--- title: First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned... description: Zubin Pratap, a corporate lawyer who transitioned to software engineering at Google in his late 30s, discusses career transitions, the impact of AI/LLMs on... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/first-developer-job-at-age-38-with-lawyer-turned-software-engineer-zubin-pratap-podcast-203--9hjpijqmn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap [Podcast #203] | daily.dev og:description: Zubin Pratap, a corporate lawyer who transitioned to software engineering at Google in his late 30s, discusses career transitions, the impact of AI/LLMs on... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/first-developer-job-at-age-38-with-lawyer-turned-software-engineer-zubin-pratap-podcast-203--9hjpijqmn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/9HjPijQmN.png og:image:alt: First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap [Podcast #203] og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap [Podcast #203] **[freeCodeCamp](https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp)** · 73 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Zubin Pratap, a corporate lawyer who transitioned to software engineering at Google in his late 30s, discusses career transitions, the impact of AI/LLMs on knowledge work, and the realities of the developer job market. He emphasizes that learning to code is only one stage of seven in career transition, with getting noticed, interviewing well, and de-risking yourself being equally critical. Pratap argues that 2009-2022 was an abnormal period of stability for tech jobs, and developers must now focus on building skills, reputation, and network while understanding that the transition process is harder than acquiring technical skills alone. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap \[Podcast \#203\]](https://daily.dev/posts/first-developer-job-at-age-38-with-lawyer-turned-software-engineer-zubin-pratap-podcast-203--vjhjgwwam) · freeCodeCamp · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [From manufacturing worker to first developer job at age 43 with Thomas Gooch \[Podcast \#191\]](https://daily.dev/posts/from-manufacturing-worker-to-first-developer-job-at-age-43-with-thomas-gooch-podcast-191--1uvjkb5rh) · freeCodeCamp · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/first-developer-job-at-age-38-with-lawyer-turned-software-engineer-zubin-pratap-podcast-203--9hjpijqmn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap [Podcast #203]","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/first-developer-job-at-age-38-with-lawyer-turned-software-engineer-zubin-pratap-podcast-203--9hjpijqmn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/first-developer-job-at-age-38-with-lawyer-turned-software-engineer-zubin-pratap-podcast-203--9hjpijqmn"},"datePublished":"2026-01-09T14:56:08.444Z","dateModified":"2026-01-09T14:57:59.408Z","description":"Zubin Pratap, a corporate lawyer who transitioned to software engineering at Google in his late 30s, discusses career transitions, the impact of AI/LLMs on...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DzVm161M4Kk/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DzVm161M4Kk/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"freeCodeCamp","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"freeCodeCamp","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1628412854/logos/freecodecamp","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/first-developer-job-at-age-38-with-lawyer-turned-software-engineer-zubin-pratap-podcast-203--9hjpijqmn","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,career","timeRequired":"PT73M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap [Podcast #203]","description":"Zubin Pratap, a corporate lawyer who transitioned to software engineering at Google in his late 30s, discusses career transitions, the impact of AI/LLMs on...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DzVm161M4Kk/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-01-09T14:56:08.444Z","duration":"PT73M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/9HjPijQmN","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/DzVm161M4Kk"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"freeCodeCamp","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap [Podcast #203]"}]} ```