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It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

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Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craft beer in portland just means "more hops." I call it crap beer. Fully agree with your post, just felt like griping about "craft" beer here.

Not just Portland, the entire American craft beer scene is infected with shitty, indistinguishable IPA's that all taste like a mountain of hops.

There are definitely a lot of bad IPA's, but that's hardly even a significant part of the American Craft Beer scene these days.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#102
post #46

Is this perhaps because older workers gravitate towards sane hours? Maybe because they develop interests, lives, families, etc outside of work that they commit to (moreso than most 20-somethings)? As a side note: I'm over 40 now, but I do recall being 27 and interviewing someone in their early 40s who was qualified and enthusiastic. I passed on them in part because I felt guilty hiring them; to work on my team the pe…

I've actually found the opposite. The guys in 30's and early 40's have young children which makes it hard to stay away from home. I've worked with people in their 50's who are now empty nesters and happy to work late and/or be on call overnight.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#103

Skills pay the bills. Many of the over-40 crowd I've worked with just plain don't want to learn anything new. They have settled, and are passive in their learning. This is the #1 reason they won't be relevant.

It's not that they don't want to learn - they can and do. When you end up with more commitments and some kids home isn't quite as conducive for learning, and spare time is often a distant memory. I concede there is a (often reasonable in my view) reluctance to rush to learn the 249th new framework that is the future. Especially when it does all the same things as the 134th just with utterly different semantics and li…

I feel ya. After I got married and had a kid my time to learn and experiment was greatly reduced. Now I have a couple of hours on Saturday morning that I reserve as "Dad Time" where I spend time working on my pet projects and trying out new things.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#104
post #87
post #69

Engineering is a dead end job, especially outside of silicon valley. There is 0 respect for experience in the industry, we have more respect for someone who has coded for 2 weeks than someone who continually improves over 25 years. Unless you become a celebrity coder you find that your best choice going forward is suicide. The industry won't let you have a social life or a family once you hit 45 no one cares about yo…

Seek help.

[deleted]

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed! The primary reason for the median age in Google and Facebook being so low is that the median age for programmers is low [1]. The reason for this low median age? There are more young programmers than old because it's an expanding field! Though I must admit that the evidence points to current significant age biases in the hiring of these companies. The most successful older software developers I've come across…

The primary reason for the median age in Google and Facebook being so low is that the median age for programmers is low Are you sure you have the cause and effect going in the right direction? It could be that the median age for programmers is low precisely because of ageism.

It could be, sure. But Google and Facebook aren't the primary employers of programmers in the United States. Other "uncool" firms such as banks, manufacturers, retailers, and small businesses employ the majority of software developers. Unless you insist that age discrimination is rampant across those industries too, I disagree the evidence supports your claim.

I admit that it's suboptimal to only have one source, but the Stack Overflow survey appears to be representative.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#106
post #49

This is such bullshit. There are no limits on entrepreneurship and the age at which you can start a business, which is what drives real growth and value in Silicon Valley. Sure, if you want to be a wage slave to some other company, and help someone else achieve their dreams, go ahead and work for another company, and get discriminated against because of your grey hair.

The skillset and risk profile for being an entrepreneur vs being an engineer are completely different.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#107
I find it fascinating that when there is a discussion about age discrimination, most commenters have "advice" for the old farts how to stay current, learn current hip tech, be willing to work longer hours etc. However, we we talk about women in computing, it is always sexism and the discussion is about how the corporations need to change to attract more women. Pretty asymmetrical, don't you think?

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#108
I find it fascinating that when there is a discussion about age discrimination, most commenters have "advice" for the old farts how to stay current, learn current hip tech, be willing to work longer hours etc. However, we we talk about women in computing, it is always sexism and the discussion is about how the corporations need to change to attract more women. Pretty asymmetrical, don't you think?

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#109

I don't know about the Silicon Valley, but I'm in the Silicon Forest (Hillsboro/Portland Oregon) and this market seems to be very merit driven. You can be 80 years old and get a job if you can do work. Maybe you can't get a job at fart.IO building an API for some craft beer BS but at many mid to large companies 40 is still an average. The last 4-5 companies I've been at value bullet points over anything else (for wha…

Is the potshot on jQuery and PHP really necessary? I know enough people where I live making six figures (low COL city) with PHP, SQL and jQuery that I don't think they're ready to sunset.

It is relevant to the discussion because that's not a fresh skill set. Anyone not moving on from those technologies at this point should be concerned about their future in the industry. Maybe they can find jobs now, but without learning something new they won't in the future.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#110
post #74

I'm 24. Guess I should buy a shitty condo in Hayward with a 15 year mortgage so I'm paid off when the age discrimination kicks in. 40+ year old engineers with prop 13 equity or rent control - I'm jealous.

Hayward's not so bad at all :) Get the quake insurance though. I still wince when I see what the cost of a Hayward condo would buy back in Georgia.

If you moved out of ATL more than about 4 years ago, you'd wince when you see what house prices have done there, too. All those "transitional" historic neighborhoods have "transitioned".
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