3 ms·
I'm 41 and still have recruiters contacting me and generally do well in interviews. I'm lucky in that the skills I have are harder to find (8 or so years doing
by allenu 7y ago
I'm 41 and still have recruiters contacting me and generally do well in interviews. I'm lucky in that the skills I have are harder to find (8 or so years doing iOS development). I also have to admit that one thing that helps me tremendously is that I look young. Just about everyone I work with assumes I am still in my 20s based on my appearance. They all act shocked once they do find out that I'm older. Looking young helps a lot with rapport in interviews since the interviewers feel more at ease that I'm "one of them" rather than some old guy.
- rootusrootus 7y agoIn my experience attitude and connections count for the most. I'm 45 and I don't have any problems finding new opportunities. But I never go through the front door, it's always a referral. I can't imagine having a real problem until I'm in my 60s. At least around here, there just aren't so many programmers that we can afford to turn away qualified people just because they are in their 40s or 50s. If they know their shit, they're welcome to work for us. We've got developers ranging from 20-65, pretty evenly distributed.
- paulkon 7y agoWhat geographical area do you work in? Any skill in particular that you find helps you stand out?
- mjkunc 7y agoSame age here. Mid-thirties career switch into tech. Landed my first tech job at 37 (consulting), first startup at 40 (data engineering) and just started a new startup at 41 (data engineering/devops). I'm probably the oldest at my company by a decade. I don't think I look particularly young, but maybe? I'm not saying age discrimination doesn't exist, just that I've been lucky / fortunate enough not to have experienced it.