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There certainly is age discrimination out there. One of the reasons we see fewer older developers is that software development wasn't a major career in the 80'
by mfer 6y ago
There certainly is age discrimination out there.
One of the reasons we see fewer older developers is that software development wasn't a major career in the 80's and even early 90's. Nothing like it is today in terms of numbers of people. So, there just weren't as many people doing it. Now that they are older the number of younger people dwarf them, in part, because the number of jobs has gone up.
Older developers are there. I know a number of them.
There are also company differences. Some companies don't like to hire older developers. Some of these companies want people to work around the clock and older developers tend to have families and hobbies. It's harder to have an influence on them to work a major number of hours.
Then there are older developers who do not want to change. I know some of these. As technology changes a breakneck speeds they don't want to move on from what they did to something new. This can cause issues and give the age group a bad name.
I find the most successful older developers are those who use their experience to do a good job and what needs to be done while adapting as things change.
- zeku 6y agoMy company is LOADED with older devs. Our average dev age is probably close to 50. There is in fact a huge gap, only a handful of us under 30. At 27 I might still be the youngest developer in my 50 developer department.
- mhh__ 6y agoIs there any difference in productivity to a more stereotype younger workforce? I'm not good with people, so I doubt I'll ever be in a position to do so, but the ideal team composition to me needs a mixture of naive geniuses and people who've been around the block enough to know when to say KISS.
- zeku 6y agoI would say we're a very stable group. It's rare anyone is going to put in more than 45 hours a week, but at the same time stakeholders have extreme confidence that their projects will be done correctly. We're more of a steady churn than a burn out in a flash--which is the feeling I get from younger startup workers.
- eloff 6y agoI'm going to go out on a limb and say this is not web, app, or game development. What does your company do?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- zeku 6y agoWe're in healthcare. We have web,app, and even game dev. Personally I work in Data Engineering/Machine Learning/Applied Stats space with some app dev work as well. I'm learning to wear a lot of hats as we segment into small groups and it effectively feels like a bunch of different startups in a "closed" economy of the company.
- eloff 6y agoSounds like a fascinating place to work. I feel the general rarity of gray beards in the industry denies me a different perspective and experience that I could learn from.
- carabiner 6y agoHow does age discrimination manifest? I'm less concerned with being passed over for promotions than just having a job. Is it mainly that older guys are first on the chopping block for layoffs? How much does one have to "watch their back" and perhaps overachieve to stay safe?