<story><title>Ask HN: Any job boards and age-friendly companies for older developers?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve spent last year interviewing only to find out that I&amp;#x27;m considered too old (I&amp;#x27;m 45) for most shops around. They won&amp;#x27;t spit it out directly of course but people talk and what they say is that I need to be stellar or young to be hired. Companies won&amp;#x27;t invest in me the slightest bit, so the moment I miss a question in the long interview process I&amp;#x27;m out of the door without second thought.&lt;p&gt;So...&lt;p&gt;1. I might be banging the wrong doors. E.g. FAANGs don&amp;#x27;t seem to be right. Any companies that don&amp;#x27;t drink&amp;#x2F;sell the youth cool-aid?&lt;p&gt;2. I might be searching at the wrong job boards. Any suggestions welcome.&lt;p&gt;3. Finally I might be better doing sth else altogether (but what?) rather than fighting a loosing battle against preconceptions that run so deep.&lt;p&gt;Anyway. Thanks for any non-insulting answers in advance.&lt;p&gt;PS: I&amp;#x27;m based in EU and I&amp;#x27;m a SW Dev working mainly in DevOps and Reliability.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ghaff</author><text>Interview clothing is a bit controversial. Not that I&amp;#x27;ve had a lot of interviews over the years, but I&amp;#x27;ve always tended to overdress a bit. Maybe I didn&amp;#x27;t need to, but it seems respectful. On the other hand, I&amp;#x27;ve heard people who feel strongly that it someone shows up in a tie for a dev job that&amp;#x27;s a hard &amp;quot;nope.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>noirbot</author><text>Probably hard to tease apart, but I wonder if the &amp;quot;dying your hair&amp;quot; part matters as much as the &amp;quot;dressing more hip&amp;quot; part. Someone that looks like they&amp;#x27;re dressing well and have a sense of style is likely to innately have a better first impression than if you look like you&amp;#x27;re an extra in a sitcom. It&amp;#x27;ll help you stick out in people&amp;#x27;s minds, for better or worse, and shows at least some level of caring about the position.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a younger guy, but I know I try to pick my outfit carefully when going for an interview. I don&amp;#x27;t have a totally different interview wardrobe or anything, but I pay a little more attention to matching colors and generally looking more put-together.&lt;p&gt;You may not even need to get your kids to dress you - just find a friend your age who cares about fashion some to help. Even if you think you dress well, having someone else check you over or make small suggestions can help.</text></item><item><author>travisgriggs</author><text>My experience is anecdotal and second hand. I&amp;#x27;ve seen it twice now.&lt;p&gt;It began with a friend who was in the job market as a 50+. More on the hardware side. This guy has some cool experience. He gets lots of interviews, they go well, but no offers.&lt;p&gt;As his frustration grows, he grows desperate to try something different. He dyes some color back into his hair, gets some tinted glasses, and lets his daughter take him shopping for some more hip interview clothes.&lt;p&gt;A month later and he&amp;#x27;s in bidding wars for who to hire him. He said the difference was night and day. He was now pointing out his age in interviews &amp;quot;are you sure I&amp;#x27;m not too old?&amp;quot; and the interviewers were like &amp;quot;no way man.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I wondered how one off this was. A year or so later, knew another guy who was having this same struggle. We shared the story with him. He raised his eyebrows, hesitated for a week or two, the colored his hair, got his niece to take him shopping. And pretty much same thing.&lt;p&gt;Obviously, this is a small sample set. But the lesson I took from this (and haven&amp;#x27;t had a chance to prove for myself yet) is that it&amp;#x27;s not your age that will limit you, but your apparent age. If you are old, but look like a younger&amp;#x2F;fresher version of yourself, you do well. If you appear &amp;quot;old&amp;quot;, you struggle.&lt;p&gt;Best of luck.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nogabebop23</author><text>I think the correct path here has not really changed in the past 20+ years: find out how they dress for a typical work day and then go one step more dressy. So if it&amp;#x27;s a jeans and t-shirt shop, go khakis and collared shirt; if it&amp;#x27;s business casual a jacket and tie is fine.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not so much about what you are wearing as it is about &amp;quot;fitting in with our culture&amp;quot;. At least this is a bias that you can usually mitigate (if you want to)</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Any job boards and age-friendly companies for older developers?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve spent last year interviewing only to find out that I&amp;#x27;m considered too old (I&amp;#x27;m 45) for most shops around. They won&amp;#x27;t spit it out directly of course but people talk and what they say is that I need to be stellar or young to be hired. Companies won&amp;#x27;t invest in me the slightest bit, so the moment I miss a question in the long interview process I&amp;#x27;m out of the door without second thought.&lt;p&gt;So...&lt;p&gt;1. I might be banging the wrong doors. E.g. FAANGs don&amp;#x27;t seem to be right. Any companies that don&amp;#x27;t drink&amp;#x2F;sell the youth cool-aid?&lt;p&gt;2. I might be searching at the wrong job boards. Any suggestions welcome.&lt;p&gt;3. Finally I might be better doing sth else altogether (but what?) rather than fighting a loosing battle against preconceptions that run so deep.&lt;p&gt;Anyway. Thanks for any non-insulting answers in advance.&lt;p&gt;PS: I&amp;#x27;m based in EU and I&amp;#x27;m a SW Dev working mainly in DevOps and Reliability.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ghaff</author><text>Interview clothing is a bit controversial. Not that I&amp;#x27;ve had a lot of interviews over the years, but I&amp;#x27;ve always tended to overdress a bit. Maybe I didn&amp;#x27;t need to, but it seems respectful. On the other hand, I&amp;#x27;ve heard people who feel strongly that it someone shows up in a tie for a dev job that&amp;#x27;s a hard &amp;quot;nope.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>noirbot</author><text>Probably hard to tease apart, but I wonder if the &amp;quot;dying your hair&amp;quot; part matters as much as the &amp;quot;dressing more hip&amp;quot; part. Someone that looks like they&amp;#x27;re dressing well and have a sense of style is likely to innately have a better first impression than if you look like you&amp;#x27;re an extra in a sitcom. It&amp;#x27;ll help you stick out in people&amp;#x27;s minds, for better or worse, and shows at least some level of caring about the position.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a younger guy, but I know I try to pick my outfit carefully when going for an interview. I don&amp;#x27;t have a totally different interview wardrobe or anything, but I pay a little more attention to matching colors and generally looking more put-together.&lt;p&gt;You may not even need to get your kids to dress you - just find a friend your age who cares about fashion some to help. Even if you think you dress well, having someone else check you over or make small suggestions can help.</text></item><item><author>travisgriggs</author><text>My experience is anecdotal and second hand. I&amp;#x27;ve seen it twice now.&lt;p&gt;It began with a friend who was in the job market as a 50+. More on the hardware side. This guy has some cool experience. He gets lots of interviews, they go well, but no offers.&lt;p&gt;As his frustration grows, he grows desperate to try something different. He dyes some color back into his hair, gets some tinted glasses, and lets his daughter take him shopping for some more hip interview clothes.&lt;p&gt;A month later and he&amp;#x27;s in bidding wars for who to hire him. He said the difference was night and day. He was now pointing out his age in interviews &amp;quot;are you sure I&amp;#x27;m not too old?&amp;quot; and the interviewers were like &amp;quot;no way man.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I wondered how one off this was. A year or so later, knew another guy who was having this same struggle. We shared the story with him. He raised his eyebrows, hesitated for a week or two, the colored his hair, got his niece to take him shopping. And pretty much same thing.&lt;p&gt;Obviously, this is a small sample set. But the lesson I took from this (and haven&amp;#x27;t had a chance to prove for myself yet) is that it&amp;#x27;s not your age that will limit you, but your apparent age. If you are old, but look like a younger&amp;#x2F;fresher version of yourself, you do well. If you appear &amp;quot;old&amp;quot;, you struggle.&lt;p&gt;Best of luck.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kevin_thibedeau</author><text>I once had an interview set up by a &amp;quot;high touch&amp;quot; recruiter who insisted that I &amp;quot;suit up&amp;quot;. I showed up at an un-airconditioned office to meet the VP wearing ratty cutoff shorts.</text></comment>