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Ask HN: Outside of SV, is age discrimination in IT common?
It seems to be pretty well established that there is a preference for younger candidates in IT/software development jobs in Silicon Valley. Is this true in other areas? Should I be looking for a new career as an individual contributor past 40/50?
- samfisher83 10y agoFrom my experience, Experience is not all that valued in Software development field. They don't want brand new grads either. They seemed to want some one with 3-5 years of experience or so.
- wprapido 10y agoam in my early 40's and didn't experience ageism so far. yeah, it's pretty much a silicon valley thing
- danielvf 10y agoEvery competent older developer that I know, below retirement age, is either employed or contracting.
- FiatLuxDave 10y agoHere in Florida, there seems to be less ageism than in SV. Maybe it's because our industry is more oriented towards medical, defense, and aerospace. There is still pressure to use the latest languages and frameworks, but it seems less intense than on the west coast (I think this is one of the drivers of the ageism). Also, when you write software that has life or death consequences, it's nice to have a few people with 15+ years of experience on your team. Or it might just be that everyone else here is old too. :)
- tmaly 10y agoAt my day job we value older programmers as we because it takes a long time to build the skills and experience needed to be effective.