4 ms·

His particular skillset might not be quite up to date anymore.

by DasIch 10y ago

raarts 10y ago
Which is just another way of saying he 's probably out of touch and his knowledge/experience is not worth much. I'm not in the Bay Area but in Amsterdam, NL, which also has a sizeable startup culture, and I'm in that age group as well. I think both things are true, yes many older programmers have trouble keeping up (hell, even youngsters are complaining about Javascript fatigue), and I see them struggle, but on the other hand ageism is real, and many people in my age group are hit by it. Unwarranted in many cases.
- eru 10y ago
  It's a real shame, because if you learned about fundamentals like compilers, data structures and operating systems eg in the 80s and then slept for 30 years, you would still pass a Google interview today. It's not even that you had to be lucky to guess right. The fundamentals are easy to identify. But of course, lots of people chased and are still chasing the latest superficial thing; and complain that they can't keep up.
  - minipci1321 10y ago
    > It's a real shame, because if you learned about fundamentals like compilers, data structures and operating systems eg in the 80s and then slept for 30 years, you would still pass a Google interview today. LOL, on my own Google recruiting track, it turned sour after I admitted I am significantly older than my LinkedIn profile shows. I believe I was reasonably good on fundamentals during the phone interview as you say ;-)
    - eru 10y ago
      We have a bunch of self-described old farts working here in the Google office in Sydney without any problem. They do however seem to expect more seniority out of the senior candidates.
  - DasIch 10y ago
    Even if you know all the fundamentals, you're not going to be able to just jump into current programming languages, frameworks, tooling and development processes. If you're young and looking for a junior position, employers will have no problems teaching you some of these things but there are limits.
    - eru 10y ago
      Eg Google is a huge black hole, they don't expect anyone from the outside to be familiar with their internal-only tools. Current programming languages: just stick to the ones that will be around for a while. (Simple heuristic: pick the ones that already have been around for a while. In the 80s, that would have been C for example.)

His particular skillset might not be quite up to date anymore.

by DasIch 10y ago

His particular skillset might not be quite up to date anymore.

Which is just another way of saying he 's probably out of touch and his knowledge/experience is not worth much. I'm not in the Bay Area but in Amsterdam, NL, which also has a sizeable startup culture, and I'm in that age group as well. I think both things are true, yes many older programmers have trouble keeping up (hell, even youngsters are complaining about Javascript fatigue), and I see them struggle, but on the other hand ageism is real, and many people in my age group are hit by it. Unwarranted in many cases.

eru 10y ago
It's a real shame, because if you learned about fundamentals like compilers, data structures and operating systems eg in the 80s and then slept for 30 years, you would still pass a Google interview today. It's not even that you had to be lucky to guess right. The fundamentals are easy to identify. But of course, lots of people chased and are still chasing the latest superficial thing; and complain that they can't keep up.
- minipci1321 10y ago
  > It's a real shame, because if you learned about fundamentals like compilers, data structures and operating systems eg in the 80s and then slept for 30 years, you would still pass a Google interview today. LOL, on my own Google recruiting track, it turned sour after I admitted I am significantly older than my LinkedIn profile shows. I believe I was reasonably good on fundamentals during the phone interview as you say ;-)
  - eru 10y ago
    We have a bunch of self-described old farts working here in the Google office in Sydney without any problem. They do however seem to expect more seniority out of the senior candidates.
- DasIch 10y ago
  Even if you know all the fundamentals, you're not going to be able to just jump into current programming languages, frameworks, tooling and development processes. If you're young and looking for a junior position, employers will have no problems teaching you some of these things but there are limits.
  - eru 10y ago
    Eg Google is a huge black hole, they don't expect anyone from the outside to be familiar with their internal-only tools. Current programming languages: just stick to the ones that will be around for a while. (Simple heuristic: pick the ones that already have been around for a while. In the 80s, that would have been C for example.)