4 ms·
I think what looks like ageism is often not (but probably sometimes is). It's more that, for most business programming roles, experience stops being cumulative
by tacostakohashi 3y ago
I think what looks like ageism is often not (but probably sometimes is).
It's more that, for most business programming roles, experience stops being cumulative at some point. For example, for a Java developer, 5-7 years is probably about where experience tops out, and beyond that it doesn't really help if you have 15 years experience in Java, or you have experience in Perl before you did Java, etc.
Cumulative experience of 10, 20, 30 years is really only useful for highly specialized roles (writing compilers, database engines, operating systems), management, etc.
I would worry less about ageism, and more about working on a track where experience is valued.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoExactly this. If you have 20 years of experience, you need to be working for the kind of place where 20 years of experience has more value than 7 years of experience, or else you need to accept getting paid like you only have 7 years of experience. That's not ageism, that's just economics. Another area where experience can have value: embedded systems.
- giantg2 3y agoEh, I have over 10 years in and I'm still not competitive for entry level jobs at entry level prices.
- VirusNewbie 3y agoI think you're right overall but too optimistic about timelines. I think about 10 years of experience or more is where things start to level out. Depending on how you count my experience, i'm either at ~16 or 20+. I regularly learn from people with 10 years of experience. I don't think I can say the same about people with only 5 YoE.
- ipaddr 3y agoIf you think everything tops out at 5-7 years you are no where near correct. 5-7 years developers are still juniors who have spent time down one path and know it really well. So well that they become opinionated that this is the best way. You don't turn into a senior until your wiped that mindset away. Until you become un-opinionated you are still a junior. At 7 years I knew it alL, it took awhile to reach a point where I know nothing but I am open to all opinions and ways to do something. Once you know it all work back to an open mindset
- aristofun 3y agoIt’s exactly becausr of myths like that we can’t grow our salary linearly with experience. Even if the quality and value of our work _can_ grow proportionally. I wish there were employers who understand that.