Quick background: Grew up in an immigrant household with very little in the way of resources, guidance, encouragement. Was enamored by Silicon Valley and tech from a young age, but foolishly followed the family tradition of medicine despite hating it as I felt I had no choice. Went to medical school, dropped out, worked a few odd end gigs for the next couple years, stumbled into a PM role that I was let go from due to performance.
I am now 37 without an impressive educational or professional background, no network of colleagues, no mastery in any one skill, and a whole lot of mental health debt. And yet the child inside of me still wants to pursue the scrappy Silicon Valley tech dream.
Am I deluded? Where do I even begin?
The biggest shortage in silicon valley is that of capable minds and hands. It's on you to make yourself marketable, but once that's done, there's tons of opportunity. I've been working here since 1996. I'm a grey haired old timer now, and I've seen this industry from big companies, startups, boring companies, and fad companies. Get your foot in the door, the first job won't be glorious, but as you demonstrate skill, pay and rank will follow. Don't go to any of the companies staffed by lots of startup bros, because a wrinkle or some greying hair is a disadvantage there, but there are plenty of other places to start.
He shouldn't be wasting time learning from professors who have never done anything real and have lived in an academic insulated bubble for decades.
Instead he should be building and shipping product after product until something sticks. And spending just as much time on marketing as development, and putting a lot of time and energy into hiring out and training a team to scale up to the next stage.
For PM's, or management, the skill set and showing that you have it will be different.
Take what is unique about you, what interests you and
The way to go here is to absolutely code something, but not to pretend that it's a worthwhile project (e.g. don't release it under open source licence). If you put the code in a public repo somewhere so that interviers can see it, clearly state that it's just a learning excercise.
I would disagree.
While resume driven open source projects are indeed painful to sift through, you have no idea where these projects may lead to. We should not discourage people especially new devs from contributing. It should be upon experienced devs to learn how to quickly identify code that is worth exploring in more details. Like a year old project with no recent commits, maybe not worth looking further.
It's also common advice to put your portfolio online. They really don't show up in internet searches as far I've seen.
I think you’re 5-10 years late unless you turn yourself into a GenAI/Machine Learning specialist very quickly. The Bay Area has attracted the worst type of people to compete with. It’s packed full of gold miners and even more shovel sellers. Try somewhere else.
Do you have any money? Are you technically savvy? Can you take a 12 months course from a reputable institution that may award you a ML qualification?
Turn your age and background into a strength. You’re mature, dependable, hungry, professional. You show up, you get it, you can relate with the middle age hiring manager. You need a chance and you won’t waste it like some 25 year old jib hopping. You’re willing to work for a little less but not much less.
She started with some courses, bootcamps (one of which was created by me - this is how i know her), some first shitty jobs and gigs and gradually built herself from there.
Within ~5 years.
Despite some arrogant naysayers suggesting her getting a CS degree first or chose different path at all.
But I do have work life balance which has been valuable for my family, and a series of health crisis that I weathered over the last decade. Hopefully your dead end job has stability and gives you some other solace?
I would focus on a side gig, building a portfolio project in something that interests you and maybe eventually could be used as a business or to showcase your skills in applying for a job. Getting time for that can be a challenge with existing job and other life demands, but then you have to realize that just hopping onto the Bay Area tech scene would likely have required a similar grind so maybe it wasn’t all that for you?
If I wanted to I could probably stay at the same company for the next 20 years and retire but that sounds uninspiring and ultimately quite depressing. Two years ago was the time to do something but now is OK too. In another two years I will look back thinking "why didn't I make a move then?"
I know the feel, wish I had something better than my own story for you!
Early on, I had multiple opportunities to make a life in the Bay area. I stupidly did not take those opportunities.
My coding skills are no longer competitive and I am competing (and getting out-gunned) at the highest level.
Some of the suggestions here to build something you care about feel to ring true. I am also mulling this. It is hard to make time for this later in life but I feel there is no other way. I am also mulling taking a big pay cut and relocate the family to the Bay area. It feels very risky but I feel I won't be able to live with myself.
Life is long and we can restart our journey at any time, so no worries.
The best advice I could give is to start meeting people and (always!) learn new things.
Action on you: go to meetup.com, find three interesting events in your area, go there with no expectations, just listen and meet new people.
You are smart. You will work it out.
There are many edges you can have compared to most tech folk. Why not try using ChatGPT to begin some python and html coding and make some things you can get excited about when showing people?
You don't need social capital for a more entry type role, so don't overthink this
Most devs out there right now are hot garbage, even with 10+ years experience and a degree. I just went through a few rounds of interviewing applicants, so I know. If you are passionate about it, you need to be building stuff in your spare time and learning constantly. If you don't like it that much, the field probably isn't for you.
If you are really starting from scratch, hit up the recruiting/job sites in your area and learn the language that has the most jobs. You need to learn database too.
When reaching for the moon try reaching the top shelf first, and use that to stand on.
From there I would suggest the following:
Many people in tech do the bare minimum and still manage to build impressive careers. If you excel at your job, are passionate about your craft, and can construct a compelling narrative to market yourself to employers, you'll be ahead of most of the competition. Most of the competition never makes it to sv, but if you are ahead of them then you're moving in the right direction.And so what if you fall short and end up in Cincinnati, able to afford a comfortable life? Would that really be so bad?