5 ms·

Who would hire a 45 year old programmer? Certainly good as dead. Have fun at the laundry.

digitalzombie 12y ago
> Who would hire a 45 year old programmer? Certainly good as dead. Have fun at the laundry. That's... age discrimination. This is illegal in California. He could get hire if he can past interviews or have notable projects.
- pistle 12y ago
  But difficult, if not impossible, to prove and costly to try to attack. The age difference is often not even really a conscious thing. It is expressed in "cultural fit" by most young interviewers. Older devs simply are detached from core pieces of younger culture. Whether that's music, integration into workplace rhythms, lanugage, etc. It's important to specialize some, get broad technically (don't only know everything COBOL), and to force yourself to at least understand the hot new things enough to be able to speak FROM EXPERIENCE about why you want said hot new thing off your lawn... but still be willing to play along. If you need to work for someone else, you need to balance your tech-righteousness with someone else's, often youthfully naive, ego.
  - vidarh 12y ago
    > The age difference is often not even really a conscious thing. It can even be as simple as a work schedule that is hard to meet for anyone with children. E.g. shifting the start and end of the work day one hour later can be enough to make childcare a nightmare to secure many places.
crashandburn4 12y ago
Wow... I don't even have words. I get that your comment is supposed to be dark humour but that's pretty heartless, this guys got actual troubles.
evo_9 12y ago
Believe it or not you will be 45 some day.
pweissbrod 12y ago
I honestly cant tell if your statement is a joke, if youre a confused person, or if this statement reflects a sign of our current culture
- notlisted 12y ago
  I'm afraid it's the latter. Cf the 30yo == old loser remark by Mark Z (now 30 himself) - http://www.fastcompany.com/3030612/most-creative-people/mark-zuckerberg-is-officially-an-old-loser-according-to-mark-zuckerberg http://www.fastcompany.com/3030612/most-creative-people/mark...
laichzeit0 12y ago
45 year old programmers most likely have seen everything come around the block more than a few times in their careers and realize fads / crap ideas when they see them. E.g. Yet another build system I work with a 42 year old and by far he's the person I've learned the most from even though he "still uses Perl" (I love Perl btw) and I'm trying to convince him to learn Git and abandon CVS.
- mgkimsal 12y ago
  Exactly, and it's a big reason why some places are reluctant to hire them. They'll rain on your parade faster than anyone else, and people don't like to have their parade rained on.
  - roghummal 12y ago
    Kinda sucks when someone experienced enough to know bullshit calls bullshit.
circlefavshape 12y ago
I think you'll find that, when trying to get hired, being a dick is a bigger obstacle than advanced years

> Who would hire a 45 year old programmer? Certainly good as dead. Have fun at the laundry. That's... age discrimination. This is illegal in California. He could get hire if he can past interviews or have notable projects.

pistle 12y ago
But difficult, if not impossible, to prove and costly to try to attack. The age difference is often not even really a conscious thing. It is expressed in "cultural fit" by most young interviewers. Older devs simply are detached from core pieces of younger culture. Whether that's music, integration into workplace rhythms, lanugage, etc. It's important to specialize some, get broad technically (don't only know everything COBOL), and to force yourself to at least understand the hot new things enough to be able to speak FROM EXPERIENCE about why you want said hot new thing off your lawn... but still be willing to play along. If you need to work for someone else, you need to balance your tech-righteousness with someone else's, often youthfully naive, ego.
- vidarh 12y ago
  > The age difference is often not even really a conscious thing. It can even be as simple as a work schedule that is hard to meet for anyone with children. E.g. shifting the start and end of the work day one hour later can be enough to make childcare a nightmare to secure many places.

crashandburn4 12y ago

Wow... I don't even have words. I get that your comment is supposed to be dark humour but that's pretty heartless, this guys got actual troubles.

evo_9 12y ago

Believe it or not you will be 45 some day.

pweissbrod 12y ago

I honestly cant tell if your statement is a joke, if youre a confused person, or if this statement reflects a sign of our current culture

notlisted 12y ago
I'm afraid it's the latter. Cf the 30yo == old loser remark by Mark Z (now 30 himself) - http://www.fastcompany.com/3030612/most-creative-people/mark-zuckerberg-is-officially-an-old-loser-according-to-mark-zuckerberg http://www.fastcompany.com/3030612/most-creative-people/mark...

laichzeit0 12y ago

45 year old programmers most likely have seen everything come around the block more than a few times in their careers and realize fads / crap ideas when they see them. E.g. Yet another build system I work with a 42 year old and by far he's the person I've learned the most from even though he "still uses Perl" (I love Perl btw) and I'm trying to convince him to learn Git and abandon CVS.

mgkimsal 12y ago
Exactly, and it's a big reason why some places are reluctant to hire them. They'll rain on your parade faster than anyone else, and people don't like to have their parade rained on.
- roghummal 12y ago
  Kinda sucks when someone experienced enough to know bullshit calls bullshit.

circlefavshape 12y ago

I think you'll find that, when trying to get hired, being a dick is a bigger obstacle than advanced years