How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#1

Post by Damogran6 » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:44 PM UTC

I've noticed in the last couple of years, the mind's a little slower, the flame isn't quite as bright, the desire to learn YetAnotherProduct isn't there. When I was younger, I remembered the grey haired hackers that were a little abrasive, knew their stuff and didn't take crap from their employer...and that's starting to resonate with me.

And I'm really not sure I have a forum of people I can talk to about it. It's not something you want to volunteer at work, and it's not something someone who isn't in IT might fully understand.

There's a little anxiety in that I've still got a decade or so before retirement and am afraid of being left behind....but when you learn your 7th SIEM, they all kinda look the same after awhile, and most of the administration is getting sewn up behind the scenes in the cloud.

OR should I just suck it up?

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#2

Post by kleer001 » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

> OR should I just suck it up?

Why not both?

I'm certain you've got the soft skills to stand up for yourself as well as blow off a little steam all while doing your job at a satisfactory level.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#3

Post by haecceity » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

Don't age.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#4

Post by runjake » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:23 PM UTC

I don’t handle it.

I just try to stay fit with exercise and nutrition, get plenty of sleep, and do what I can. Mentor where I can, and also learn from the youngs and learn their perspectives.

And I don’t beat myself up over any perceived shortcomings.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#5

Post by lucasgonze » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:28 PM UTC

You have to be sharper than before. Age is a point against you, so you have to step up your game.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#6

Post by raarts » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:46 PM UTC

Even though everything kinda looks the same, there's still plenty of new tech left that IS fun and interesting. I kept reading HN daily, and I still pick up new tech, and ideas. BTW that's also the way to stay relevant and keep getting impressed looks from the youngsters. Maybe you can't pick up the tech as fast as when you were young, but because of your experience you surely can pick it up in a better way, get deeper understanding.

Final thought: mentor. Or teach. You have more to offer than you realize. Age isn't valued enough in IT.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#7

Post by Damogran6 » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:52 PM UTC

runjake wrote: post #4

I don’t handle it. I just try to stay fit with exercise and nutrition, get plenty of sleep, and do what I can. Mentor where I can, and also learn from the youngs and learn their perspectives. And I don’t beat myself up over any perceived shortcomings.

I'm thinking feeling 'not as sharp' is exacerbating the growing skills gap. There's ALWAYS been stuff I didn't know, It's just that now that seems to be accelerating and I'm not as well equipped to handle it.

Doubly so where security is concerned. You used to secure something by knowing all aspects of the application...you knew the OS, the software, the firewall rules, you had a small batch of logs you could conceivably review.

Now it's fully automated and just....goes. A deceptively small action produces a substantial result, 99% of it being abstracted away.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#8

Post by Damogran6 » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:53 PM UTC

kleer001 wrote: post #2

> OR should I just suck it up? Why not both? I'm certain you've got the soft skills to stand up for yourself as well as blow off a little steam all while doing your job at a satisfactory level.

Sure, there's plenty of opportunity there, and a little pressure to manage. I don't want to manage. That would take the last little bit of technical enjoyment and remove it completely. That doesn't make sense to me.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#9

Post by horsawlarway » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:57 PM UTC

So I'm in an interesting position of having watched several of my family members deal with this - My father and two of my uncles do(/did) software development for a living.

My father ended up starting his own company in partnership with several of his then coworkers, he no longer develops and has transitioned to a sales position.

One uncle got out of the industry entirely.

One uncle is doing management at a software company started about 8 years ago (He absolutely hates it, but doesn't think he can swing another job change and is waiting until retirement in a year or two).

----

My take aways from watching them go through this:

- There seems to be a real wall at 45. Many of your early skills are expiring, you don't relate as well culturally with the younger devs at small shops, and you're too expensive for well established companies (why pay you extra for your 20 years of experience when they can pay a freshly minted college grad half as much?).

- Consulting is an option, but you need a strong grasp of a specialty area, and you need to be able to understand business and people problems more than software problems in many cases (this is essentially the route my father took)

- Management is an option, but A: It's not for everyone (My uncle is miserable). B: it's hard to swing a position in management without either taking a risky position at a very early stage company, working your way into it over several years, or having the right contacts within the industry to point you at new opportunities.

---

Personally? My plan is to no longer be in the industry at 45 (I'm mid 30s now). Ageism is absolutely real, and it's fairly pervasive in the software industry (and if I'm being honest, a lot of society in general).

I have 15 years or so to plan, and I've been experimenting with a variety of things I think I might enjoy as a breath of fresh air - I recently registered a company as an agricultural nursery in my state (focused on landscaping plants with a small division set aside for locally popular fruiting trees/bushes [blueberries, figs, stonefruit]).

I've also been doing hobbyist carpentry for several years, and I've recently starting taking commissions from family and friends (not really for profit yet, mostly to continue building skills and develop a network of contacts).

I'm also investing in property (Tax liens - not rental management or flipping).

---

My kids will be end of highschool by the time I hit 45, and I'm not convinced I'll be recommending they attend college, so I plan to have expenses drop dramatically.

When I'm ready - I plan to have a frank discussion with my employer at the time about cutting hours in exchange for cutting salary, with the end goal being to transition income to my other activities.

Re: How do you handle your Aging in IT?

#10

Post by Jtsummers » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 10:58 PM UTC

Damogran6 wrote: post #7

runjake wrote: post #4

I don’t handle it. I just try to stay fit with exercise and nutrition, get plenty of sleep, and do what I can. Mentor where I can, and also learn from the youngs and learn their perspectives. And I don’t beat myself up over any perceived shortcomings.

I'm thinking feeling 'not as sharp' is exacerbating the growing skills gap. There's ALWAYS been stuff I didn't know, It's just that now that seems to be accelerating and I'm not as well equipped to handle it. Doubly so where security is concerned. You used to secure something by knowing all aspects of the application...you knew the OS, the software, the firewall rules, you had a small batch of logs you could conceiva…

If you're feeling it to be too difficult (or you lack the desire) to keep up with all the changes, you still have a lot of knowledge and experience. It may be time to change the kinds of places you work at and what you work on. As an example, I have worked in the defense and aerospace industry (so far my whole career, working on changing that). We get a lot of people coming to us at 50+ and 60+ years old with a lot of useful knowledge that's more applicable to our domain than most other domains, even though they weren't in our field before.

This works because, even though many of our projects are new, they're still very much "legacy" in the way things work and the languages and tools used. You could explore employers who have those kind of legacy systems that you have expertise in. Either to help extend their useful life, or to help dismantle them and migrate to a more "modern" (whatever that means to them) system.