I suspect that part of the reason is that the smaller shops I looked at were based in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn's agesim is much worse than Silicon Valley. Also, I was interested in the kinds of startups that are probably dominated by energetic younger folks. I do native Swift (Apple) stuff, and have a lot of experience with things like SDKs, and hardware control/communication.
The bigger shops tended to have a lot less interesting work, but were also a lot more "stolid" in their approach to recruitment.
Like I said, I was looking for work that I found interesting. I'm sure I would have been able to find work that was less motivating.
As it has turned out, what I'm doing now, is highly motivating, and I no longer have a desire to go back to the rat race. In the aggregate, I'm glad things turned out the way they did. A couple of startups missed out, but I'm sure they'll be OK. I'm not God's gift to programming. I know that I am doing great.
Is that a Brooklyn/hipster thing, or a NYC finance culture thing seeping into the tech world?
In my experience, “classic” companies (which now include former “rebels,” like Meta, Google, and Apple) are more likely to be professional and courteous (we won’t talk about IBM, though), when it comes to dealing with older folks.
I’ll bet that my experience as a manager also spikes my chances. I have no interest, whatsoever in being a manager again, but it gave me some great viewpoints and experience with things like strategy and pitching.
> I had to do all the same coding tests
I don't know man.
I also deliberately avoided companies known for leetcode style interviews although I can do those kinds of tests too.
I have a current portfolio that is massive.
In fact, I just got done updating several apps and packages, so it's current as of about five minutes ago.
I wouldn't dream of taking me on faith. I never did, as a hiring manager, but I was also fairly good at evaluating folks. I would have killed for the kind of info I can provide; which makes it really weird, that people immediately dismiss it.
In any case, that's all water under the bridge, these days. Barn doors, horses, etc.
In any case if you're financially in a position that you can work on whatever you want it sounds like things might have worked out for the best despite the unpleasant interviewing experiences?
I’m not gonna be zipping around in a Bentley, but I live humbly, anyway.
I never realized how important it is to be truly happy with my vocation, until I was forced into it.