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Am almost 53, and after 33 years in the field, I encountered a lot of ageism (at least in hiring) in the Bay Area, so I moved back to the Midwest and worked a g

Am almost 53, and after 33 years in the field, I encountered a lot of ageism (at least in hiring) in the Bay Area, so I moved back to the Midwest and worked a gig for a year, then budget cuts axed the newly expanded team. As one Bay area firm said in their rejection letter )the last straw that got me to pack up:) "You're great technically, but you're not a good cultural fit" (Yes, I was current at the time. I know node and frontend, did two decades of JS, SQL, cloud, Java, C, rails, PHP, Perl) Well fuck me then, because all I've done is worked in coding forever. I've managed teams but like coding much more. I tried getting remote work, had some 20-30 interviews before COVID hit, but no gig. Haven't tried much since and that's my own fault. So it's been two years since I worked in software. Am not working at the moment. Wouldn't say I'm happier

cauliflower99 6y ago
There is definitely a bias against engineers who choose not to go into a 'management' role as they progress in their careers, particularly if they've been there for >2 decades. It sucks in my opinion. It also means we have to think about potentially changing careers when we are at the peak of our ability! Are you working on side projects or you have another source of income to ease the pressure?
simplerman 6y ago
I keep hearing about consulting path, is that something you can take?
- sngz 6y ago
  I'm not as old as OP yet, but have already encountered some of the "cultural fit" replies since I'm not into the whole silicon valley tech bro culture. As a result I've started dabbing into part time consulting on the side as a way to test the waters. It's not for every one, especially not for people who just want to code and not deal with people. The same type of skills that you need for the "management route". So people avoiding the management route in their tech career life will probably not like it.

cauliflower99 6y ago

There is definitely a bias against engineers who choose not to go into a 'management' role as they progress in their careers, particularly if they've been there for >2 decades. It sucks in my opinion. It also means we have to think about potentially changing careers when we are at the peak of our ability! Are you working on side projects or you have another source of income to ease the pressure?

simplerman 6y ago

I keep hearing about consulting path, is that something you can take?

sngz 6y ago
I'm not as old as OP yet, but have already encountered some of the "cultural fit" replies since I'm not into the whole silicon valley tech bro culture. As a result I've started dabbing into part time consulting on the side as a way to test the waters. It's not for every one, especially not for people who just want to code and not deal with people. The same type of skills that you need for the "management route". So people avoiding the management route in their tech career life will probably not like it.