rump13
Career shift to Elixir in my 40s
Hi everyone,
I’ve been following Elixir since around 2016 and tinkering with it on and off, but I haven’t had the opportunity to use it professionally yet. I’m in my 40s and seriously considering a career shift to Elixir. My background includes 10 years as a software developer (primarily in .NET/C#/SQL Server), followed by 5 years as a systems architect and 5 years as a cloud architect working with AWS.
I’m currently based in the U.S., which I hope improves my chances of finding opportunities in the Elixir ecosystem. I’m self-learning Elixir and Phoenix, and I’ve started a solo side project to build a small SaaS product as a way to gain practical experience and prove to myself that I can be productive with Elixir. Even if it doesn’t succeed commercially, I see it as a learning investment.
For those of you who have transitioned into Elixir later in your career — how did you approach it? Are there companies out there open to hiring experienced professionals who are new to Elixir? Should I be looking for entry-level roles despite my senior experience in other stacks? I’m not sure how to position myself or navigate the transition, and I’d really appreciate any advice or insight from the community.
Thanks in advance!
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First Post!
DaAnalyst
Myself I switched to Elixir in my (then) 40’s 6+ calendar years ago (more like 10 work hours-wise ;). Had the luck to root for it on a project where I was one of the stakeholders. At first my choice was “solely” based on the impression watching a Sasa Juric’s YouTube video on Erlang/Beam VM architecture (the “How the hell did I miss this?” kind of impression).Then I laid my hands on the code in Elixir and within a week or two I knew there was no going back to the old ways (OO and stuff). Ever since it’s been a bliss. Never regretted one tiny bit.
Job/gig-wise, I’ve had no issues finding positions. The general sw dev experience counts a lot If you are persistent enough to keep on looking until you find a company that is on par with you, a company with people competent enough to appreciate your skillset and experience. With a bit of luck, you should be fine.
I suggest to avoiding the “recency bias” trap with so many getting scared by the post-covid lockdowns decline in sw job postings. In my view the anomaly was the crazy peak when suddenly “everyone” thought we’d never get out of our rooms again that created the unsustainable level of demand for sw devs.
And yes, finishing your first project in Elixir is definitely the way to go IMO.
My 2c
Most Liked
beanlanda
I was 56. It is keeping my brain plastic and paying the bills.
eddy147
52 when I switched. I went it to the deep-end. Now 56, full-time Elixir. Learned most by reading existing code and articles from hex. Now I think in terms of processes, not objects. Never too late to switch.
waseigo
I was 39 when I went all-in on Elixir, but I was not a professional programmer before that. Elixir clicked instantly. Three years later, my only regret is the time I wasted on Python before discovering Elixir in the summer of 2022.
See also: 2023 is my "Year of Elixir" • OVERBRING Labs
Last Post!
darraghenright
I was a hobbyist for a while, I was in my early 40s when I got the opportunity to choose Elixir for a project — I demonstrated some of its capabilities to my manager and he was impressed enough with it, so I got to choose it for a new product for some existing customers. It ended up being a great choice.
Since then I’ve done contract work with Elixir, and worked with a startup that used Elixir entirely. I’ve changed jobs since and I am not working with Elixir at all now — unfortunately Elixir roles are very thin on the ground here.
I have a lot of experience with Python, and I’m currently working with node. Where I have a choice, and it’s appropriate (often the case imho) Elixir is still my default choice. Love it.