3 ms·

"Old techies never die, they just can't get hired over 40"

3 points by olegious 15y ago

olegious 15y ago
To me the issue seems to be less "we don't hire you because you're old" and more "we don't hire you because we're not looking for those skills."
- Nrsolis 15y ago
  It can seem that way if you haven't been on the receiving end of these kinds of comments. For those of us that are somewhat north of 35, it can be a constant struggle to stay relevant in a culture that demands long hours and constant devotion to the company über alles. Once you pick up a wife and maybe some children, companies start to lose interest in you and you find your experience and relevance being downvoted if you ever have to change jobs. Age discrimination is real and unfortunately, many feel that it's just dandy as long as it never touches anyone you might care about.
  - kls 15y ago
    I have just not seen it, I will give you that it is my own personal experience and my experience may be abnormal, but I am pushing 40, I look 50 and just don't run into this issue. I have kept relevant and have progressed from the early days of the web doing CGI/C -> CGI/Pearl -> ASP/VB -> JSP/Java -> HTML/CSS/JS/REST and now Mobile. I have a wife and 4 kids and I have never been unemployed for longer than a week and that was between jobs and by choice. I just don't see the discrimination that others talk about. Of my peers, most that started when I did, have left the industry or have chosen to specialize, what I call pasture. When you choose to specialize there is a risk that comes along with it. Take for example someone that decides to specialize in IOS development solely, at some point the world is going to move on, when it does someone that has choose to specialize has to take it upon themselves to retool before the end of the road. A more relevant example would be a Flash specialist, I see them complaining about the state of things, on the web, all the time, but it is a reality of the market. It's the reason I have always stayed a generalist. My experience may be abnormal, but among the age group that started in the industry with me, I and one other developer peer are the lone survivors most others where lost due to opting out of the industry or specializing in technologies that died along the way. The two of us that stayed relevant are still going strong.
joeycfan 15y ago
It's the learning curve of Sisyphus out there. I studied Pl/1 once....

3 points by olegious 15y ago

To me the issue seems to be less "we don't hire you because you're old" and more "we don't hire you because we're not looking for those skills."

Nrsolis 15y ago
It can seem that way if you haven't been on the receiving end of these kinds of comments. For those of us that are somewhat north of 35, it can be a constant struggle to stay relevant in a culture that demands long hours and constant devotion to the company über alles. Once you pick up a wife and maybe some children, companies start to lose interest in you and you find your experience and relevance being downvoted if you ever have to change jobs. Age discrimination is real and unfortunately, many feel that it's just dandy as long as it never touches anyone you might care about.
- kls 15y ago
  I have just not seen it, I will give you that it is my own personal experience and my experience may be abnormal, but I am pushing 40, I look 50 and just don't run into this issue. I have kept relevant and have progressed from the early days of the web doing CGI/C -> CGI/Pearl -> ASP/VB -> JSP/Java -> HTML/CSS/JS/REST and now Mobile. I have a wife and 4 kids and I have never been unemployed for longer than a week and that was between jobs and by choice. I just don't see the discrimination that others talk about. Of my peers, most that started when I did, have left the industry or have chosen to specialize, what I call pasture. When you choose to specialize there is a risk that comes along with it. Take for example someone that decides to specialize in IOS development solely, at some point the world is going to move on, when it does someone that has choose to specialize has to take it upon themselves to retool before the end of the road. A more relevant example would be a Flash specialist, I see them complaining about the state of things, on the web, all the time, but it is a reality of the market. It's the reason I have always stayed a generalist. My experience may be abnormal, but among the age group that started in the industry with me, I and one other developer peer are the lone survivors most others where lost due to opting out of the industry or specializing in technologies that died along the way. The two of us that stayed relevant are still going strong.

joeycfan 15y ago

It's the learning curve of Sisyphus out there. I studied Pl/1 once....