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Personally, I worry about this in our industry. I plan to save, invest, and diversify my income. That way I can get out of the sooner, rather than later. I don'

Personally, I worry about this in our industry. I plan to save, invest, and diversify my income. That way I can get out of the sooner, rather than later. I don't want to end up being a 50+ year old who can no longer get a job.

manaskarekar 11y ago
But isn't the number of "old" engineers going to increase with time? (Assuming you mean 'Software/Hardware Engineering' by 'our industry') So wouldn't the future be a little more forgiving when the number of 50-something engineers is quite a bit more than (presumably) what it is today?
- kilroy123 11y ago
  Maybe, but I'd rather not risk it.
  - pc86 11y ago
    Why would it not? Presumably the age bias is largely the (obviously incorrect) assumption that a person in their 40s/50s/60s simply doesn't know enough or is unable to learn the new things they need to in order to operate in a startup. I think the 55 year old interviewing for a dev job with the 28 year old CTO will have a much easier time 25-30 years from now than today. At that point I think you're fighting against culture-wide age bias rather than industry-specific age bias.
- theseatoms 11y ago
  The cultural climate will be more forgiving, but the economic climate less so, since there will likely be an oversupply of programmers (of all ages).
Swizec 11y ago
> I don't want to end up being a 50+ year old who can no longer get a job So just stay relevant? I'm 28, been coding for 19 years. What was relevant to learn when I was in middle and high school is completely useless now. All those endless hours spent learning how to make games in Pascal, irrelevant technologies. All those endless hours spent learning PHP3/4 and cobbling together websites and crude frameworks, irrelevant tech. But on a higher level, all of that has proven useful. Technologies change, syntax evolves, semantics improve, but your deep understanding of how to ask just the right question of a business person that turns a mathematically unsolvable problem, into something you can build in three days. That is always going to stay relevant. Keep improving. Be an engineer, not just a coder.
- terrywilcox 11y ago
  > Technologies change, syntax evolves, semantics improve, but your deep understanding of how to ask just the right question of a business person that turns a mathematically unsolvable problem, into something you can build in three days. That is always going to stay relevant. I used to think like you. But I'm 51 now. I've discovered that I was wrong. The younger the technical interviewer, the less interested they are in my experience. I'm guessing that the less experience they have, the less value they see in experience. I suspect I was the same way 25 years ago. I now understand why good developers go on to be lousy managers. They get old and get pushed out of development. Mid-level management is all that's available to them. Fortunately I still have a job in an older development group. I still have some value, for now.
  - kamaal 11y ago
    >>But I'm 51 now. I've discovered that I was wrong. When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. - Oscar Wilde I've seen clear bias in our industry. Though I'm in my 30's. I've seen people in my age group clearly discriminate against older programmers. Save, invest, prepare for your retirement and be safe instead of betting your life on a unforgiving younger generation.
    - NotSammyHagar 11y ago
      I have to believe this depends on your experience, ability to learn, and location. I'm in seattle and my office is full of 40-60 year olds (with tons of younger people) working on demanding technical work. It's not php programming, it. It's software engineering. Learn to be an engineer and you shouldnot have a problem.
- kasey_junk 11y ago
  > So just stay relevant? The point of age bias isn't bias against people without relevant skills, its an actual bias against person of certain ages. Our industry is ripe with stories of folks with extremely relevant skill sets not getting jobs after a certain age (50 seems to be common). There is some (unintentional I'm sure) age bias even in the response of "stay relevant" as if the implication is that older devs don't do that as a matter of course while younger ones do.

manaskarekar 11y ago

But isn't the number of "old" engineers going to increase with time? (Assuming you mean 'Software/Hardware Engineering' by 'our industry') So wouldn't the future be a little more forgiving when the number of 50-something engineers is quite a bit more than (presumably) what it is today?

kilroy123 11y ago
Maybe, but I'd rather not risk it.
- pc86 11y ago
  Why would it not? Presumably the age bias is largely the (obviously incorrect) assumption that a person in their 40s/50s/60s simply doesn't know enough or is unable to learn the new things they need to in order to operate in a startup. I think the 55 year old interviewing for a dev job with the 28 year old CTO will have a much easier time 25-30 years from now than today. At that point I think you're fighting against culture-wide age bias rather than industry-specific age bias.
theseatoms 11y ago
The cultural climate will be more forgiving, but the economic climate less so, since there will likely be an oversupply of programmers (of all ages).

Swizec 11y ago

> I don't want to end up being a 50+ year old who can no longer get a job So just stay relevant? I'm 28, been coding for 19 years. What was relevant to learn when I was in middle and high school is completely useless now. All those endless hours spent learning how to make games in Pascal, irrelevant technologies. All those endless hours spent learning PHP3/4 and cobbling together websites and crude frameworks, irrelevant tech. But on a higher level, all of that has proven useful. Technologies change, syntax evolves, semantics improve, but your deep understanding of how to ask just the right question of a business person that turns a mathematically unsolvable problem, into something you can build in three days. That is always going to stay relevant. Keep improving. Be an engineer, not just a coder.

terrywilcox 11y ago
> Technologies change, syntax evolves, semantics improve, but your deep understanding of how to ask just the right question of a business person that turns a mathematically unsolvable problem, into something you can build in three days. That is always going to stay relevant. I used to think like you. But I'm 51 now. I've discovered that I was wrong. The younger the technical interviewer, the less interested they are in my experience. I'm guessing that the less experience they have, the less value they see in experience. I suspect I was the same way 25 years ago. I now understand why good developers go on to be lousy managers. They get old and get pushed out of development. Mid-level management is all that's available to them. Fortunately I still have a job in an older development group. I still have some value, for now.
- kamaal 11y ago
  >>But I'm 51 now. I've discovered that I was wrong. When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. - Oscar Wilde I've seen clear bias in our industry. Though I'm in my 30's. I've seen people in my age group clearly discriminate against older programmers. Save, invest, prepare for your retirement and be safe instead of betting your life on a unforgiving younger generation.
  - NotSammyHagar 11y ago
    I have to believe this depends on your experience, ability to learn, and location. I'm in seattle and my office is full of 40-60 year olds (with tons of younger people) working on demanding technical work. It's not php programming, it. It's software engineering. Learn to be an engineer and you shouldnot have a problem.
kasey_junk 11y ago
> So just stay relevant? The point of age bias isn't bias against people without relevant skills, its an actual bias against person of certain ages. Our industry is ripe with stories of folks with extremely relevant skill sets not getting jobs after a certain age (50 seems to be common). There is some (unintentional I'm sure) age bias even in the response of "stay relevant" as if the implication is that older devs don't do that as a matter of course while younger ones do.