I started programming professionally in 1978, so I have interviewed with people much younger and naturally less experienced. My strategy, if you can call it th

I started programming professionally in 1978, so I have interviewed with people much younger and naturally less experienced. My strategy, if you can call it that, comes down to focusing on the job and their expectations. Don't patronize, don't tell old war stories. Someone may have less experience than me but know about things that I don't. I try to keep it friendly and respectful, concentrate on my relevant skills and experience. In that kind of interview situation you don't want to act superior or condescending. I don't have a problem working with younger programmers. I understand that the age difference means we will probably have very different interests. I have children the same age as some of the people who have interviewed me. I won't work 16 hours a day for pizza and beer anymore, so younger people may perceive me as a poor fit for their culture. As long as I can keep the interview focused on skills and work goals I think we can find common ground, but I have got the "not a good fit for our team" rejection a couple of times, which I can interpret as age discrimination, or maybe just not a good match. Interpersonal dynamics and common purpose make or break a development team so if you don't match by age you have to match on enough other common attributes to make age and experience differences less relevant. I started freelancing when I got to 45, and as a freelancer no one really cares about my age. I work with people from 20 years old up to mid-60s and either we jell and get the job done, or we don't.