They are hiring young ones like you. How old are the founders of your Company?
These are well-established companies founded decades ago. if they were startups, I'd understand...
Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
21–30 of 30 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#22Carousel.
not sure I follow...
That was a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan's_Run
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#23I assume that you are talking about 50+ demographics, I can share one anecdote. My father-in-law is in his early 60s and he was recently laid off from his job. He was working with RPG /AS400 stuff. He was never in management path and always been individual contributor (even though he started when he was 40 being an immigrant in the US starting from scratch). He strongly believes that they laid him off due to his age.…
This is exactly what my father went through too, he worked at IBM and then AT&T till he was 60+. He's over it and is enjoying his retirement playing sudoku everyday.
Would he be "over it" if he hadn't saved for retirement? Why did they let him go? Was he not contributing at the same level as before?
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#24Carousel.
not sure I follow...
This is a reference to a film from 1976, Logan's Run:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film)
This reference is aimed at least a decade over the head of a thirty-year-old, which may be part of the joke.
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
not sure I follow...
This is a reference to a film from 1976, Logan's Run : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film) This reference is aimed at least a decade over the head of a thirty-year-old, which may be part of the joke.
I kind of like that. If you don't get the reference, you have nothing to worry about yet. :)
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#26I'm in my early fifties and about half the guys I was coding with 20+ years ago are still coding. Most of the rest are in some sort of management or running their own businesses.
Being employed is all about the value you can deliver. As you gain experience, you usually gain a broad range of skills. Generally, a business only wants to pay for the slice of your experience that directly relates to their business. You skills in 3D math and image processing for example, won't earn a web development company more money. Charging for those skills may make you "overpriced".
The solution, is to always be learning new, profitable skills.
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#27I'm in my early fifties and about half the guys I was coding with 20+ years ago are still coding. Most of the rest are in some sort of management or running their own businesses. Being employed is all about the value you can deliver. As you gain experience, you usually gain a broad range of skills. Generally, a business only wants to pay for the slice of your experience that directly relates to their business. You sk…
What do you mean by profitable skills? Can you give an example and expand in general how one goes about identifying a profitable skill as time progresses?
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#28There's a bunch of older guys at my place. It's in finance that can afford to provide 6-figure salaries with high 5 figure or 6-figure bonuses year after year in perpetuity along with the regular slew of standard benefits such as health insurance, 401k, etc.
TBH, I think most of tbe older devs that stay in software have gone down the management route. The 2 top guys are managers, but they provide architecture guidance and vision for our next generation platforms. The CIO, CEO, business unit president is also ex-dev. What is left are a handful of "youngish" 30-45 ish developers of which the older group that is probably going to stick around with their golden handcuffs until they retire.
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#29There's a bunch of older guys at my place. It's in finance that can afford to provide 6-figure salaries with high 5 figure or 6-figure bonuses year after year in perpetuity along with the regular slew of standard benefits such as health insurance, 401k, etc. TBH, I think most of tbe older devs that stay in software have gone down the management route. The 2 top guys are managers, but they provide architecture guidanc…
Thanks for the insights, but what I'm really curious about is what happened to the older devs that DIDN'T go into management? Given that you say "whats left" doesn't include anyone over 45, where did those guys go? Given that there is not enough management jobs for all those guys to go into, what did they DO?
Re: Ask HN: Where do older workers go that don't become managers or specialists?
#30I'm in my early fifties and about half the guys I was coding with 20+ years ago are still coding. Most of the rest are in some sort of management or running their own businesses. Being employed is all about the value you can deliver. As you gain experience, you usually gain a broad range of skills. Generally, a business only wants to pay for the slice of your experience that directly relates to their business. You sk…
Thanks, this was exactly the kind of finding i was asking for. So, at least at this stage of life, sounds like majority of your cohort is still employed. I wonder if that will hold up ten years from now.
I guess what I'm really worried about is that many are somehow "forced" into retirement or low paying jobs (ala Walmart greeter). This would seem really unfair, given that on the surface, this kind of age discrimination shouldn't happen. At least the military is up front about how this works with it's "Up or Out" policy.