The correct term is "Auld". "Old" is demeaning and insensitive.
The preferred nomenclature is "wrinkly"
In the UK, we have "twerly" (derived from the free bus trips available to pensioners, but only after 10am, hence "Am I too early?")
Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
101–110 of 158 posts
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because older people have lives, children and more - coming in over the weekend is not an option. Spending extra time to "Show you love your work" is not something they care about. On the other hand that is something most American Techies in SV firms or on HN already are part of. Just sitting here on HN for so many years I know what it takes to look like an up and coming coder - and that is to breathe and live code.…
If you want to work fewer hours but don’t contribute more per hour, get used to working for less pay or being unemployed.
I have a better idea - why dont I hire people for Jobs instead.
Its your/their choice if you/they want to work on the weekends. I am not forcing them. Its just that promotions will go to the people who do.
And if you don't earn more, and get that promotion - well how are you going to stay relevant in this industry or pay for that rent?
I mean its totally your "choice", to effectively throw away your future if you don't play ball.
Thats why we employers prefer young guns. They have that "go get em" attitude. Great cannon fodder.
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Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#103I wonder how prevalent the whole ageism thing is. It makes good articles because half the engineers are afraid of it, but how widespread is this? Could be just a dozen isolated cases that the media latches on?
Prevalent. I'm applying for jobs. Hot market. Both I and my peers are finding it much harder than as fresh college grads. A lot of this is structural: Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. interviews ask very easy big-O style algorithmic questions and prioritize speed and accuracy.
A lot of us more experienced folk haven't done this in years. We can solve more complex, multifaceted questions, but those aren't asked. It's about speed with things from college. It's important we understand those, and we do, but that crisp sharpness is no longer there.
I will beat someone younger on hard problems which also involve threading, distributed systems, customer requirements, memory hierarchies, code simplicity, testability, business requirements, math, etc. but those aren't the interviews.
Even ML seem to be spot checks of trendy techniques rather than deeper questions about mathematical maturity.
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
> At some point, an engineer's economic worth plateaus, and the only way to justify a bigger paycheck is to have him offload the upper management. Why not just accept a paycheck that plateaus as well? Mine's been pretty flat since I first (prematurely) got to that "senior" title. I'm not anticipating big gains in future.
Yeah, I peaked in my 30s. I was happy about that - I was making good money. Unless someone at Google has an aneurysm and accidentally hires me, I expect my salary to stay about the same from here on out.
Why not go get a job at Google? If you’re good the received wisdom seems to be to inhale Cracking the Coding Interview and the Algorithm Design Manual. If they don’t have any open positions where you’d like to work that’s one thing but why not take the extra money if it’s there?
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm using an adblocker, all I get is a brief flash of something and then a blank page. Maybe I'm too old for Wired now.
Loads fine for me with uBlock Origin enabled (and blocking 28 URLs).
It's working now for me too, I suppose they fixed something, or it was just overloaded.
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#106Make a bet and invest in a new, upcoming technology like Rust. If Rust takes off big, you'll have a head start on teen programming wizards.
This is true and also helps keep you fresh. Personally I got involved in containers and container security 4 years ago and so even at my advanced age (44) I'm involved in what is a pretty hot topic at the moment.
I also recognize that I need to keep investing in my technical development as I go along.
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#107I wonder how prevalent the whole ageism thing is. It makes good articles because half the engineers are afraid of it, but how widespread is this? Could be just a dozen isolated cases that the media latches on?
Prevalent. I'm applying for jobs. Hot market. Both I and my peers are finding it much harder than as fresh college grads. A lot of this is structural: Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. interviews ask very easy big-O style algorithmic questions and prioritize speed and accuracy. A lot of us more experienced folk haven't done this in years. We can solve more complex, multifaceted questions, but those aren't asked. It's ab…
If you spent 4 weeks drilling basic CS problems do you think you will pass the interview? When I look into them I feel like I can pick it back up quickly.
On a tangent: which city are you looking in?
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#108Good article. It’s kind of scary to me that “old” in tech means 40.
Only because as people get experience they end up in the “Engineering Manager” role & such. Plus there’s a GLUT of fresh grads joining each year.
"Only because as people get experience they end up in the “Engineering Manager” role & such."
There's a limited number of those positions, inherently. So most of the people in an age group are probably leaving the profession altogether, not moving to management.
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#109A good way to age-proof yourself is to start your own business. In the dozen years I've been running my SaaS products, despite being Old during that entire timespan, nobody has ever so much as asked me my age. Let alone discriminated against me because of it. And I've been "Consulting While Over 30" for nearly 20 years now for individual clients. None of which have ever held my lack-of-inexperience against me. Grante…
Not everyone has an interest in or aptitude for the additional work needed to run your own business - from marketing to account management to accounting.
Re: Surviving as an ‘Old’ in the Tech World
#110Good article. I fail to visualise this; tech-people between age group 25-40, who are already at the peak of their career, like some are already CxOs, others are VPs and higher positions in large orgs. What are these people gonna do after say 25-30 years from now? I am sure there would be a high tech professional life cycle something similar to tech product life-cycle. Though this is very subjective phenomenon.
20 years at a CXO salary in a reasonably mature organization (not seed or series A) is long enough to save up plenty to retire on.