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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

#181

Post by bruxis »

One thing that I'm really surprised about is the lack of empathy that companies and teams feel with this.

I've been hiring engineers for a few years now and from _my_ perspective, age has never been a consideration. That does not mean other interviewers did not include age bias which influenced the overall decision.

I'm around 30 currently, and I'm terrified as I get older that this will happen to me and my friends. Saving for retirement is, intentionally, a very long process -- and very arduous if you're trying to save to retire in the Bay area.

What are people that push such discrimination thinking about their own futures?

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

#182

Post by jsudhams »

6stringmerc wrote: post #4

"I had it good and now I don't have it good and I don't know what to do about it" is a fairly formulaic structure for a human interest story, and while I really loathe human suffering, it's also hard for me to sympathise with the subjects in stories such as this one. > “If you’ve worked at a large company for 10 years and get laid off, chances are your skills are six generations behind,” says Jonathan Nelson, chief e…

> >“If you’ve worked at a large company for 10 years and get laid off, chances are your skills are six generations behind,” says Jonathan Nelson, chief executive officer of the Valley social network Hackers/Founders, which organizes meetups for startup developers.

I don't agree if you are moving to various jobs/teams in larger org. Definitely not true in large BFSI and Retail companies. And with they have challanges that 98% start-up would not have. There are companies with 50 to 100 applications with more than 10 million users+ and most startups wont even have capital to buy security and infrastructure items these companies buy. Choose companies in the below list which have lot of direct to consumers interaction using technology. You will 10+ years fruitful career with lot better pay (130k plus) and benefits and you will not lose out on technology if you are smart to keep moving or move to a position of SME/Architect etc..Peace of mind + time for side projects + job security etc..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers_in_t...

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

#183

Post by api »

stcredzero wrote: post #161
api wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience older devs really fall into two categories with a pretty sharp division between them. One group has continued to learn and keep up with their skills. These developers are extremely skilled and experienced and can in many cases be far more productive than younger developers with more shallow knowledge. What they lack in appetite for workaholism they make up for in ability to do more with less work and…

The second group decided at some point that they knew all they needed to know, and they've gotten really rusty and out of date. How do you know this? Have you been in a good position to evaluate the performance of many older devs? If so, how much diversity in languages/environments is in your sample? Most of the negative attention I've gotten from younger devs in work settings has been in the form of constant interru…

I get the sense people are dreadfully misreading that comment, but I'm not sure how. Oh well.

What I'm referring to is people whose skills are all in, say, Microsoft C based GUI programming and who have not updated their skills at all. They're stuck on one tool and that tool is old.

You see younger devs who get stuck on tools too, but their tools are more likely to be up to date and therefore their skills are more marketable.

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

#184

Post by michael_h »

kragen wrote: post #79

"Michael Peredo, a 55-year-old auto engineer dismissed from Mercedes-Benz in February 2015, says he had trouble giving up his bow ties for T-shirts, as some he met at ProMatch suggested. ‘I feel like myself wearing them,’ he says." Yeah, you're going to have a really hard time getting a programming job in Silicon Valley if you show up in looking like a security guard in a tie, let alone looking like a waiter in a bow…

The number of bowties I've seen recently has increased dramatically...among younger workers. This is in a research focused environment, so there's a little more fashion leeway.

Things are cyclical. For better or worse, I think we're on the rising edge of a rebellion against the nerd-frump affect.

Thank you Matt Smith!

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

#186

Post by WalterSear »

ericd wrote: post #132
JeremyMorgan wrote: post #13

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 jQuery too low level for people now?

It's too primitive an abstraction.

It was great when you were just fiddling a few little ajax widgets on a static page, but it doesn't scale.

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

#187

Post by pmoriarty »

minipci1321 wrote: post #172
pmoriarty wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm personally sick of keeping my skills up to date (ie. learning whatever the trendy tech of the week happens to be), and I'm kind of burnt out on the whole tech scene in general.. actually burnt out on it long ago, but I keep working in the field because I don't have the training in anything else, and really don't have much motivation to put in the enormous amount of effort it will take to switch careers at this po…

I perfectly hear what you mean. It used to be that working on a dynamic team (with member of different age) would be a big source of motivation. But nowadays with remote working and teams spread all over the world (and managers and business units having different agenda sometimes), this seems to fade away, hard to find anyway. What is left? Somehow I have grown to hate an unfinished job -- a failed, or a late, or sim…

Don't even get me started on the many failings of the corporate world or bureaucracy. The amount of corporate BS and hypocrisy you have to put up with at some companies is unbelievable. This does vary from company to company, though, with smaller companies tending to be a lot better in these respects than bigger ones, which is one of the main reasons I prefer to work for the smaller ones.

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

#188

Post by bmj »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #13

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…

If you aren't passionate enough about this work to continue learning and advancing on your own time get out.

I understand that many other domains value this sort of thing, but perhaps not to the same degree as the software industry. The issue could be that employers are afraid to invest in their current employees (that is, given them opportunities to advance their skills on company time) because there is such a high rate of turnover in many tech companies. It makes more financial sense to put the burden on the employee (or potential employee) because it likely only benefits them in the long run.

I do, however, see that in more established companies (particularly those that don't still operate in "start-up mode"), there is more willingness to invest in the employees and build their skill sets. I've been with my current employer for over eight years, and they have always been willing to give me time to learn new tech and stay on top of trends that affect our business. Of course, on my current team of 10 people, only one person has been with the company for less than three years.

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

#189

Post by beamatronic »

kragen wrote: post #79

"Michael Peredo, a 55-year-old auto engineer dismissed from Mercedes-Benz in February 2015, says he had trouble giving up his bow ties for T-shirts, as some he met at ProMatch suggested. ‘I feel like myself wearing them,’ he says." Yeah, you're going to have a really hard time getting a programming job in Silicon Valley if you show up in looking like a security guard in a tie, let alone looking like a waiter in a bow…

Is there a suggested outfit that over-40's should be wearing to interviews? Is a hoodie a must-have? Is it better to wear an Apple watch, or say a Nixon watch?

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

#190

Post by dbg31415 »

I feel like a lot of discrimination in tech comes from a dislike of experience.

Many project teams and companies instantly dislike the person who says, "This can't be done," or, "We need more information before we can give an estimate."

If you're 40, there's a good chance you know more than most people in the room about what's going to work and what isn't.

But what you have to remember is that the only reason you have this knowledge is from fucking up and working all-nighters and missing deadlines in the past.

So, even if it means more work for you, you have to be willing to let the people who are driving the ship make mistakes. Nobody wants their parent around, or to feel second guessed.

Tech is always about finding new ways to do things, trying new ideas. Don't turn into the nay-sayer.

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