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Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

belitsoft.com

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Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#41

Post by zwieback »

I'm 51, still codeing almost every day and I use SO a lot. I used to contribute more, when it started, but lately use it more as a reference.

Didn't know about the survey - would have probably filled it out, actually.

I feel it's pretty easy to keep up with new technologies when necessary, since I don't have to relearn the basics and almost always have a reference point as in "oh X is similar to what we used to call Y in Z".

One huge shift for me is distribution - as the browser is now almost capable as a general UI it's easier to not worry about OSes, installers, versioning, etc. This is true even for people who primarily don't work on web apps.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#44

Post by _JamesA_ »

peapicker wrote: post #2

".. However, StackOverflow’s survey on age shows that there are just about 13% of developers after 40. Where are the others?" Obviously not on StackOverflow. Perhaps they have enough experience and knowledge to not need the site because they either know how to read tech books and sites to get the info they need when they have a problem using pre-existing docs, or conversely, are fully able to debug issues themselves.…

48 here, programming since my early teens and I enjoy contributing to StackOverflow when I can and leaning on it in return for help keeping up with the explosion of 'modern' programming techniques. I'm not too proud to recognize it for the invaluable resource that it is.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#45

Post by acchow »

SimonPStevens wrote: post #32

"StackOverflow’s survey on age shows that there are just about 13% of developers after 40. Where are the others?" Not wasting time filling out online surveys? I'm not even 40 yet and I realised online surveys were a waste of time years ago. :-) A stackoverflow survey doesn't measure the answers of stackoverflow users. It measures the answers from the specific demographic of stackoverflow users who are inclined to ans…

This is why the plural of anecdote is not data.

It doesn't even matter if they get thousands or millions of survey responses - the methodology to collect the surveys doesn't avoid biases (random collection), nor is there a method to remove the bias.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#47

Post by taway_1212 »

Tistel wrote: post #36

I'm 42, programming is the fun part of the job (meetings, nonsensical time estimates and travel tend to be worst part of the job). Had a computer my whole life (Vic-20, oh yeah!) I strongly agree with what others have said in the article: Keep learning new things. I did nothing but C++ for 13 years (console games) and felt like a dinosaur. Despite the fact that there are still (a few) C++ jobs out there, I made a poi…

> One concern I have is that my hair is starting to turn grey so I think the HR process will get a bit trickier (planning on moving to more remote work so they can't see the grey :)

I'm thinking of dyeing hair before interviews when I face the same problem.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#50

Post by jacquesm »

sokoloff wrote: post #30
sotojuan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same industry that calls people in their late 20s "senior".

Late 20s? I've seen title structures where the first promotion is to "senior" and that is often granted ~18 months into working. It's early enough that it can be ambiguous as to whether it means your working title or your year in college.

You can blame job ads for that. Since nobody wants to be called 'junior' there are job ads that are clearly targeted at fresh-out-of-school people who somehow are also senior developers.

I've seen some amazing young coders that definitely were worthy of that title but they were the exception, not the rule. The tell tale is if the salary that goes with the job is one that you could support a family and a mortgage on. If that's not the case then the position is 'junior'.

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