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> Maybe company will prefer younger coders to hire and I will not be able to find a job anymore? 32 here, but most of my professional circle is my age or older

by Tade0 6y ago

> Maybe company will prefer younger coders to hire and I will not be able to find a job anymore? 32 here, but most of my professional circle is my age or older. Programming is not Logan's Run and outside of maybe bold and snappy SV startups companies cannot afford to sneer at experienced professionals wanting to join - not in the current market at least. My advice would be to talk to your superiors about this - perhaps they would be willing to put you into a coding role? If not, you can start sending out resumes and having interviews - it's not like you have to be jobless to make time for that. Perhaps you have friends from previous college/pervious companies, who could help? My experience is that switching roles is generally hard and will take time - you'll need to take that into account. But it's not impossible and I have anecdata to support it.

dimmke 6y ago
I'm 29 and the amount of anxiety I read about in programming as a profession is staggering. All the people trying to get into it worried that they're not cut out for it, only for 10 years later to be worried that they're aging out of it. I wish I could understand where it comes from. There are so, so, so many programming jobs out there. There are no hard and fast rules about anything. I love the comparison to Logan's Run, I've had the same thought myself. I know many people in their 40s and 50s who still code in their day to day.
- Tade0 6y ago
  My pet theory is that it used to be something hard and for the young and innovative, but was eventually commoditized. My aunt was one of the IT pioneers in the late 80s in Poland(her first task was to figure out how to put together her work machine - fun stuff), and was only laid off in 2010 - two years before retirement - due to stuff unrelated to her performance. I think currently it boils down to us being expensive resources - I was told repeatedly at my current workplace that we (the team) are "a cost", so we should focus on delivering instead of ensuring quality, which is kind of ironic given that I know we're pushing code which simply doesn't work so we aren't actually delivering. Bottom line is that we're expensive and that causes anxiety among the decision makers, who in turn transfer that anxiety onto us. This is my best guess anyway.
  - loopz 6y ago
    That anxiety is due to incompetence, at management levels and business side. They simply are clueless how to manage IT, and refuse to learn. This induces impostor feelings and confusion downwards..

by Tade0 6y ago

dimmke 6y ago

I'm 29 and the amount of anxiety I read about in programming as a profession is staggering. All the people trying to get into it worried that they're not cut out for it, only for 10 years later to be worried that they're aging out of it. I wish I could understand where it comes from. There are so, so, so many programming jobs out there. There are no hard and fast rules about anything. I love the comparison to Logan's Run, I've had the same thought myself. I know many people in their 40s and 50s who still code in their day to day.

Tade0 6y ago
My pet theory is that it used to be something hard and for the young and innovative, but was eventually commoditized. My aunt was one of the IT pioneers in the late 80s in Poland(her first task was to figure out how to put together her work machine - fun stuff), and was only laid off in 2010 - two years before retirement - due to stuff unrelated to her performance. I think currently it boils down to us being expensive resources - I was told repeatedly at my current workplace that we (the team) are "a cost", so we should focus on delivering instead of ensuring quality, which is kind of ironic given that I know we're pushing code which simply doesn't work so we aren't actually delivering. Bottom line is that we're expensive and that causes anxiety among the decision makers, who in turn transfer that anxiety onto us. This is my best guess anyway.
- loopz 6y ago
  That anxiety is due to incompetence, at management levels and business side. They simply are clueless how to manage IT, and refuse to learn. This induces impostor feelings and confusion downwards..