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Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

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Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#81

Post by buserror »

avip wrote: post #62
buserror wrote: post #20

I'm 49! I've been working since I'm 17 as a developer -- I think the KEY thing is to be valuable, and be able to change quickly BUT not as quickly as the snowflakes. Ignore the fad tech, get a good, serious, bulletproof base in actual computer science -- I mean, LOW LEVEL stuff--, that will help you learn ANYTHING computer related quickly, and continue surfing that wave with whatever tech you fancy might actually be…

I feel this does not address the question directly. I know passionate, good developers over 50, and they do have hard times on the free market (I can still use 'they' as I'm few years younger). It raises the question - when were you last time actively job hunting?

I'm contracting, so the last time I aced a discussion about a job was about 5 hours ago.

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#82

Post by stockkid »

moosey wrote: post #60

Everyone here is talking about their skillset, and I'm going to take another direction: appearance and interpersonal skills. There is ageism, yes, but I think a deeper problem is reaction to peoples appearance. If you are late twenties concerned about age, then hide it, starting now. * Always wear sunscreen when you are outside, regardless of race. It prevents skin aging, and you'll still tan and get Vitamin D regard…

> Practice getting people talking about themselves. It's the best way to get people to think that you are interesting.

Could you elaborate why why that is the case?

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#83

Post by thekingofh »

neolefty wrote: post #78
effie wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you share some examples of the things you learned but then became irrelevant? I wonder if we could find some pattern to help people avoid learning modern stuff that will have the same fate.

Off the top of my head, things I never implement or use anymore: * socket listeners * line drawing * explicit memory management * old APIs and libraries * Perl * Assembly And things I rarely use: * Semaphores & other threading primitives * XML * C/C++ Now, knowing these sometimes helps, but the amount of time I spent on them probably doesn't justify the benefit aside from the fact that it was necessary at the time. A…

The gaming industry is still heavily invested in C++, for better or worse.

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#84

Post by ghaff »

ryandrake wrote: post #52
uptownfunk wrote: post #4

There is a technology called hair coloring, stack it with a hoodie and some well fitted slacks, roll up one of the ankle cuffs a bit. Talk like you've exited a startup and are just working for fun, or something to keep you interested, but not like you actually have to.

That’s an ok strategy if you actually want to end up in a loud open office, “crushing it” with 20-something tech ‘bros, failing fast and playing hard. However, I’d guess that most people will see past the “How do you do, fellow kids” disguise. Embrace the gray beard, find one of those companies that welcomes us geezers, and clearly articulate how our decades of experience translates to business value.

Take Dan Lyons' book about his time at Hubspot. In what universe was that going to end well? (Leaving aside the question of whether it was ever intended to end well by all involved.)

Clearly there are some companies more open to more senior people in various roles. At some level, the path of least resistance at least is to accept that.

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#85

Post by mbrameld »

avip wrote: post #71
moosey wrote: post #60

Everyone here is talking about their skillset, and I'm going to take another direction: appearance and interpersonal skills. There is ageism, yes, but I think a deeper problem is reaction to peoples appearance. If you are late twenties concerned about age, then hide it, starting now. * Always wear sunscreen when you are outside, regardless of race. It prevents skin aging, and you'll still tan and get Vitamin D regard…

So in short the cure for ageism is to try and look younger than you are? No one saw that one coming.

The comment you're replying to suggest something slightly different. It suggests that you do things that will minimize the chances that you will look older than you are. While I don't think it's a cure any more than locking your door is a cure for theft, it does improve your chances of getting hired in the world we live in today.

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#86

Post by fredbo22 »

Chopsah2 wrote: post #38
buserror wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll just tell you now I've got a T-shirt with "Copland Driver Kitchen" :-)

I've got an "OpenDoc Kamp Kodabunch" sweatshirt.

The Steve Jobs response is klassic.

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/3faz2u/steve_jobs_in...

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#88

Post by lenticular »

kingaillas wrote: post #77

10 years ago I was laid off. I had just turned 40, and was living in an area that didn't have the most robust job market (plus at the time the hiring outlook was terrible in general due to the financial crisis). After looking locally to no avail... I added a new strategy: apply to various federal government jobs. Benefits include stability (although with the recent furlough maybe that isn't 100% rock solid) and no po…

Unfortunately a larger and larger part of federal staff are contractors, including most younger people I know who work for the Feds. Due to the misguided attempts of Congress to reduce spending, it's much easier to hire a contractor with 50% (at least) overhead rather than just hire them directly. Heck, a guy I know used to be a federal hydrogeologist. Worked in a gov't office on a permanent basis, was supervised by government employees, etc. He literally just received his paychecks and talked to his de jure boss twice a year. For that, the contracting company actually charged more than his salary in overhead.

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#89

Post by mreome »

paulrpotts wrote: post #23

I'm 51 and I have found that doing embedded and low-level programming seems to insulate me somewhat from age discrimination. I think in part that is because people expect programmers who work very close to the hardware, like me, to be geezers. Breadth of experience seems to help as well. By comparison, trying to get a job in web or app development was a nightmare of interviewing with twenty-somethings in open plan of…

I see something similar in my industry. I work on embedded systems for industrial automation and in my mid 30's I still tend to be one of the younger ones in any group of coworkers/clients. In my case don't think this is issue of "insulation" but rather a difference between technical fields. Industrial automation is a long-game. Development projects can last a year or more, and client support can stretch into the 10s of years. Also, there is a lot of value in deep domain knowledge that takes years to develop.

I think age of the companies themselves comes into play. If a company is only a year old, nobody has had time to age with the company, almost nobody is going to have had a kid, been through major medical issues, ect, while working there. Even if an individual may have that kind of life experience, the company itself doesn't. I think it shows in the kind of environments they create and the type of people they tend to attract/want.

Re: Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?

#90

Post by fredbo22 »

billwear wrote: post #42

I'm 60, and going strong. Most important is bring not only depth and breadth of knowledge but also wisdom to the work. As a graybeard, you're expected to add value because of your years. For example, when my office was going nuts about Kubernetes, devops, etc., it got me a raise to compare this new tech to the original Unix philosophy and point out some lessons learned in Unix design that would help with our containe…

Care to share this wisdom? I'm wrassling with these kontainers now and I'm wondering why people think they're so wonderful.
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