281–290 of 411 posts
I was going to add this as a reply to a comment downthread but I think it's too important to bury. The fundamental rule of career progression in the technology industry is to position yourself as a domain expert in something more specific than "programming" . It's very difficult to "own" "programming" in a way where you can use scarcity to drive integer multiple increases of the median salary. It is not as difficult…
The big danger is "owning" some domain that falls out of fashion. You might "own" distributed systems and do great for a time, but then companies start transitioning from that architecture and nobody returns your calls anymore. Also I've noticed a lot of sub-fields like computer vision or self driving cars where there's a great deal of nerd interest but very little actual employment. In fact, I have a feeling that co…
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The big danger is "owning" some domain that falls out of fashion. You might "own" distributed systems and do great for a time, but then companies start transitioning from that architecture and nobody returns your calls anymore. Also I've noticed a lot of sub-fields like computer vision or self driving cars where there's a great deal of nerd interest but very little actual employment. In fact, I have a feeling that co…
You can switch domains.
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Then let me ask: how do you make it past 40 in software? Specifically, how do you position yourself so that you are actively sought after (rather than merely employable)?
Apply to a government job. There is less ageism in the Gov than in the private sector. At least in my country were you must do pass a very difficult and competitive contest.
In the general sense, this is the wrong place to ask. It's a self-selecting group in that most people over 40 here will be among the group that lasted in the career. It won't give a sense of how large that group is in the wider world, nor how many didn't stick with it. On the other hand, if you want to hear how to make it past 40 in software, this is probably an excellent place to ask!
Then let me ask: how do you make it past 40 in software? Specifically, how do you position yourself so that you are actively sought after (rather than merely employable)?
1) Don’t include irrelevant experience on your resume. Nobody cares that you were writing php websites in 1997. Try not to put anything on linked in or you’re resume that would indicate your age unless you’re one of the top people in your field and your experience makes you stand out.
2) Keep up with new languages. Don’t be the guy that only knows perl when everyone else is using python. If you aren’t learning rust and go today, you’re going to be left behind five years from now. And once everyone is on go and rust, you should be learning the next thing.
3) Stay curious. I know you have a family and kids and other commitments, but you have to stay interested in the world. Keep up with business news, and science news and stay connected with pop culture as much as possible. If you’re applying for a startup with a bunch of 20 or 30 something’s you, you need to be able to meet them where they are.
4) Don’t get complacent. You’re always a bad quarter away from getting laid off, and that becomes more true the older and more higher paid you are. Keep your resume updated. If recruiters aren’t beating down your door, you need to ask yourself why. Because if people aren’t trying to hire you, your employer probably isn’t excited to keep paying you either. I was a junior guy on a team with all sysadmins 5 years ago. They were all the same age as me, but with many more years experience all at the same company, doing the same thing and really resistant to changing. I came in and really dove into the deep end with devops, despite having little programming or sysadmin experience (I had a networking background). Within 5 years I was a senior developer, making more money than any of the rest of the people on the team, and eventually got poached by a recruiter offering 40% more money. They’re all still there barely holding on to their jobs.
I am 50 and I do OK. I also see people around my age and older who do well too. It seems to me that a lot of people who get filtered out in their 30s should never have been in the profession either for lack of motivation, interest or talent. If you are not self motivated to constantly evolve you have a problem. Moreso than in a lot of other professions.
"If you are not self motivated to constantly evolve you have a problem. Moreso than in a lot of other professions." I was self-motivated to constantly learn, and had no trouble doing it... when I was young. It was the right profession for me then, when I had the interest and passion. After a while, though, much of it starts to seem the same. The towering vistas that were once full of mystery, adventure, and discovery…
I am 50 and I do OK. I also see people around my age and older who do well too. It seems to me that a lot of people who get filtered out in their 30s should never have been in the profession either for lack of motivation, interest or talent. If you are not self motivated to constantly evolve you have a problem. Moreso than in a lot of other professions.
>If you are not self motivated to constantly evolve you have a problem. Programmers to programmers: You must be a super agile ninja capable of teaching yourself everything at a moment's notice. Businesses to programmers: Yeah, we still need people doing Java 6 and VB6. We're also going to disregard all of your security and technical debt concerns. We're also going to hire managers who suddenly change a bunch of tech,…
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You can switch domains.
In theory. I'm sure everybody knows, but at times you might 1) lose willpower 2) find yourself in an unknown climate all of a sudden (say going from old codebase to nodejs..) that makes the learning curve very steep
I am 50 and I do OK. I also see people around my age and older who do well too. It seems to me that a lot of people who get filtered out in their 30s should never have been in the profession either for lack of motivation, interest or talent. If you are not self motivated to constantly evolve you have a problem. Moreso than in a lot of other professions.
"If you are not self motivated to constantly evolve you have a problem. Moreso than in a lot of other professions." I was self-motivated to constantly learn, and had no trouble doing it... when I was young. It was the right profession for me then, when I had the interest and passion. After a while, though, much of it starts to seem the same. The towering vistas that were once full of mystery, adventure, and discovery…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If you are not self motivated to constantly evolve you have a problem. Programmers to programmers: You must be a super agile ninja capable of teaching yourself everything at a moment's notice. Businesses to programmers: Yeah, we still need people doing Java 6 and VB6. We're also going to disregard all of your security and technical debt concerns. We're also going to hire managers who suddenly change a bunch of tech,…
> Programmers to programmers: You must be a super agile ninja capable of teaching yourself everything at a moment's notice. I'd be interested in a demographic breakdown of the people who say this. I'd be willing to bet that most of them are in their twenties, live in SF/SV or Seattle, and/or work at startups or insanely demanding trendsetting companies (e.g. Google, Amazon, Tesla, Apple). In other words, these claims…
I imagine there's also a good helping of: "Hey, the MVP works and I won't be here in years 2-10 maintaining it, so everything I can see indicates I successfully learned X on my own in a month."