Re:Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
by anonOver60 on Thursday October 18, 2018 @01:44PM
(#18250401)
The advice I've given to younger generalists like me is to force yourself to become an expert on something. That's what people are used to seeing when they are hiring. Pick something long-lasting like databases or search or machine learning.
Should I focus on having some/one/few "unique selling propositions" - something I can say I'm expert in? And what would those be?
Anyway back to trying to give you (and other younger folks) some answers.
I've been interviewing candidates for a while. From technical phone interviews, over F2F, and now mostly so called Fit interviews.
And first time I interviewed someone with CS PhD that they have since around the time I was born - I was happy to be paired with another older colleague.
Not that I was scared/intimidated or felt inadequate. I was really worried about candidate getting impression we're a bunch of "teenagers" ;)
So actually on that point I've got nothing for anonOver60 - other than saying to others that instead of being intimidated, you should just be yourself and there is nothing to worry about.
If the candidate is good - being more experienced they'll know how to handle situation in a way that won't make you feel like 2nd class compared to them.
I second the idea of different/customized CV for different roles/positions. In fact each place/position you apply for should be it's own tuned/customized veraion of generic CV..