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

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

#131

Post by vasilipupkin » Thu, May 07, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

sheynkman wrote: post #42

I am 48 and a General Partner at a VC fund. On the board of five tech companies. Founded three companies where I was CEO. Coded and still code every day since my Stanford CS days in the late 1980's. Right now: Scala, Node/AngularJS, Ionic. Use GitHub, CircleCI, and deploy to Docker clusters. Use JIRA to stay sane. Worked at Oracle, so traditional database (DBA level) and now use Couch + Mongo. Do my own UI/UX. Can do…

I apologize but I don't get it. If you are a good VC, you should not have time to code every day :)

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

#132

Post by unoti » Thu, May 07, 2015, 6:03 PM UTC

vinceskahan wrote: post #118

unoti wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with ten years in one company is that you're likely to stay in your comfort zone and not learn enough new things. In an industry that reinvents itself every 5-8 years, the comfort zone is very dangerous indeed.

That is indeed a ridiculous statement. Many of us who stayed at one company for a long time (my case, 28 years) were in many positions over the years continually learning (and teaching) new things.

I have also spent long tenures at a company or two, and also took continuous self improvement seriously. And yet I can think of plenty of people I knew 15 years ago who are focusing on the same kinds of problems and technologies today that they were back then, who have fallen victim to the sweet lullaby of the comfort zone.

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

#133

Post by oaksagelew » Thu, May 07, 2015, 11:23 PM UTC

I'm 57 and still programming for a living. Currently I'm involved with a startup building an iOS app, and am building am Apple Watch app on the site. I've been programmimg for 41 years, starting in high school with FORTRAN IV and IBM mainframes, then PDP-11 minicomputers in BASIC and assembly, then the Apple II and 6502 assembly. And then all the other hot technologies of the decades - Windows 3.1/C, Mac/C, .Net, C#, ActionScript/Flash, Java, and now Objective-C and Swift. Did some short stints with COBOL and RPG-II, Lisp, Prolog, and even Forth.

I had no problems securing the position I have now, and last year, while looking for full-time work, recruiters who were less than half my age were interviewing me, and i did get to some initial phone interviews. I didn't see any evidence of ageism - not from recruiters and not from companies interested in speaking initially on the phone with me.

I think what really helps is to be current in the technologies, be a self-starting continuous learner, never being afraid to try something new and different, and demonstrating exactly how you can add value to any employer or client who's interested in you. Knowing more than tech is hugely important: You have to have outstanding social and emotional skills as well.

I intend to program until my last day on this planet. Can't think of a better vocation and avocation - to start with a blank IDE screen and, after a few weeks or months, have an application working for a client or fielded in the market.

So, don't despair, focus on all the other experiences you've accumulated, and demonstrate - don't just tell about - your abilities and how hiring you would add value to any organization.

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

#134

Post by JohnDR » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:36 PM UTC

After 27 years in Structural Design, I became a programmer at 50 years old and I am doing fine with it. You can do what you decide to do, limits are only opinions of other people and only limit them not you.

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

#135

Post by jacknews » Mon, May 11, 2015, 6:47 AM UTC

oakwood wrote: post #54

jacknews wrote: post #20

Just, a ridiculous question.

Why? This is actually a really interesting question - especially given the HackerNews readership - so much of today's code production is for vapor ware I.e. Here today, forgotten tomorrow. There is some value in understanding what leads to career longevity in this business.

In part because of betteridge's law, whereby a headline that is a question implies an answer of "No!"

The phrasing of the question simply re-enforces the stereotype that older programmers lack the drive, energy, quick-learning ability and so on that young superstars are supposed to have.

The reality is that of course older programmers can have a career, but they have to fight against those stereotypes, which appear to be endemic, at least in sillycon valley, and not to mention the lower wages that the capitalists want to pay these younger practitioners.

The question could (and should) have beens asked as "What should older programmers do to highlight the advantages they can offer due to experience, and how to combat the stereotypes and rapacious financial exploitation that the industry exhibits.

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

#136

Post by mrits » Wed, May 13, 2015, 2:03 PM UTC

kpgraham wrote: post #63

I am 64. I wrote my first program in 1970 and have worked as a programmer since 1976. Programming was a good career choice. For many years I was a manager and pretty much hated it and returned to programming. I quit my job and went to work at IBM as a software engineer the year I turned 50. I was the oldest person in my department, and was a bit of a father figure to some of the kids there. Otherwise I did not fit in…

Maybe you didn't fit in because you referred to your colleagues as kids? Our Data Scientist must be pushing 70 and he fits in just fine with our young startup crowd. He is probably the most liked guy at the company and has more extracurricular activities going on than the rest of us.

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

#137

Post by jrjarrett » Thu, May 14, 2015, 7:07 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #88

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…

Spending 10+ years at a company gives you habits, habits that help you get things done at that company but which may not be translatable to other companies. You have to relearn how to get things done in each new company you join, and if you don't exercise that skill, or you don't think about it explicitly, you find a transplanted engineer becomes ineffective. The trick of course is to manage them through that. And th…

I'm EXACTLY RIGHT HERE, right now. Tomorrow is my last day at my current employer of almost 11 years. I moved to this employer from an employer I'd worked for for 16 years before that.

Things at my current employer are changing (tech stack; from open source development to Oracle packaged software). It was time to get out. And it was hard. I got told by one company I interviewed with that even after having an in-person interview that I thought went well, they didn't want to proceed because they did not think I would fit "in a dynamic environment." Which was crap.

Fortunately, I found a place that respects the skill set that those last 2 positions helped me build up. Looking forward to the new opportunity.