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The deceased in this case actually didn’t start getting into computers until he was in his 30s (his first aspiration was to be an actor). It sounds like he will
by danso 8y ago
The deceased in this case actually didn’t start getting into computers until he was in his 30s (his first aspiration was to be an actor). It sounds like he willingly quit his jobs at Oracle and Dell. What’s also worrying to me is that it sounds like he made the jump from programmer to manager but still couldn’t find work (even after 481 interviews)
- mixmastamyk 8y ago> It sounds like he willingly quit his jobs at Oracle and Dell. After ~five years. We should be able to change jobs occasionally and not have to hold on to our current one for dear life. Sounds like once you hit fifty you'll never be hired again, so must do anything to avoid a layoff.
- WalterSear 8y agoIME, I've only seen happen to people who had stopped learning and growing years earlier.
- yayana 8y agoIt's actually more conservative to leave Oracle on your own schedule of no more than 5 years.
- illumin8 8y agoThis is not true. I'm 44, a principal engineer at $BigTechCo, and I know people in mid 50s that are very in demand and will remain gainfully employed as long as they want to. The problem is that people start a career as a J2EE programmer in their 20s and expect to coast and never update/learn new skills. This will serve you fine for a decade or two, but if you're in your mid 40s and you're only comfortable with technology from the late 90s, your job prospects will be limited. In order to have a long career in tech, you need to constantly be learning new technologies, frameworks, and languages. If you don't, you can coast for a while, but don't act all surprised at 50 when you get laid off and can't find any work. Would you honestly expect to be able to find work as a VAX/VMS engineer now if that was what you started working with right out of college and never learned UNIX, Linux, or Wintel?
- drfuchs 8y agoI take your point, but Unix does predate the Vax.
- illumin8 8y agoAgreed, but UNIX remains relevant, or at least easily transferrable to Linux, while Vax remains a niche platform.
- anticensor 8y agoVax Management System is predecessor of Windows: the New Technology (aka NT).
- varjag 8y agoWhile that's conceptually true, there is little transferable skills between the two.
- mixmastamyk 8y agoNope, I'm near expert-level in Python3 and recent JS, with well-rounded platform and industry experience and it still took me a year to get hired last time. Didn't work so well for the guy in the article, did you read it? Ageism isn't the only problem though, just as big is that no one will allow you to learn on the job. With the explosion of tech stacks it should be a requirement, but the opposite is true. Tech interviews under the gun are another.
- illumin8 8y agoYou also need to be honest about what your criteria is for a job search. Are you expecting to find a 6 figure job for a rockstar 10x Python/JS engineer in Podunk, Iowa? Come to any of a dozen cities that have a decent tech representation and you won't need a year to get an offer. And I'm not talking about SF or NY, you can go to places like Denver, Salt Lake City, Austin, or Boise.
- tunesmith 8y agoIn his 30s... he's in his low 60s. So he got into computer at around the time the internet was taking off.