Sucks to be an old engineer

This article is incredibly terse and uninformative. Why are older engineers having such a hard time? Are they keeping up with new technologies to remain competitive? What kind of engineering are we even talking about?

It doesn't suck to be an old engineer. It sucks to be an engineer with outdated skills.

I learned FORTRAN in 1968. I learned Scala in 2012.

I'll be 61 this week...and I just started a new job developing in Scala.

This isn't really new, nor is it specific to software engineering. "Line engineers" have always had a very hard time with employment as they age (not that it doesn't happen). The usual ways to avoid this are (in order of risk):

1) Get your MBA and go into management; 2) Start or join a consultancy; 3) Start a company.

My buddies in more traditional engineering fields (aerospace, chemical, etc) are all in the process of setting themselves up with exit options (we're all just around 30).

The problem of ageism is pretty well documented in engineering, especially software engineering.

I'm in my 40s, and I've been programming my entire career. I'm trying to get into management so as to extend my career into my 50s and 60s. The realities are that I likely won't be able to compete against kids 1/2 to 1/3 my age in the next 15 years, so I need to use my experience to my advantage.

It's too bad because I would rather just program.

You make it sound like these people haven't been working in the field since they got the degree