. Whatever's best for you. (More below)

I've been trying to think of jobs were age is an advantage.

I can't think of a single job where age would be an advantage. Experience maybe, but not age. I can think of a few where it would be a disadvantage: pro basketball player is one. But that belies the point: You should be thinking about a job where what you bring is an advantage: your skills, education, passion, etc. Forget age and focus on this.

The best I can think of is financial planning. Most people visit their planner when retirement is on their mind, so you'll likely be meeting people of a similar group and mindset.

Not sure I understand what you're trying to say here. If you love financial planning, by all means do it. But if you don't, finding a reason to do it doesn't make any sense. You're unlikely to find much success in any field you don't love, no matter what the other co-factors are.

Whereas in this industry being 21 and enthusiastic wont go far with many older people.

Oh yes it does! I have 18 people on my team under age 26 and I love working with them!

What does HN think are good options?

I don't know what the rest of HN thinks, but here's what I think:

Find what you love, what you're good at, and what puts food on the table and do it! Pour your heart and soul into it, get better at it, and it would be hard for you to NOT make the world a better place by doing it. Forget the rest, what others think, what's trendy, what you think may be important (but probably isn't).

I've been programming professionally for 38 years and can't imagine doing anything else. I hope I go another 38, no matter where the industry takes me.

My best advice of all: Take care of yourself now or you may not be able to do much of anything in your 50s.

Interesting times to shift into Financial Planning, evidently 'humans' are still in demand. Betterment Adds Human Advisors, Casting Doubt On Pure-Play "Robo" Investment Models > https://www.fastcompany.com/3067717/new-money/betterment-add...

I am in my mid-40s and have been flailing around career-wise for a few years. Here is my January "Who wants to be Hired?" post in case anyone has good leads for grey-friendly remote positions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13344823

Its a pay cut but hopefully less stress and more job security. I dont know how you break into it.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2015/09/17/50-is-peak-ag...