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Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

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Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#21

Post by danesparza »

uptownJimmy wrote: post #15

My impression is that age-ism is definitely a thing, but that it's a lot more complicated than just how old you are. The ugly truth is that a lot of people just don't present a very attractive package to the world as they get older. There's a whole 'nother set of life challenges that we face in our middle years. Most folks do almost nothing to prepare themselves for these challenges, and that becomes increasingly obv…

It would be helpful if you could give an example of those life-challenges. If nothing else, it could be a sanity check to other middle aged developers (like myself). :-)

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#22

Post by Diederich »

I turned 45 this year, and my career is on an excellent upward trajectory as an ops programmer, which is what I've been doing since I was in my early 20s. I hesitate to call myself 'devops', but that might fit. But I write code most of every day, and things have never looked better.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#23

Post by andyl »

I'm 51 - no way I'm getting hired as a programmer. But I am coding for my own business, doing better work than ever.

I used to be in general management, but retrained as a programmer because I love the tech, and to be location-independent. With today's development tools I am as productive as a team of ten back in the day.

It is strange to me that old people are pushed out of the industry.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#24

Post by mikecaron »

coldcode wrote: post #9
dhoerl wrote: post #3

I'm 64 and doing iOS development full time, and get hit on by recruiters all the time, so I guess the answer is yes. But you will find huge negative bias due to age (many companies desperate for iOS talent will ignore you - ask me how I know this.)

I'm 57 and doing iOS but yeah, I think some people want to ignore you if your resume is too long thinking you are making it all up. But I am in the DFW area which is basically a Silicon Black Hole for programmers anyway.

This said, I'm thinking that it's probably better to just list the last 5-10 years of experience and drop the older stuff. Though, when listing education, it's probably difficult to list your education without saying when you graduated (there by indicating your age).

I'm 38 and I'm reading these things, getting a little worried, though I'm a very quick learner and trying my best to stay on top of what's going on (it's getting harder, things move so quickly!).

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#25

Post by _throwaway_away »

I don't know, i have sent perhaps 25 or so applications during last few years for various remote Frond-End positions. I'm very-very good and i like what I'm doing, thank you very much. My happy day is when I receive automated rejecting letter, that happens in 10% of cases. In other cases, silence. I have failed to score a single interview. And I'm 50 :-) I guess i need to hold on of my current and boring job for as long as i can. Also i have been thinking, what those youngsters are so afraid of. In remote position i will not die in their precious Aeron chair and spoil their foosball game...

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#26

Post by marktangotango »

I'm 43 and have not experienced any problems finding work. I picked up a CS/Math BS degree at the age of 37. I'd been working as developer for about 10 years, but got the degree becuase I find the field generally interesting. I leave my first degree off my resume which was 15 years prior. So, from my the graduation date on my resume people assume I'm a lot younger than I am. Plus I'm often told I look young for my age.

Edit I would add that my current job the majority of developers are late 30's early 40's similar to myself.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#27

Post by vonmoltke »

fecak wrote: post #16

I'm in my early 40's, but I've recruited software engineers for almost 20 years and I until recently I ran a large Java Users Group over 15 years, which gave me quite a bit of exposure to an older range of engineers. I know many 50+ programmers who are doing quite well (monetarily, respect, responsibility, balance). Some independent consultants, some at startups, some with big firms, etc. A fairly wide variety. Not a…

Why is tenure at one company automatically assumed to be tenure at one job? I used to work for a major defense contractor. For every engineer there who spent nearly their entire careers in a particular role on a particular program there was another who spent 20+ years moving from program to program, often as a sort of internal consultant. I would honestly put that latter person ahead of both the former and the person who changes companies every 2 - 3 years if I were hiring.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#28

Post by kabdib »

I'm 54. Got my current job when I was 52 (prior to that, 11 years at Microsoft).

I think if you're not over-specialized that you can still do well. Doing be a person who just writes device drivers, or just does web stuff, or just writes toolchains. Do it all, and at depth when you can.

I tend to get into projects that are 2-3 years in scope and involve actually shipping new technologies at consumer scale. This will teach you all kinds of interesting things, from fundamental product underpinnings to making devices manufacturable.

Keep coding, that's for sure. It's not a young person's game if you keep at it. My father in law retired, a firmware engineer, at 75.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#29

Post by [deleted] »

bischofs wrote: post #10

I'm 25 and find this kind of depressing, any good society takes care of its elders (read: not old, just older) These are the folks that toiled away on the compilers, libraries, and patterns that we have been standing on to build the current generation of tech, and this is how some of them have fared? I suppose the ruthless competition of this industry is a double edged sword.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Programmers Above 50, Is It Possible to Have a Career Past Your 50s?

#30

Post by vasilipupkin »

Yes. But, you have to keep up with current technology. My father is 65 and his phone is ringing off the hook with offers. But he knows C++, Java, Android, Win32, Python, D, etc. etc.

Put it this way, if you do not find keeping up with current technology interesting and fun, then you probably should not be a programmer

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