What are some common Plan Bs?
Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
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Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#12I've always gone with the assumption that I'll have a really hard time getting a job as a developer after 50. It's something I think about often and try to plan for with my finances.
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#13What others have said about keeping up with technology is certainly true. However, I've found the opposite to be true -- there are many more young programmers because the industry has expanded so much in the past twenty years, there is a relative lack of more senior people, and in my experience they are in high demand.
That said, if you're going for a straight individual contributor role rather than a lead or manager, there may be questions about why you haven't moved up and whether that might indicate a lack of ability to learn new things that might make you a less valuable individual contributor.
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#14I'm 50 and still programming. Programming is all I know how to do. If that was taken away from me, I would just rot to death. I don't want to be anything else, and I refuse to be forced to do something I don't want to do. I'll learn to farm and support myself that way.
So, is it still preferable for the manager to not hire anyone and let the work sit undone rather than to be forced to work with a detestable "older" worker?
Perhaps the government should start giving disability status to people because they are over 40.
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#15What are some common Plan Bs?
Save and invest 40% of your income. After 15 to 20 years you should be able to declare financial independence, if you want to...
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#16keeping up with the latest technology has a side effect: you will still be older than most of the people who have learned the latest technology. so you will still face a builtin cultural mismatch that does not work in your favor.
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#17This is generally true. It's a combination of many things, from brain "degradation", ageism, simple economic math ( fresh meat is cheaper and more malleable ), other more important interests like having a real life and when you really mute all the marketing BS, your delusions and wishful thinking, the actual work of being a developer/programmer in a professional setting is a really shitty job and sad life for the maj…
> the actual work of being a developer/programmer in a professional setting is a really shitty job and sad life
The thing is, it doesn't have to be and, until relatively recently, honestly wasn't. It's a shitty job and a sad life because we have open offices, ticket-tracking systems and daily standups. There was a time when programming was exciting and rewarding.
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#18While I’ve no doubt that age discrimination does exist, when you see people who are former programmers at 40 (or 30 for that matter) it’s often just that they started out in programming but got bored of it and moved on to other careers. Or gradually became managers rather than programmers. Statistics may certainly show that programmers skew young, but its not always due to being forced out, or denied opportunities, b…
I'll second that. I'd also add that most programmers have high fluid intelligence. This makes it rather easy for them to retool into another field and end up being talented at it.
Industrial psychology has very consistently found that fluid intelligence is a stronger predictor of job performance than even experience. It's often the case that the software engineer who becomes a manager at 45, ends up being better at it than the MBA who's been doing it for two decades.
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#19This is generally true. It's a combination of many things, from brain "degradation", ageism, simple economic math ( fresh meat is cheaper and more malleable ), other more important interests like having a real life and when you really mute all the marketing BS, your delusions and wishful thinking, the actual work of being a developer/programmer in a professional setting is a really shitty job and sad life for the maj…
Literally everywhere outside of Silicon Valley you can get great jobs in Software that move at a reasonable pace. SV is very different from the rest of US
Re: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
#20What an excellent, level headed article.
I wish it'd be emphasized a little more - as a software dev, you'll likely either end up having to move laterally to a new skill set that isn't entirely related to your previous experience (moving from C++ to Ruby on Rails and web dev as the example in the article) or move 'up' to management or architect positions.
Both of those are difficult and fairly unique to software development. Most jobs don't require these types of shifts. A number of jobs do simply wear your body out and leave you in difficulty in your 40s however, and that requires a complete career shift or that move 'up' to management, both of which are non-trivial paths to take.