Too Old To Get Hired, so Decided to Quit the Lessons :(

I want to thank everyone for all of the great posts on this forum. I enjoyed working through the lessons but decided to quit since I’m 55 years old and was told by a few folks on another job/coding forum that I wouldn’t have a chance in the job market due to my age , in that nobody would hire you at my age… I wasn’t trying to get into C++ or anything like that, just purely web development (Hmtl, CSS, JavaScript, etc)… Anyway it was a very sad say when I decided to stop the training as I really enjoyed it. I was trying hard to get away from my customer service background.
Even though I have 10 to 12 hours a day available for learning, I just didn’t want to put that amount of time into something that would never amount to anything… This community is great and gonna miss everyone…

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Hi @Driven4Success !

Who told that you wouldn’t get hired because of your age?

I saw your first post and at a quick glance it looked like people were pretty encouraging about your job prospects.

Maybe I missed something but it looked like people were saying you could do it.

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Actually, my bad, I said “this forum”. I just realized it was actually another job forum not this one…But regardless…I’ll go back and edit the post

Age discrimination is a real thing and totally sucks.

Unfortunately, there are companies that have biases and will discriminate for age and even gender or race.

But there are also companies that are welcoming of all diverse backgrounds. :grinning:

I think it is a matter of finding that right company that will work with you.

My advice would be to connect with your network and ask around for which companies wouldn’t discriminate you for your age.

That is the value of having a network.
You can cut through a lot of the BS and find good companies that care. :grinning:

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It’s true that in technology age can impact your career prospects - much like race, gender, disability, and wealth (to name a few). If that’s a battle that you don’t want to fight, I get it. There’s a reason why people who experience prejudice and oppression leave tech at high rates. Getting a first programming job in your 50s is still an attainable goal, however. This is the sort of thing that freeCodeCamp was literally created to address, but for that I’ll just direct you to Quincy’s article Stories from 300 developers who got their first tech job in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

And if you’ve decided not to focus on a career change, but you’ve enjoyed learning to code then you’ll definitely still be welcome here as you tinker and learn how to build your own hobby projects.

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thanks for your comments, appreciated it…

You most certainly can find a job at your age.

All you need is one offer to get started. Smaller companies, contract work, freelance.

Keep learning, build your projects to showcase your skills, offer to build a site for a nfp, and network.

Project confidence and focus on your skills. You also have soft skills which are valuable.

Nobody has to know how old your are either.

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thanks, although that article mostly centers around people in their 30s who think they are too old… . but I appreciate your kind words!..

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The article is very relevant to people in their 50s

I gathered evidence so I could convince people to chill out about their age

I knew several people who were much older than me when they got their first developer job.

For example, one of my friends was a high school French teacher in her 50s. After taking some free online university courses, she got a job as a software engineer at Apple.

So I knew it was possible.

Though, if you’re convinced that getting a tech job in your 50s is impossible, it’s going to be really hard for anyone to talk you out of it.

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I got my first job at 47 through networking; a friend of mine introduced me to his boss, and one evening over beers I casually brought up some of the stuff I had been working on when he mentioned that he was about to lose his front-end leader. A few weeks later, I was the new front-end person. It happens like that more often than you’d think.

I’m in Japan where ageism is real, and I still get contacted by recruiters on a regular basis. I’m always sure to mention my age, and though they say it would be easier to place me if I were on the edge of 30 rather than 50, they still find me opportunities.

If you have a strong skill set, and there’s a need for that skill set everywhere, which is certainly true of web dev skills, somebody will put you to work. And, even if only a fraction of companies are willing to hire someone as an entry-level dev in their 50s, that fraction is still comprised of a lot of jobs, and many of them are probably going unfilled for longer than you’d think.

To keep things as relevant as possible, I should say that I learned basic full-stack development almost exclusively at freeCodeCamp for the first half year of my studies.

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Thank you everyone for all of your responses. You can bet I read every one of them…Sorry if I seemed to get easily discouraged. I do feel better after reading everyone’s responses… So thanks again!

I’m guessing any workplace that is accepting of your age will also be a healthier work environment. If they are not, it might not be a very fun place to work as a “grownup” anyway.

If you have the skills they need and your personality fits the workplace I can’t see how your age wouldn’t be just as much a positive. I mean let’s face it, having lived 50 years gives you life experience. You can’t teach or buy that, you have to earn it by living. We have a saying where I’m from about the elder workforce “the gray gold”.

Ageism works both ways, in fact, you are much more unlikely to see a 24-year-old president than a 50-year-old developer.

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well i dunno this would help but let me just sat tgat u am a 48 yo EE graduate who never got into the field because he made the wrong choices in life. i wont do a entire summary because i be repeating myself since i mentioned it on the post previously . anyways bag groceriies at vons to make a living (depending on where u live that might be albertsons or safeway to you ) amyways i learn to code on the side as a hobby because i dont want my chapter to end as bagging groceries not saying theres anything wrong with it either.

what i would suggest is do what im doing . as im learning, coding is a fun hobby to me . while mant people look at entertainmebnt as partying at the bar. my entertainmebt us coding. i have dipression disorder and possiblty might have mild autism. but coding put me in tbhe happy place. despite that i might get hired as a web developer. or someone out there will eventually hire me . i will always code for the rest of my life whether i wind up making a living from it or just a hobby because either wahy coding is fun for me. so i for one will not give up . if someone hires me whether its 1, 2, 5 , or ev en 10 years. and if no company thinks im a good fit witg them the all i can say ill live the rest of my life enjoyihng wghat i have the most fun doing and thats coding.

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Personally I do not feel you are too old, after all you have a decade til retirement and the language will evolve 3x over in that itme as we have seen in the past decade. I myself am 41 and had to look for new work in the field this year. Not only was I successful but I am also working with many that are the same age and older.

Maybe continue it as a hobby/side job and get a few sites under your belt, then when going for these positions you can wow them with your capabilities in that way. Not to mention there are plenty small businesses in every town that do not want a big boutique firm or marketing agency. they are your start up bread and butter.

Bottom line, never let anyone tell you that you can’t…if it is what you desire, and what you want, keep at it and success will follow.

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Dude… I think you need to take a look at your profile slogan “Driven4Success”. The biggest success stories are all about people who were told they couldn’t succeed, didn’t have a college degree, started their businesses in a recession with no money, etc.

I started programming at 45 and switched to web design at 50.

You enjoy the lessons and the community and learning new things is great for your brain. I can’t say this enough: You do you. Don’t quit.

Here’s your new plan:

  1. Get a hosting account for less than $10/month.
  2. Use it to create pages for imaginary businesses or friends.
  3. Use those sites to create a portfolio site.
  4. Use your portfolio site to demonstrate to companies what you’re capable of doing -OR- start your own business -OR- just do it as a side gig.

Don’t look back on this time three years from now and say I wish I had kept going.

Hope this helps,

MB

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I don’t know, I got my first web dev job at 49 and got a new one at 51. I would agree that it is harder, but it also not impossible.

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You enjoy web development and learning, and I’m sure that if you continue learning and doing what you enjoy, that you will find the path. Maybe people will discriminate you based on your age, but I’m sure that your effort will prove them wrong. Good luck man, wish you all the best

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If you can’t get hired, freelance is always an option. Also contribute to open-source project is fun too.

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thanks again everyone! Everyone has been really helpful, except for a very nasty and mean private message that I received, but I just moved it to my spam filter…thanks everyone.!!!

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I am sorry to hear that.

That is definitely not cool.

If you want to private message the name of the user who was harassing you then we can silence their account because that type of behavior violates our code of conduct.

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