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It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

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Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#221

Post by muzster »

muzster wrote: post #219
muzster wrote: post #160

Some 'Official' Stats Source: http://www.bls.gov/cps/demographics.htm I would put some relevant comment on the meaning of these figures but I have to put my kids to bed, sort out their school packed lunch, get scolded by my wife - all before I work on my side projects. I'll leave it to the youngsters.

Median Age / Profession 42.1 Computer systems analysts 44.7 Information security analysts 43.1 Computer programmers 39.7 Software developers, applications and systems software 35.9 Web developers 40.5 Computer support specialists 47.0 Database administrators 41.2 Network and computer systems administrators 41.6 Computer network architects 41.2 Computer occupations, all other

Hint: look at the outliers

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#222

Post by whamlastxmas »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #13

I don't know about the Silicon Valley, but I'm in the Silicon Forest (Hillsboro/Portland Oregon) and this market seems to be very merit driven. You can be 80 years old and get a job if you can do work. Maybe you can't get a job at fart.IO building an API for some craft beer BS but at many mid to large companies 40 is still an average. The last 4-5 companies I've been at value bullet points over anything else (for wha…

I worked at a company in the suburbs of Portland for about a year and was really impressed when they hired a guy in his 60s to do a job currently being done by 4-5 people in their late 20s (a mix of males and females). I wouldn't necessarily say he was slow in picking up stuff, but his style of learning is was definitely a lot different. He was a great asset and it alleviated some of the subconscious biases I had myself.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#223

Post by collyw »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #13

I don't know about the Silicon Valley, but I'm in the Silicon Forest (Hillsboro/Portland Oregon) and this market seems to be very merit driven. You can be 80 years old and get a job if you can do work. Maybe you can't get a job at fart.IO building an API for some craft beer BS but at many mid to large companies 40 is still an average. The last 4-5 companies I've been at value bullet points over anything else (for wha…

If PHP and Jquery are fine to get the job done, whats the point?

I have learned a few languages now - Java, Perl and now Python. Python has pretty much everything I need. I have looked at NoSQl databases, but haven't found a use case where they would be better than relational databases. I prefer to write good quality Django code than to write my first app in yet another language / stack.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#224

Post by whamlastxmas »

Multiplayer wrote: post #80
api wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're actually making 180k equivalent because you don't have time to spend the money.

Delete this before Bezos sees it.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#225

Post by Bartweiss »

daxfohl wrote: post #200
dba7dba wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true. The question is, how do you avoid that place. Only so many can become managers. Only so many can start own business and keep it running.

So much of it is contacts. I'm in that place now. In my 20's and early 30's every job I got was through contacts. Since then I've been working solo projects at small companies for a number of years. Fun work, but suddenly it's dried up. I don't have any good recent contacts in the tech sector. So I'm competing with 22 year olds, with little to back me up. So don't do that. Try to keep in touch with former colleagues,…

The line that stood out most in that article was the woman saying "Every job I've had I got through my contacts, but they're all gone now". It had never occurred to me, but it's obviously a huge problem for older job seekers.

If you're 33, you might get a job using a recommendation from someone who managed you a decade ago. If you're 53, that same person retired years ago and doesn't have any pull to offer. And someone who worked for you 10 years ago can't recommend you easily, because it's hard to "recommend up" to a position above your own.

It's a subtle sort of thing, it's not direct ageism but it's obviously a big hurdle for an older worker.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#226

Post by bphogan »

dbg31415 wrote: post #190

I feel like a lot of discrimination in tech comes from a dislike of experience. Many project teams and companies instantly dislike the person who says, "This can't be done," or, "We need more information before we can give an estimate." If you're 40, there's a good chance you know more than most people in the room about what's going to work and what isn't. But what you have to remember is that the only reason you hav…

This is exactly it. It's a lesson I learned recently. Just chill out. Don't try to "save" people from making mistakes.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#227

Post by nickpsecurity »

20yrs_no_equity wrote: post #151
falcolas wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think. Probably the same unconscious ageism in action: if you are having trouble getting hired and you're over 40, it's obviously because your skills are out of date. Hiring involves a lot of "People Like Us" evaluation, consciously in many cases. And if you're over 40, you're probably not like "Us" in SV.

The only way I'm not like the "Us" in silicon valley (if we're talking about 20-30 year olds as represented on HN) is that I have more current skills (takes time to learn languages, knowing 5 currently popular languages takes more time than the person just out of college has invested.) I also have experience building things at scale. Projects that take 5 years to do you can't have done too many by the time you're 23.…

Well put. Especially on 5 yr project thing. I'll add that even nature balances what types of us there are for innovation and resilience. The idea that one, narrow type will be ideal for all startup or tech work is absurd in comparison.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#228

Post by skissane »

exstudent2 wrote: post #120
largote wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell that to all the COBOL programmers making serious money.

COBOL is tied to specialized hardware that's hard to move away from due to massive capital investment. PHP will run anywhere better languages run. And really, COBOL will be gone someday. If your career is on the line, it pays to stay current.

COBOL itself isn't tied to any specialized hardware, and you can get COBOL compilers (whether proprietary or open source) for all major platforms. If it runs PHP, it probably can run COBOL too.

The real problem with porting most COBOL code is that few COBOL applications are actually pure COBOL, they are full of calls to proprietary middleware, databases and operating systems. For example, a lot of COBOL code runs on IBM mainframes and calls mainframe packages like CICS and IMS and the underlying mainframe OS (z/OS aka MVS). While there are replatforming solutions which emulate some of these mainframe software packages on other platforms, the emulation is generally imperfect hence there is still effort and risk in migrating.

I think the biggest problem with mainframe COBOL software is not the hardware but finding people with the right skills to maintain it. Even if you use some replatforming solution to port it to a more mainstream platform (Linux/Unix/Windows), you will still need COBOL programmers familiar with the relevant mainframe technologies, plus they'll need to understand the limitations of the replatforming solution you chose.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#229

Post by Bartweiss »

wcummings wrote: post #67
DigitalJack wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craft beer in portland just means "more hops." I call it crap beer. Fully agree with your post, just felt like griping about "craft" beer here.

Not just Portland, the entire American craft beer scene is infected with shitty, indistinguishable IPA's that all taste like a mountain of hops.

Sierra Nevada (which makes some decent beers!) deserves a lot of blame for this nonsense.

They've been chasing the dragon more than anyone else, putting out stuff like Hop Hunter which is defined exclusively by how strong they can make it. "Beer with added hop oil"? Really? If brewing with more hops isn't enough, it's probably time to stop adding hops and improve the beer some other way!

Cascade hops are a great flavor, I love them, but they need to go together with the other tastes.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#230

Post by pcunite »

shams93 wrote: post #69

Engineering is a dead end job, especially outside of silicon valley. There is 0 respect for experience in the industry, we have more respect for someone who has coded for 2 weeks than someone who continually improves over 25 years. Unless you become a celebrity coder you find that your best choice going forward is suicide. The industry won't let you have a social life or a family once you hit 45 no one cares about yo…

I know it took a lot of energy to write this.

What helps me is knowing that there is purpose in reaching out and connecting with the creator of life itself. Jesus loves you. Find him at a UPCI church.

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