Some of my friends have told me I'm too literal about job listings. They echo a key point that you've made here, "JAP positions normally require just the basic coding skills".
But if I apply for positions that need specific frameworks, plenty of people who have those frameworks are likely to apply as well. I've got experience, but won't applicants who match the checkboxes in job listings be more likely to obtain interviews?
Re:What Happens to Older Developers?
by humanrebar on Wednesday March 19, 2014 @10:38AM
(#7428871)
Don't say no for them. That's their job. If you think you would do the job well and enjoy it, apply anyway. Just be upfront about the things you'll need to learn about as you go, so they know what they're getting themselves into.
Re:What Happens to Older Developers?
by GFK_of_xmaspast on Wednesday March 19, 2014 @03:40PM
(#7431235)
You don't get the jobs you don't apply for.
Few hints he gives in the description of the interview process ("you'll be asked about algorithms", "you'll be asked why aren't you a CTO", etc) imply that he's interviewing for "Just A Programmer" positions -- is this the case? It looks like most of the difficulty in finding a job came from the disconnect between the position the author was applying for and his experience. JAP positions, even if they are advertised as "senior" normally require just the basic coding skills (i.e. you don't have to be really smart, mediocre is just fine) and therefore majority of applications will be much younger than the author, thus forcing the HR to ask the questions above.
In a broader context of discussion about older developers, what's more interesting for me are two things:
1. Why there are so few roles being advertised for truly senior developers? There are plenty of complicated commercial software around. For example, Apple works on a novel mobile operating system with its own set of technical challenges, so I would expect kernel specialists to be in demand, but those openings are rarely visible (even at apple.com/jobs).
2. What do truly senior engineers employed by major companies do on a daily basis? How mere mortals like us can get closer to their expertise set? I'm talking about Guido van Rossum at Dropbox, Brian Goetz at Oracle, Michael Stonebraker (though I'm not sure he hasn't moved to academia full-time), etc.