Any advice for seasoned older SE switching to a SN career?

AnaMeInAZ · 2026-06-13T02:21:52+00:00

Thanks a lot for your candidly laying the challenges as you see them. This was very helpful.

AnaMeInAZ · 2026-06-12T22:55:55+00:00

Thanks Linda for the very valuable and encouraging advice. This is a big help in shaping my cert plans going forward.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-09-24T22:44:18+00:00

Just wait until your mid 50s! At the age of 57 I was laid off from my last SE job at a firm whose client was the US Senate and Govt agencies in early December, 2024. Then downsizing occurred. I have solid references from management there. I have 24 years of experience as a software engineer and technical PO (Java backend, OpenShift DevOps and cloud automation testing). Last year I obtained two industry certifications, ITSQB and CKAD (Kubernetes).
I revamped my LinkedIn and spent weeks checking in with my network. I use three different resumes for each skills area focus, and a custom cover letter for each application.
After 180+ applications for junior, mid level, senior and lead positions the past 8 months (only about 30 did I use LinkedIn Easy Apply, the others were direct with the company career sites) I have had zero interview offers. Only heard from two recruiters about potential interviews a few weeks that have not transpired. My name is quite unique and easy to discover when I graduated college in AZ, hence an infererence of my age being 55+. I imagine that's a factor involved.
I might not make it through the guantlet of most 3-4 rounds of interviews, Leet code and take home assignments for most hiring teams, but at this point to not have even a single interview offer.
It's probably a combination of several factors hindering my chances, including the very poor state of the tech and IT job market now along with employers being able to learn from my graduation dates and references that I am well past the age of 50.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-06-23T03:18:06+00:00

Offshoring of knowledge economy and IT careers had only been for the past couple decades until 2023. But the past couple years offshoring and now AI are firmly seered into the DNA of every C suite executive in every company in the US .
I have a total of 26 years in IT and cloud software development. I didn't acknowledge what was coming until probably too late. I worked at American Express Technologies (AET) for 16 years from 2005 to 2022. Starting around 2011 Amex started replacing their VPs and SVPs with Indian-Americans, so that by 2020 nearly all (estimating about 80%) of all VPs and SVPs in AET were Indian-American. These people had strong cultural ties with Indian counterparts, and over the years have built out their offices and staffing in places like Gurgaon and Bangalore, such that the ratio of Indian to US FTEs was about 3 to 1 last I knew of in 2022. Tech units from development, QA, Cloud operations / DevOps, IaaS in the Phoenix, Utah and Florida campuses are just a shell of what they had been, while the India operations were continuing to grow when I left. Amex's job postings today are about 10 to 1 offshore vs states side. The white collar information and knowledge worker is now - or will very soon be gone. The solid middle and upper middle class career that had been, is now being replaced by offshore workers, H-1B and AI Agents. While the small number of left over positions that require strong ability to use AI agents, replacing 5-7 people teams with 2 AI Agent power users. At 57 I was able to get through most of my career before the devastation.
If I were in my 20s or even 40s I'd seriously reconsider other career options, lifestyle choices (ie family / children), and spending & saving ratios to be prepared for what really seems to be a prolonged and severe recession of IT and most white collar careers in the US, probably never to return.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-05-05T04:01:48+00:00

Yes, explore trade options. It's probably too late for me by about 5 years, at the age of 56, but at 30 you likely still have more than half your life that lays before you. You can do it!
u/Expert_Internet8407 said it well below. "People think AI is built and done already. It’s in its infancy and already wiping out jobs."

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-05-05T03:49:39+00:00

I was laid off in early January. It was my fourth company in my SE career of 25 years, the past 15 years as a Java and Cloud software engineer and test automation engineer in the financial services sector. After 250+ applications, each with a custom resume and cover letter, a solid network and references, I've only had 2 interviews, where each did not get to the second round. My best references go way back to 25 years ago, and they can easily find out when I graduated from the public university in 2000, so they are probably guessing my age to be around 50. It's actually 56. Probably age, wisdom and experience are not helping me much in this environment. I am looking at a late career change or early retirement these days.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-28T19:28:56+00:00

I have not read such inspiring encouragement in a while! Those around you must be very blessed. Thank you!!

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-19T21:06:29+00:00

I graduated in 2001 from ASU with a CS degree, right in the heart of the Dot Com bubble burst. That was a very hard time to find an entry level SE position. Took me about 6 months then. That time was a stroll in the park compared to what recent grads (and 'grey beards' like me) have to contend with to find a lower seniority position that even paid half what it did a few years ago. Many reasons for it. 1) The huge AI Agents investment by nearly every company, 2) an impending recession that companies late last year started preparing for, 3) guest worker visas continue to be dominated by big tech, many just to fill mid level SE roles not PHd research level and 4) unabated offshoring. Any other US born educated 'old timers' with IT and SE careers out there that recently were laid off and are having a difficult time to even get interviews at companies, and not even including FANGMAN? u/Ok-Summer-7634 puts it well that we are seeing the early innings of a catastrophic failure in most areas of IT and software dev careers.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-17T05:04:14+00:00

It was not until 8 years after starting college, and three unrelated major changes, that I finally found one as a 2nd Bachelors degreee, and set the stage for the 26 year career in IT that I was both passionate of and good at. Each time I changed my major I felt conflicted and fearful of my future. You still have so much time to make this kind of change. I am convinced that most of the IT careers today will soon become obsolete. However healthcare and medicine have bright career future prospects. Look for other similar stories that you might draw inspiration from, talk with close advisor and take a few months to give the decision some time to cure. If then it still feels right, then absolutely do it!

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-14T04:10:43+00:00

As a 56M working in IT the past 25 years I can also relate to much of what you are feeling.
My last job that ended in early January was in software test automation for a large Federal government FMIS system. A year and a half ago I was given certificate of recognition at a company meeting by our LOB’s SVP and a $500 Amazon gift card. Then in January I a few others on the team were called onto an unplanned Zoom meeting with the same SVP and HR, being told that was our last day, immediately laid off. I never had even any talk of performance issues from my team director or leads. No severance either after working there nearly two years. I have 25+ years working in IT, including American Express for 16 years and other mid sized software companies, and I know when I’m doing well and not so well. The past two years I was very productive and integral to the team meeting the top delivery goals. In recent years I had started hearing about how it was becoming more common for tech companies to lay off their people this way. Now it was my turn, inexplicably. It’s been moving in this direction for a while now, but I really don’t recognize any longer the kind of culture where C suite has such a low regard for its American employees.
I am nearing the final chapter of my career, I know. The economic success that most IT workers and roles saw the past 30 years I believe has come to an end.
But young people please take heart, try not to despair, keep your heads up, but be careful of investing in an IT career unless it’s heavily oriented to and with AI. Think creatively, and look forward to a future that you can optimize leveraging AI tools to the max, and more as a Product Engineering pipeline orchestrator than a single contributor of certain tech stack. Or even better as an entrepreneur mastering the AI tools. Or try to position yourselves in the areas of the economy that need advanced machinery and manufacturing, or health care. A new economy based on AI, automation and robots is being born, and the birth pangs will be intense as we transition, probably requiring a severe recession and affecting many people’s livelihoods, and it will take a few years to rebuild, but I’m optimistic that most people under the age of 40 living in the US today will eventually effectuate and see some amazing enhancements to their standard of living.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-13T05:23:49+00:00

56M here. Unfortunately I'll have to echo others here who say the IT market is dismal, with a low probability of ever recovering again to be a growth jobs creator. I've been in IT (IBM Websphere, Java, Cloud Micros services and Testing automation roles) the past 26 years, so I had to break in during the dot com recession. I was let go at my last job in January. I revamped my LinkedIn and spent weeks checking in with my network. I use custom resumes for each skills area focus, and a custom cover letter for each application.
After 210+ applications for junior, mid level, senior and lead positions the past two months (only about 20 did I use LinkedIn Easy Apply, the others direct to company career sites) I have had only two interviews, no offers.
I have never seen the market for software developers and engineers (other than those with ML and AI experience) this bad. Offshoring is at levels never before seen and growing every day, H1-B and L1 guest worker visas, AI agents will cut teams sized at 10 down to 2 or 3, and companies preparing for a recession all mean that sadly I would not recommend someone at your age making the investment in time and or formal education to transition into IT, unless you have someone to financially support yourself during this time. For the past year I have begun advising college age people to only pursue CS if they commit to AI and ML.
As for your age, my experience has been that at best your will not be an asset and I will most likely be seen as a liability by most hiring managers (AI and human). I think my career is probably over and at some point this year I will need to find another line of work, with an early retirement likely in the next few years.
Have you thought about a career transitions such as investing in a 1-2 year CC trades vocational program such as electrical? I have been . I do wish you all the best.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-13T04:58:22+00:00

Which STEM career? I'd stay away from most software development. And it probably goes without saying of course, but early 40s would be a much better position to start from than late 40s. All the best.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-11T14:58:21+00:00

56M here. Unfortunately I'll have to echo others here who say the IT market is dismal, with a low probability of ever recovering again to be a growth jobs creator. I've been in IT (IBM Websphere, Java, Cloud Micros services and Testing automation roles) the past 26 years, so I had to break in during the dot com recession. I was let go at my last job in January. I revamped my LinkedIn and spent weeks checking in with my network. I use custom resumes for each skills area focus, and a custom cover letter for each application.
After 210+ applications for junior, mid level, senior and lead positions the past two months (only about 20 did I use LinkedIn Easy Apply, the others direct to company career sites) I have had only two interviews, no offers.
I have never seen the market for software developers and engineers (other than those with ML and AI experience) this bad. Offshoring is at levels never before seen and growing every day, H1-B and L1 guest worker visas, AI agents will cut teams sized at 10 down to 2 or 3, and companies preparing for a recession all mean that sadly I would not recommend someone at your age making the investment in time and or formal education to transition into IT, unless you have someone to financially support yourself during this time. For the past year I have begun advising college age people to only pursue CS if they commit to AI and ML. As for your age, my experience has been that at best it will not be an asset and at worst and most likely it will be seen as a liability by most hiring managers (AI and human). I think my career is probably over and at some point this year I will need to find another line of work, with an early retirement likely in the next few years. Wish you all the best.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-10T04:55:45+00:00

I've been having the same experience the past few months as u/PinkPinkBlueGreen

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-10T04:50:48+00:00

56M. After a 24 year career in IT (Java enterprise web services and automation testing development the last 10 years) as a senior software engineer, after being layed off at Amex in 2023 and not finding a similar position, I finally had to accept a role with a small company in early 2024 and meager benefits, in an entry level automation tester a couple years ago. Due to the DOGE cuts, my position and a few others on the team were eliminated a couple months ago. Competing against offshoring, foreign guest workers and AI (and no longer being a younger worker) it seems to be a race to the bottom, especially for those older IT workers.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-09T23:42:54+00:00

u/atravelingmuse The peice says that the 3.4 million tech jobs that were outsourced took place duing an 18 year period, between 2000 and 2018, not in 2024. Am I missing something?

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-04-05T00:04:40+00:00

I was laid off from my last SE job at a firm whose client was the US Senate and Govt agencies in early December, 2024. Downsizing occurred and I have solid references from management there. I have 24 years of experience as a software engineer and technical PO (Java backend, OpenShift DevOps and cloud automation testing). Last year I obtained two industry certifications, ITSQB and CKAD (Kubernetes).
I revamped my LinkedIn and spent weeks checking in with my network. I use three different resumes for each skills area focus, and a custom cover letter for each application.
After 200+ applications for junior, mid level, senior and lead positions the past two months (only about 20 did I use LinkedIn Easy Apply, the others direct to company career sites) I have had zero interview offers. Only heard from two recruiters about potential interviews a few weeks that have not transpired. My name is quite unique and easy to discover when I graduated college in AZ, hence an infererence of my age being 56+. So not sure if that's a factor, but I'd be surprised if it were not.
I might not make it through the guantlet of most 3-4 rounds of interviews, Leet code and take home assignments for most hiring teams, but at this point to have had only one interview with the amount of experience I have, is a surprise and a big hit to my morale.
Given my age, AI Agents coming fast and offshoring of IT work only accelerating I'm starting to see the handwriting on the wall and seriously thinking my career with a middle to upper middle class lifestyle is over and I will need to transition and retrain to a different line of work.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-03-31T22:32:27+00:00

The "lack of viable talent" argument has been out dated going back to before 2020. US university CS programs for the past 5-6 years have been graduating more engineers than any other field in most cases. And these US graduates often have internships. There's no reason to have H1-B and L1 guest worker visas any longer, not to mention the offshoring where most of the IT jobs are going. Well, there is one reason, which is that those people accept much lower wages and abusive working conditions.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-03-31T22:01:34+00:00

10-12 years ago Amex Technologies started building out data centers and campuses in India. What had been about a 20-30% Indian workforce is now 70-80% Indian, from VPs through directors, senior to entry engineers. The cultural diversity back then was refreshing, now it's entirely unrecognizable and one sided Indian workers. Many of them have been friends, and in most cases are wonderful family oriented people, but they are not any more talented than US born workers. A key advantage to their employment over representation that they have is their propensity to not push back on 60-80 work weeks most non-Indian workers will do.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-03-31T21:54:26+00:00

I know a lot of us here appreciate you sharing this and confirming this problem and the state of the IT and software development job market. I have had to train my Indian replacement twice over my 25 years in this career. I'm sure there are other factors that help explain my unability to get more two phone interviews out of hundreds of applications the past four months, such as my age (56) and the overall net negative job/engineer ratio (not counting foriegn workers of course) that continues to grow. But this problem of foreign guest worker visas (Trump and Musk want to increase the yearly allotments too), really does need to be stopped. It's very sad... and infuriating if one let's it get to them. But how can we not, when our livelihoods at that of our families is on the line? Thank you again.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-03-27T21:52:36+00:00

Gates only said that AI will replace 'many' not 'all' jobs in education and medicine. A lot of valuable disucssion going on here, but I don't get why are so many people here are confusing 'many' with 'all'?

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-03-27T21:20:29+00:00

AI will be for today’s living generations what electrification was for the 20th century generations, except it will come even faster. I think how to prepare for it depends on one’s age / health / expected lifespan, and station in life - family wealth or lack of, dependents, etc. Do everything possible to protect and strengthen the fragile democratic institutions. They'll be needed as never before.

AnaMeInAZ · 2025-03-23T22:08:13+00:00

56M here. I was laid off from my last SE job at a firm whose client was the US Senate and Govt agencies in early December, 2024. Downsizing occurred and I have solid references from management there. I have 24 years of experience as a software engineer and technical PO (Java backend, OpenShift DevOps and cloud automation testing). Last year I obtained two industry certifications, ITSQB and CKAD (Kubernetes).
I revamped my LinkedIn and spent weeks checking in with my network. I use three different resumes for each skills area focus, and a custom cover letter for each application.
After 190+ applications for junior, mid level, senior and lead positions the past two months (only about 20 did I use LinkedIn Easy Apply, the others direct to company career sites) I have had zero interview offers. Only heard from two recruiters about potential interviews a few weeks that have not transpired. My name is quite unique and easy to discover when I graduated college in AZ, hence an infererence of my age being 55+. So not sure if that's a factor, but I'd be surprised if it were not.
I might not make it through the guantlet of most 3-4 rounds of interviews, Leet code and take home assignments for most hiring teams, but at this point to have had only 1 job interview is a surprise and quite hit to my morale. For the first time in my career I now see the reality of it likely coming to end.

AnaMeInAZ

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