Can I get an IT job at 58 with no experience?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So I just got laid off from my job as a Project Manager at a translation company , been doing it for almost 20 years. I have many contacts in this industry, nobody is hiring now and not for the foreseeable future.

Well, that is fine, I have been bored with the job for the past year. With computer assisted translation (CAT) and automated work flows which automatically send the files to translators once I create the purchase order, and when the translator has finished the file is automatically moved to a folder that the proofreader can access, and when the proofreader has finished the file is moved to a final folder where I just open the file to make sure it is there and approve, and the file is delivered to the client. I’ve been a robot pressing buttons.

For the moment I am looking for a job in a call center, I’ve done it before for a year in between PM jobs. Not what I want to do for the next 8 years until retirement, althought a part of me tells me why not? No pressure, no deadlines to meet, no stress. But I am not sure I can just chill out mentally for the next 8 years.

My brother has been a programmer for over 30 years, and he mentioned Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert classes you could take online, sounded good but I found that has been discontinured in favor of Azure. Well, that sounds even better.

Back in my early 20’s I was going to be a programmer. I took a year of classes, made A’s. Before that, in my teens, my brother had a Commodore computer, I started playing around with it and was working on a program to create a poker program. Never quite finished it, I was more interested in getting stoned, which is why I never became a programmer. In the early 90’s got a computer, remember those huge white CRTs? and got a DOS book and started learning that. I’m a fast learner, when I put my mind to it. Haven’t used my mind in a job since, well, since I have had a job. As Jack Nicholson said in Cuckoo’s Nest, “I’m a goddamn marvel of modern science.” I can do a pretty decent inpersonation of that. Of course, he was crazy [ Homer voice] Or was he? [/Homer voice]

Anyway I am rambling on. Is there any way, with online courses, I can leart stuff and get a job in less than a year? I am not talkig about $100k jobs, $50k would be fine for me.

I don’t need the money, don t want the (big) money, never had, never will. As The Greatful Dead once sang, “I Will Survive”. And as Steve Earle continues to sing, “I’m Just a Regular Guy.” Otherwise I would have finished high school (I buried the lede!) and gone to Harvard.

2

I only read up to this point.

Yes. You can absolutely get a call center job. Don’t expect much in the way of “pay” or "benefits " or “respect”… however my call center experience is 20ish yrs out of date, so who knows now. Back then they’d pretty much hire anyone that walked in the door since the turnover was so bad (mostly because of the way they treated their employees. I worked at several call centers and all of them were terrible experiences)

3

I make over 50k working in a warehouse in my early 40s, but also looking to go into “IT.” Currently doing a bootcamp type thing in web development (would prefer software programming but this was what I could get into right now) while being told I should expect to start out in the 40s. Will probably attempt to keep my warehouse job and look for web jobs in the spring. I almost took a community college thing for getting a job at AWS working on hardware but I missed the cutoff. Also bought a package of cheap online courses and have found some free things from legit sources online. Obviously, I’m not an expert to give you advice on the job outlook but I think you should be able to find something IT (which is pretty broad) related that pays 50ish regardless of your age. Just not sure what the programming outlook is where you are.

4

I’ve worked jobs in-and-out of IT-related businesses for my entire career. It seems, beginning in the mid-late 1980’s employers became ultra-selective in their requirements, only considering people with college degrees (Master’s preferred, at the minimum) and VAST years of experience.

Legend had it that the very week IBM introduced the original IBM PC computer (ETA: circa 1982 or so), corporate employers were advertising for programmers with a minimum of 5 years of experience programming IBM PC’s.

And today, with such massive unemployement and economic downturn, I have a hard time imagining that anyone can get a job with only self-taught academic credentials. Even in years past, that never worked.

Self-employment may still be a possibility, if you can hustle up a steady flow of gigs. My friends who are doing that tell me they are barely scraping by (with emphasis on “barely”). There are on-line sites for people trying to do exactly this.

(ETA: And in the current environment, the pay may be chicken feed.)

5

DO, however, keep current with all your contacts in the industry!!!

If times get better in the not-too-distant future, you’ll still want to be in touch with them!

6

Personal anecdote.
I am in my late fifties. I worked on clinical trial data collection for a major pharmaceutical company for a decade, and then support for an application that did scheduling and billing for ambulatory surgical centers. Over thirty years experience in health IT.
I was laid off four years ago (company sold to a conglomerate).
I was unable to find a job in the field. All my skills could be duplicated by a kid fresh out of technical college for less money. There is a metric fuck load of agism in IT.
I do not recommend trying to get into IT at our age.

7

My husband broke into IT in his 50s. He had been a stay at home dad for several years, after working in academia.

BUT, he did a lot of volunteer web development when he was a stay-at-home dad. He set up websites for the local boy scout troop, did a lot of research into Drupal (a web development platform) and then built some fairly sophisticated websites for other non-profits. So he had a pretty good portfolio when he was looking for a job.

Even so, his first job kind of sucked. But he’s worked his way up (and gone to lots of networking events, contributed to the open-source drupal project, etc.) and is now established in the field. Admittedly, he was laid off when his employer failed (partly CV) and is now working two part time jobs as a contractor. He refuses to do more than 20 hours a week for either, hoping one will make him an employee. A company did make him a full time offer recently, but then they were hit with a CV hiring freeze. (The day he was supposed to have started.)

He’s also had some interviews for jobs as a software engineer, but he was extremely picky about who he’d even talk to in that field, since he didn’t want to walk away from his drupal experience unless it was worth it. And the companies he was willing to talk to weren’t willing to hire him.

8

Agreed with Senegoid. There are plenty of good, experienced programmers out there, looking for jobs. In just about every field you have the same problem, plus your age.

“Legend had it that the very week IBM introduced the original IBM PC computer (ETA: circa 1982 or so), corporate employers were advertising for programmers with a minimum of 5 years of experience programming IBM PC’s.”

They could find mainframe programmers with plenty of experience. PCs and consumer OS are much simpler than the mainframe variety.

And from what I have heard of call centers, nothing has changed,. High turnover because people get sick of the job. My experience of call centers is as a recipient of their unwanted calls, and I do my best to ensure that the caller does get some stress. It’s the sort of job where you check in your self-respect as you go through the door.

9

I’m a little confused. The OP is already a project manager but apparently not for IT projects. So it seems obvious that the thing to do is to train as an IT project manager. Anything else, you’re probably starting at the bottom.

10

No experience in I.T.? Age 58? Looking for I.T. work? Answer is NO. I think you are misguided by thinking you can pull it off at all, much less in one year. I myself was laid off in 1996, age 52, from a Systems Admin role. After four years looking I gave up. As DrFidelius said, a lot of ageism exists in I.T., if not everywhere in the workplace.

11

Yes, you can get a job in IT at age 58 with no experience, you just don’t want that job.

12

Ladders sends me project manager jobs on an almost daily basis (not my field, but apparently they think it’s close enough to my search terms). Project management skills are eminently transferrable, and apparently still in need.

I agree with the others that call center jobs are in no way “low stress”.

13

Yeah, the biggest problem you’re going to face is that most entry-level IT jobs are along the lines of cable monkeys (guys who literally pull cables), and first-tier help desk jobs (the first people who answer the help desk phone). Neither of those are terribly highly technical, high pay or high responsibility. They’re the sort of thing that early 20s people get, usually after dropping out of college, or bouncing around for a year or two after high school.

I’d think the best bet for you would be to parlay your PM experience into an IT job. Most places are looking for good project managers all the time. You’d need to be up on the project management paradigms and methodologies du jour (PMBOK, Agile/Scrum, etc…)

And also be aware that in a lot of cases, being an IT PM is a thankless job at best; you rarely have much actual de jure authority to compel anyone to do anything on time, and yet you’re the person whose throat they choke when things go pear shaped. (which is why have never got into IT project management myself).

14

Yeah, that’s an idea, look into getting a scrum master certification. I don’t know how other companies work but certified scrum masters at my company are considered an entry level job, with entry level pay, and we have a hard time finding people who have the right mix of “willing to work for cheap” and “responsible and assertive enough to do the job.” We’d pay more but scrum masters, while useful, aren’t exactly putting food on the corporate table so we’d never pay 6 figures for one.

It’s an easy interview because all we really care about is, Do you understand the principles of scrum.

15

Bump:

Did you read what he said he did?

“With computer assisted translation (CAT) and automated work flows which automatically send the files to translators once I create the purchase order, and when the translator has finished the file is automatically moved to a folder that the proofreader can access, and when the proofreader has finished the file is moved to a final folder where I just open the file to make sure it is there and approve, and the file is delivered to the client. I’ve been a robot pressing buttons.”

These are not sufficient skills for a project manager in the IT field.

I share the general view that while it is possible he could do what he wants (making a switch to the IT field) it is not likely–and he would be better off trying things with a better possibility of success.

16

He said he’s been at it for 20 years; I doubt it’s been that automated the entire time. I’m sure he knows how to manage a project, unless “project manager” is just a clever job title.

But yeah, moving to IT at 58 is probably kind of tough, unless you can leverage some existing experience, like project management experience.

17

OK I said I was skeptical it was possible, thanks all for confirming so I don’t waste my time, except for maybe being a PM in IT.

18

You are doomed as a Project Manager in IT if you don’t have the technical knowledge to tell when people are bullshitting you about problems that arise, or you are told don’t exist.

19

That is true, companies don’t want people with PM experince, they want people with PM experience in their industry. KInd of a general rule I think, if a real estate company wants a receptionist, they want some who has been one in real estate

20

Hi Mike. It’s not impossible to get work in the IT field. It may be difficult, and I feel the need to throw in a few caveats, and I have to urge you to understand my experience in the field is distinctly Canadian. But it can be done, regardless of your age.

I’m assuming you still want to be a programmer and that’s what I can speak to. Your best bet is having some papers that certify you can program. A skills-oriented college is the quickest way of getting there (what they might call a “community college” in the US), though you’ll have to shop around. I teach programming at one as a part-time job.

My usual students are young-20s fresh out of highschool, with a good fraction of foreign students, and a small fraction of established adults. I love the adults as a teacher, because they’re actually there to learn and work and take it seriously.

Some college programs have an optional coop steam, if your marks are adequate. I think this is key. A good number of coop placements are with the federal government here, and typically if they like your work, they’ll try to hire you straight on as soon as you graduate. The federal government has a lot of advantages for you: By regulation, it can not discrimate against age, the work is very steady and reliable, and they a way to fast-track you into the federal service as a fresh graduate. So were you Canadian, this is what I’d strongly encourage you to do.

It’s possible there’s similar paths in your country, but I can’t speak to that.

Electronic hiring is fairly common in the field, so getting a LinkedIn presence can be helpful. I get the occasional offer this way from a recruiter looking to snag some students (how’s your French by the way?). It’s easy to disguise your age as well, especially by carefully tweaking your online resume. If you interview well, that may push you over the edge.

If you wind up doing school as a programmer, you’ll need to distinguish yourself from your peers. Building up a portfolio is an excellent way. Add extra features to completed assignments, or just build your own programs to solve whatever problems about the house you might have, even if that problem’s already been solved. (I wrote a database application to track recipes for my wife, and that’s what got my foot in a few doors.)

If you’re trying to learn online, Stanford has a series of online courses, some free and some not, called Udacity. These are highly regarded. If you can complete even just the free AI programming Udacity course, that’s a leg up for you.

I wish you the best of luck and I’m curious how it works out for you.