

"Old techies never die, they just can't get hired over 40" - olegious
http://www.baycitizen.org/technology/story/old-techies-never-die/

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olegious
To me the issue seems to be less "we don't hire you because you're old" and
more "we don't hire you because we're not looking for those skills."

~~~
Nrsolis
It can seem that way if you haven't been on the receiving end of these kinds
of comments.

For those of us that are somewhat north of 35, it can be a constant struggle
to stay relevant in a culture that demands long hours and constant devotion to
the company über alles. Once you pick up a wife and maybe some children,
companies start to lose interest in you and you find your experience and
relevance being downvoted if you ever have to change jobs.

Age discrimination is real and unfortunately, many feel that it's just dandy
as long as it never touches anyone you might care about.

~~~
kls
I have just not seen it, I will give you that it is my own personal experience
and my experience may be abnormal, but I am pushing 40, I look 50 and just
don't run into this issue. I have kept relevant and have progressed from the
early days of the web doing CGI/C -> CGI/Pearl -> ASP/VB -> JSP/Java ->
HTML/CSS/JS/REST and now Mobile.

I have a wife and 4 kids and I have never been unemployed for longer than a
week and that was between jobs and by choice. I just don't see the
discrimination that others talk about. Of my peers, most that started when I
did, have left the industry or have chosen to specialize, what I call pasture.

When you choose to specialize there is a risk that comes along with it. Take
for example someone that decides to specialize in IOS development solely, at
some point the world is going to move on, when it does someone that has choose
to specialize has to take it upon themselves to retool before the end of the
road. A more relevant example would be a Flash specialist, I see them
complaining about the state of things, on the web, all the time, but it is a
reality of the market.

It's the reason I have always stayed a generalist. My experience may be
abnormal, but among the age group that started in the industry with me, I and
one other developer peer are the lone survivors most others where lost due to
opting out of the industry or specializing in technologies that died along the
way. The two of us that stayed relevant are still going strong.

