5 ms·

You'll have to, soon or late. Sooner or later you'll start facing ageism. It is rampant. The interviewers will look younger, the interviews scarcer, the techno

You'll have to, soon or late. Sooner or later you'll start facing ageism. It is rampant. The interviewers will look younger, the interviews scarcer, the technology stack will move to a new shiny thing that is a rehash of ideas of previous fads of old, people will start using arguments like "fitting into the culture",... I read somewhere a long ago that software developers have an half-life of 6 years. If you're long past that, better really start acquiring other skills.

jki275 6y ago
I'm a 44 year old software engineer. I've done other things before, but I've gotten an offer every place I've interviewed. This simply isn't true. It might be true in silicon valley or some other hipster magnets, but there's definitely a market for those of us who have been around for decades and been solving problems for decades.
- LostTrackHowM 6y ago
  I am based in the North East, also over 40, and my experience both of you are correct. Agism is absolutely real, but opportunities still exist.
  - OrderlyTiamat 6y ago
    What can be done about it? I'm just starting out in my career, but I find the prospect of future me being devalued because he's a couple years older terrible, and I don't understand why others seem okay with it. Aging is going a second per second for everyone, isn't it?
    - jki275 6y ago
      The point is that there's really nothing to worry about. There are plenty of jobs for those of us not in our 20s.
    - LostTrackHowM 6y ago
      Agism is illegal already, and yet we still deal with it. As a young developer I watched great old developers, fantastic at their job and with super deep experience let go first. My advice is make sure you save a lot. And be prepared to either retire early, switch careers, or start your own business/consult once you have over 10 years of experience. Connect with people, keep in touch, and make sure you stay current with new technologies.
- II2II 6y ago
  As an outsider to the industry, I have always wondered what the situation is like in smaller companies or for starting your own business to serve local clients. Part of the reason why I ask is that most of the places that I have worked for respect experience more than youth, and couldn't care less if the firms that they were contracting work out to employed experienced developers in their 20's or their 50's.
  - LostTrackHowM 6y ago
    As an outsider to the industry, I have always wondered what the situation is like in smaller companies or for starting your own business to serve local clients. Small companies, typically startups, are diverse. Some like hiring diamonds in the rough, which can include old developers. Other are obsessed with youth. Starting your own business or consulting are standard and popular options for old developers. As an industry insider, people complain as loudly as people from any industry. But just look at the actual unemployment and pay rates per industry. Few other industries are better.
- brianwawok 6y ago
  Do you stay current? I see resumes for similar aged people who know cold fusion and Delphi, and those that know JavaScript and Elixer. I suspect interviews go very differently for the two groups.
  - ascorbic 6y ago
    I'm also a software engineer in my 40s who has not had trouble getting jobs. My answer is yes, I definitely keep current. Right now I'm working on Gatsby in TypeScript. 10 years ago it was Phonegap and native iOS. 20 years ago it was PHP and a bit of Mac software in Objective-C. By staying current I can negate the main objection that employers have to older developers, which is that our skills are outdated and we're unwilling to learn new things. It's more fun too!
  - jki275 6y ago
    Absolutely. C++, C, Java, Python, learning Rust now. Working on another MS just for fun. I don't do web dev so I don't give a shit about javascript.
    - brianwawok 6y ago
      Yah it doesn't mean you need to know everything, but you have to know something current or I think life gets hard for you..

jki275 6y ago

I'm a 44 year old software engineer. I've done other things before, but I've gotten an offer every place I've interviewed. This simply isn't true. It might be true in silicon valley or some other hipster magnets, but there's definitely a market for those of us who have been around for decades and been solving problems for decades.

LostTrackHowM 6y ago
I am based in the North East, also over 40, and my experience both of you are correct. Agism is absolutely real, but opportunities still exist.
- OrderlyTiamat 6y ago
  What can be done about it? I'm just starting out in my career, but I find the prospect of future me being devalued because he's a couple years older terrible, and I don't understand why others seem okay with it. Aging is going a second per second for everyone, isn't it?
  - jki275 6y ago
    The point is that there's really nothing to worry about. There are plenty of jobs for those of us not in our 20s.
  - LostTrackHowM 6y ago
    Agism is illegal already, and yet we still deal with it. As a young developer I watched great old developers, fantastic at their job and with super deep experience let go first. My advice is make sure you save a lot. And be prepared to either retire early, switch careers, or start your own business/consult once you have over 10 years of experience. Connect with people, keep in touch, and make sure you stay current with new technologies.
II2II 6y ago
As an outsider to the industry, I have always wondered what the situation is like in smaller companies or for starting your own business to serve local clients. Part of the reason why I ask is that most of the places that I have worked for respect experience more than youth, and couldn't care less if the firms that they were contracting work out to employed experienced developers in their 20's or their 50's.
- LostTrackHowM 6y ago
  As an outsider to the industry, I have always wondered what the situation is like in smaller companies or for starting your own business to serve local clients. Small companies, typically startups, are diverse. Some like hiring diamonds in the rough, which can include old developers. Other are obsessed with youth. Starting your own business or consulting are standard and popular options for old developers. As an industry insider, people complain as loudly as people from any industry. But just look at the actual unemployment and pay rates per industry. Few other industries are better.
brianwawok 6y ago
Do you stay current? I see resumes for similar aged people who know cold fusion and Delphi, and those that know JavaScript and Elixer. I suspect interviews go very differently for the two groups.
- ascorbic 6y ago
  I'm also a software engineer in my 40s who has not had trouble getting jobs. My answer is yes, I definitely keep current. Right now I'm working on Gatsby in TypeScript. 10 years ago it was Phonegap and native iOS. 20 years ago it was PHP and a bit of Mac software in Objective-C. By staying current I can negate the main objection that employers have to older developers, which is that our skills are outdated and we're unwilling to learn new things. It's more fun too!
- jki275 6y ago
  Absolutely. C++, C, Java, Python, learning Rust now. Working on another MS just for fun. I don't do web dev so I don't give a shit about javascript.
  - brianwawok 6y ago
    Yah it doesn't mean you need to know everything, but you have to know something current or I think life gets hard for you..