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Re:Ask HN: any advice for someone changing career to become ... by lpsz on Thursday April 10, 2014 @10:35AM (#7566419)
I don't have the power to downvote, but I sure hope you're joking. To the OP, no, your friend is not too old. I would ask him to focus on learning the fundamentals (e.g. how to use a hash table, sorting, and so on.), and also write a couple of projects and put them on GitHub to gain hands-on experience.
Re:Ask HN: any advice for someone changing career to become ... by techhackblob on Thursday April 10, 2014 @10:53AM (#7566632)
don't shoot the messenger. The US media over the last few months has been full of this kind of stuff

http://www.businessinsider.com/software-developers-fear-age-...

Re:Ask HN: any advice for someone changing career to become ... by potatolicious on Thursday April 10, 2014 @11:12AM (#7566831)
Ageism in the Valley is real, but you're vastly overstating the case. A person in their late 20s is, by a very wide margin, not considered too old - in the Valley or beyond.
Re:Ask HN: any advice for someone changing career to become ... by joshvm on Thursday April 10, 2014 @11:25AM (#7566938)
Given that several start-ups have come out of PhD projects, in the US at least that puts you into late twenties territory. In the UK most PhDs are ~25 if they started as early as possible.