I think age bias is a thing, but the best software engineers (and the most productive) I've worked with are over 40. They're sharp, kept up with current technology, and they actually can build things in a way that's adaptable.
It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
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Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#52Skills pay the bills. Many of the over-40 crowd I've worked with just plain don't want to learn anything new. They have settled, and are passive in their learning. This is the #1 reason they won't be relevant.
This is the exact attitude that makes tech a shit sector to be in. Its not that people don't want learn anything, its that when you're 40 a lot more time is invested in things outside of work. Kids, wife, house, etc. When you're 20, nomadic, are by yourself, and have a ton of free time.. yes finding time to learn is easy.
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#53I'm over 40 and I've been continuing to get more work than I can handle by staying up to date on my tech skills. Maybe that professional headshot I never got would help, though.
amen to that, older engineers would require higher salaries (due to the need to support family, to pay mortgage, etc.), and would not be able to put in the same number of hours. So if you can't demonstrate that you provide more values than the younger guns, why would an employer want to hire older engineers?
They won't require older salaries if they can't get a job elsewhere, only because their skills are in demand and useful.
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#54We should all be embarrassed by the working conditions and biases in our industry. It doesn't have to be this way, but we all keep playing along.
Isn't reinventing old tech poorly a worse problem?
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#55The best explanation I've seen for this is when you're a young engineer with little experience showing knowledge of a framework or technique is a huge plus. For someone with a ton of experience not knowing something is shown as a minus. For interview processes trying to avoid false positives a negative mark will hurt you much more in the final sum. So the bar is set differently for two candidates applying to the same…
Ignoring the latest fad is a plus in my books. Of course this only works if you know the fundamentals.
Gee, you don't think rewriting everything every couple of months is a wise use of money?
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#56Is this perhaps because older workers gravitate towards sane hours? Maybe because they develop interests, lives, families, etc outside of work that they commit to (moreso than most 20-somethings)? As a side note: I'm over 40 now, but I do recall being 27 and interviewing someone in their early 40s who was qualified and enthusiastic. I passed on them in part because I felt guilty hiring them; to work on my team the pe…
Older workers are also more savvy. They understand things like the fact that if you're working 80 hours a week for $120k you are actually making $60k.
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#57Try being over 60 & gettind cred. "How could you possibly understand bleeding edge tech and emerging trends?" Well...I've lived there for four decades, you?
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#58Is this perhaps because older workers gravitate towards sane hours? Maybe because they develop interests, lives, families, etc outside of work that they commit to (moreso than most 20-somethings)? As a side note: I'm over 40 now, but I do recall being 27 and interviewing someone in their early 40s who was qualified and enthusiastic. I passed on them in part because I felt guilty hiring them; to work on my team the pe…
What you did was definitely illegal and immoral. It is not your decision to make on how someone should live their life.
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#59This is idiotic. People over 40 trade one set of skills for another (source: I'm over 40). You lose short-term memory, can't juggle too many things simultaneously, and aren't always up to date on every latest fad. But what you gain is fantastically valuable: intuition, abstract thinking, systems thinking, ability to detect patterns in large systems, ability to notice that certain problems have been solved in a differ…
>intuition, abstract thinking, systems thinking, ability to detect patterns in large systems, ability to notice that certain problems have been solved in a different field, and lots more.
Software tech is the only area that I know of that doesn't care what you've done in the past or have experienced. All that matters is what stupid algorithm you can figure out on a white board in the language they use.
Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley
#60Well it might change a lot as suddenly number of coders in their 40s goes up.
Do you have any data demonstrating this will happen?
See http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-2/images/2-9-chart2.png
A large number of the people that made up the 3x growth in IT between 1990 and 2000 are just about to hit 40 now. That's a very rough measure, just looking at overall industry size over time (and granted, it's IT rather than startups), but it at least mildly suggests that the demographics are going to start flattening a bit as we hit more of a steady state rather than a period of extreme growth.