Is it too late to pursue a career in computer science at 47?

[symbolipoint]

After thinking about it a bit, my take is that I'm just too darn old for the Shopify Life Story interview. The same questions that work great for a 25 year old simply do not work for me. It's not quite ageism, but I did feel penalized due to the amount of experience I had.

And so I'm not a fan.

I still believe you did well. One thing you MIGHT want to do differently, is the actually TRY to state some parts of your pre-composed "Tell me about yourself" history. This could allow you to pick certains to say and also give some associated detail with it/them. This way, you could make the interviewer both listen and stall a little before asking his next question; OR your responses may lead the interviewer to a next question which you might answer impressively.

 

[Joshy]

Haha reminds me of my last interview looked something like this over the phone though

Spoiler

Hopefully everyone has seen Office Space

Interviews are a two way street. I'm interviewing them too. If the interview goes like above and same for the person describing their Spotify experience: I'm out; it's not a good fit for me neither and I'm not interested.

 

[symbolipoint]

Haha reminds me of my last interview looked something like this over the phone though

View attachment 304027

Spoiler

Hopefully everyone has seen Office Space

Interviews are a two way street. I'm interviewing them too. If the interview goes like above and same for the person describing their Spotify experience: I'm out; it's not a good fit for me neither and I'm not interested.

figuring how to interview the interviewer is more difficult (at least for me) than to present the candidate's "tell me about yourself" story and discussion.

If at least candidate does have two or three questions he thought of before hand to ask of the interviewer - this is very good!

 

[swampwiz]

I'm 27 and I'm currently attending an online university for compsci. I did the math recently and I won't get my degree until I'm almost 30. Is it still possible for me to find jobs once I graduate?

FWIW, I didn't become an unemployable programmer until I was about 36.

 

[StatGuy2000]

FWIW, I didn't become an unemployable programmer until I was about 36.

@swampwiz , if you don't mind my sharing this, what do you do for a living now? You stated that you became an unemployable programmer when you were about 36. What did you end up doing afterwards?

Feel free to PM me if you don't feel comfortable answering in this thread.

 

[swampwiz]

@swampwiz , if you don't mind my sharing this, what do you do for a living now? You stated that you became an unemployable programmer when you were about 36. What did you end up doing afterwards?

Feel free to PM me if you don't feel comfortable answering in this thread.

I've been "very early retired" since then, living a lifestyle that I call College Poverty Plus, living off of my 401K/IRA, and now a small pension from a former employer. I guess I could say that I teach English abroad, but that is only to pay for the travel, so that is really a "working hobby".

 

[StatGuy2000]

I've been "very early retired" since then, living a lifestyle that I call College Poverty Plus, living off of my 401K/IRA, and now a small pension from a former employer. I guess I could say that I teach English abroad, but that is only to pay for the travel, so that is really a "working hobby".

Do you plan on retraining or otherwise seek to pursue another career path at this stage? I suppose I'm asking because 36 is very young to "retire". I am currently 47 and I still see myself being able to work for about another 20 years or more either as a statistician or in some director/management level.

 

[swampwiz]

Do you plan on retraining or otherwise seek to pursue another career path at this stage? I suppose I'm asking because 36 is very young to "retire". I am currently 47 and I still see myself being able to work for about another 20 years or more either as a statistician or in some director/management level.

This was 20 years ago for me, so I'll presume that you are asking this of myself back in that time. Because of a major disaster that destroyed my home, I had other things on my mind then working or retooling. When that got finished, I was looking straight into the Great Recession, and went 0-14 on job interviews, so I gave up on getting work in my exact field (.NET front-end development).

I started to look at the upcoming field of business analytics & data science, and considered going back to my State U for a full year for an MS in that, which would have cost not only the (in-state) tuition but also getting place near campus. It was about that time that I assessed my total situation and came to the conclusion that my finances were decent enough that I could stay "retired", and that even getting this new degree would not insure me getting work, as I was in my 40s by then and coming off of "early retirement" - so I just threw in the towel for good on working again as a programmer.