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Aging programmer

world.hey.com

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Re: Aging programmer

#81

Post by RockingGoodNite »

thread_id wrote: post #69

At 64 years I am still going strong. I consider myself blessed that I have landed a position that allows the to be the leader (I manage a small team) and still be hands on with everything: Architecture, desgin, coding, infrastructure, cloud engineering, DevOps engineer, DBA, the list goes on. It is a Goldilocks job. The technologies that we manage and master are miriad. We are a small company and my team owns the ent…

People who can manage and code (architect, etc.) are truly rare. I'm not quite at the same age and only play the guitar. Like the article author and where we differ, I am very skeptical of new technologies, if I can't find a use for it in my personal software projects without having to hold my nose, there's no way I will recommend it for work.

Re: Aging programmer

#82

Post by erwincoumans »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #34
arketyp wrote: post #18

I learned how to code when I was twelve. I wouldn't have if I didn't in some degree enjoy the actual act of coding, the moment to moment typing on the keyboard, composing algorithms, designing data structures and logical flows. But in the back of my mind I also always regarded coding as a means to an end. Sure I became engaged in language design battles, API design philosophy, but the magic with computers was always,…

I have a similar background, but still find programming very rewarding. Not at my day job, that is and has always been a series of mundane chores. I sadly think expecting to get paid for stimulating programming is fairly unrealistic. There is just not a lot of market for solving interesting problems or designing well-optimized code. I find other avenues to build interesting things instead. At 35, I'm able to build th…

Doing interesting programming work is not unrealistic, but you need to make it a priority if you care for your day job. 3D graphics, robotics, physics simulation and AI/deep learning are still exciting to me after decades.

Re: Aging programmer

#83

Post by scarface74 »

yodsanklai wrote: post #77
scarface74 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing this. I’m 48 and between the time I was 34 and 46, bumping around in your standard enterprise corp dev jobs, I found jobs relatively quickly - the shortest time was 4 days from starting to look to having a job (corp dev at the time a F10 non tech company), the longest being two weeks. Every time besides the first, I was juggling multiple opportunities and had three offers. I change jobs 5 times during…

> If you’re still randomly submitting your resume to an ATS trying to prove yourself to companies by reversing binary trees on whiteboards while juggling bowling balls and riding a unicycle on a tightrope, you’re doing it wrong at 40+ years old. I did that at 45 and landed an interesting job at FAANG (and I'm not the only one). I think it's a bit contradictory to think old programmers are still as capable and sharp a…

I didn’t randomly submit my resume to get into a FAANG at 45. When the recruiter reached out to me about an SWE position (that I wasn’t interested in). I kept talking to her and she directed me to a related remote job that I was interested in (cloud consulting - enterprise app dev/cloud architect).

Re: Aging programmer

#84

Post by spaetzleesser »

RockingGoodNite wrote: post #81
thread_id wrote: post #69

At 64 years I am still going strong. I consider myself blessed that I have landed a position that allows the to be the leader (I manage a small team) and still be hands on with everything: Architecture, desgin, coding, infrastructure, cloud engineering, DevOps engineer, DBA, the list goes on. It is a Goldilocks job. The technologies that we manage and master are miriad. We are a small company and my team owns the ent…

People who can manage and code (architect, etc.) are truly rare. I'm not quite at the same age and only play the guitar. Like the article author and where we differ, I am very skeptical of new technologies, if I can't find a use for it in my personal software projects without having to hold my nose, there's no way I will recommend it for work.

"People who can manage and code (architect, etc.) are truly rare."

It's not that difficult if you actually can make decisions quickly. It only gets difficult once you are in a bigger company where you have multiple more or less competent stakeholders and every decision get accompanied by multiple meetings.

Re: Aging programmer

#85

Post by erwincoumans »

dahart wrote: post #75

> I have no idea about how effective pair programming is. My desire to discover it is zero. […] Related: working with people you can learn from is a wonderful source of motivation. […] My desire to discuss technical stuff with people, both to help and be helped, is at all-time highs. FWIW pair programming is very hard to do well and usually pretty uncomfortable. It needs to be structured well and done in smaller dose…

Agreed on small doses, not full-time: I've done some pair programming with people I enjoyed working with, but only a few hours a week. It felt motivating and rewarding.

Re: Aging programmer

#86

Post by drstewart »

vsareto wrote: post #11

>I never understood why some people despise the term full-stack. More for the role: full-stack has you doing multiple roles, but is not compensated as such. You're even removing the communication overhead if the role had been split in two. It seems to me as a business move to compress roles and pay you less for double the capability in exchange for varied work. I don't think people should just accept lower comp just…

So do you feel the same way about backend developers who use databases? Surely that's two roles: server developer and database developer?

Of course, they can't test their own code manually. That's two roles: developer and QA!

So a backend developer is at least 3 roles of work. Are you making 3x the salary you should be?

Re: Aging programmer

#87

Post by toastedwedge »

dijit wrote: post #2

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career. If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career. I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

Is this ageism implied for SV and like companies, or all of them in general (implied US-based anyway)?

I can't speak in either instance at this time, but I'd like to think ageism isn't nearly as widespread as it seems when discussed on here when it comes to technology-based work. E.g., Small town in Nebraska with one or two software houses versus SF.

Re: Aging programmer

#88

Post by wonderwonder »

sys_64738 wrote: post #14
dijit wrote: post #2

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career. If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career. I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

A lot of programmers who are 35+ can struggle to find further opportunities as the more senior you are the less available those opportunities are and the more expensive you are. Lots of companies only want young people who are naive and have limited distractions outside of work. So, really, programming as a field is front loaded and the longer you stay in the business over 35 then the luckier you have been. But make…

I very much think this is limited to the startup / work fast and break things style of companies. Always work available for sr. people at large established companies, especially fortune 500. Specifically companies where tech is not the core business product, many of them are attempting to modernize their systems. They pay pretty well too; not Google / Amazon level but on a pure salary basis many probably pay comparable to Microsoft without the shares of course. They do have a good 401k match though. A good salary for 95% of tech people.

I am early 40's and have had no issue finding work and am currently interviewing others to come work with my group in a solution architect / tech lead style role and they are all my age. I have never interviewed for a job and not gotten an offer, regardless of age; with that said I'm not interviewing at startups or places I feel really wouldn't allow me a family life. I get the offers not because I'm incredible, I'm not, but because I know my lane and skill set and stick to it.

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