There definitely is ageism in tech. However, there are ways to minimize impact.
Become an expert in latest tech stack and experience in delivering solutions to clients. These positions are extremely difficult to fill, so recruiters are more open to older software engineers.
Open the door to yourself by expanding opportunities, vendor companies, contracts, freelance, start your own company, etc. There are so many problems in software and so few high performance engineers, globally.
Sometimes, you may be the only person in the world with that specific tech stack and experiences. Demonstrate the solutions and many companies will have to bring you on board, FE or contract at least.
For most companies, the age thing isn’t the issue. It’s that older software engineers have stagnated and won’t be able to keep pace. When you demonstrate high performance and solution delivery, age becomes less of an issue.
> When you demonstrate high performance and solution delivery, age becomes less of an issue.
Never even comes up. Like I said, I've been doing this for a loooooong time. I have a massive open-source portfolio[0]. Much of it is days (or minutes) old. I've been surfing the leading edge for my whole career.
No one ever even looks at it. I've learned that if they give me a binary tree test, I might as well just end the process. They want kids straight out of college.
In one case, I was approached for an ObjC job. I sent them links to several repos (shipping apps that they could build, run, and test) that used ObjC.
They completely ignored it, and gave me a 50-line binary tree test in Swift. They also dinged me for using quality coding/documentation techniques.
I did OK, but not great. I generally do mediocre at leetcode. I spend exactly 0.0 hours, practicing it.
It really isn't my imagination. It's real. I have a Facebook "friend," that is a young man. Nice guy. We get along great. We don't mix, too often, as we travel in different circles, but neither of us has any problems with the other.
His profile background is a desert scene with "SHUT THE FUCK UP, BOOMER" over it, in big text.
If it was "SHUT THE FUCK UP B***H" or "SHUT THE FUCK UP N*****R", he would be [rightly] excoriated and shunned by his appalled friends.
But as long as it's oldies, he's actually cheered on.
This is the current environment that those of us "of a certain age" have to deal with.
Kicking back at older folks has been something that has been going on for thousands of years.
The difference, in my opinion, is that companies are now often run by twenty-something CEOs. In the "old days," the companies were run by older folks, and there was always a cultural structure in place, that ensured that youthful exuberance and rebellion would be tempered by experience, age, and meticulousness. It was enforced by fiat; sometimes, to a fault. I think that we need to have a hybrid; not one over the other. Most of the teams I worked on, had a great mix.
Nowadays, no one wants "Grandpa" saying annoying things like "I have found that I can't rely on system garbage collection, because of the memory and performance hit; especially in threaded applications."
So, the solution is simple. Don't hire oldies. You'll be selling the company before the system goes pear-shaped, anyway, so...win/win.
In my case, I like to design and implement software architectures that are supposed to last for many years, and have significant effects on the lives of vulnerable people, so I don't do a slapdash job. That's basically heresy, in today's world. Some time ago, I read a comment that basically went "If you do not get physically sick, looking at the code in your MVP, you are spending too much time, worried about code quality." That's kind of a "zeitgeist," right there. The very fact that I could pick up a project that I wrote on a lark, two years ago, blow the dust off, give it a couple of tweaks (actually, it was a refactoring that took a couple of weeks. Bit more than "tweaks," but I was adding additional functionality; not fixing deficits), and use it as the backend for a fairly advanced app, shows that the way I do things has merit.
My plan to minimize ageism is straight forward. Continuous improvement in latest tech stack. Demonstrate delivering solutions. Regularly interview with recruiters for positions at or above my level.
When the full time offers slows down, I’ll take on vendor and contract positions. When the contract positions slow down, I’ll start my own vendor or consulting company. I’ll hire younger sales and product people to be the face of the company.
I always look for solutions to problems, implement the solutions and make adjustments when needed. This is the kind of solution oriented mindset that helps get offers and land clients.
There are so many software engineering problems and so few people that can deliver the solutions. There’s no real competition, younger or older. There are enough to go around for everyone.
Not necessary. I'm living the dream, right now. I worked for many years, to get to where I am now.
The fact that I'm not valued, simply as a function of my age (I'm 58, BTW), is annoying; a bit hurtful, but not crippling, at all.
As a matter of fact (not theory -fact), I'm more productive that I've ever been in my life, I learn more quickly, and more holistically, than I ever have, I use tools more effectively than I ever have, and I am enjoying what I do, more than I ever have.
There's the most positive thing that ol' Freddy once said: "That which does not kill me, makes me stronger."
I had to go through the rejection and humiliation to reinforce and realize my own sense of confidence and self-reliance.
I can tell you that the folks I'm working with right now, are basically pinching themselves.
On the other hand, someone telling other people how to handle ageism should definitely be prepared for such a question.
Conditional on the person I replied to's comments, if he/she is 60 I can perform a particular probability update, if they are 20 then I'll perform another probability update.
tl;dr : if you tell people how to handle aging, your own age becomes relevant.
There is ageism in tech, it’s very real and people have to plan for it. It’s not as old as people think it is. It’s way lower than official retirement age.
It’s like any other problem, there are solution options. Some people switch to management. But ageism affects management too.
Focusing on the age doesn’t help I any matter. Age is simply proxy for stagnation to most people. The common euphemism is you can’t teach old dog new tricks.
Focus of solving problems and delivering solutions utilizing latest tech stack and design patterns. Effectively demonstrate these dynamic abilities and open the doors to opportunities.
Become an expert in latest tech stack and experience in delivering solutions to clients. These positions are extremely difficult to fill, so recruiters are more open to older software engineers.
Open the door to yourself by expanding opportunities, vendor companies, contracts, freelance, start your own company, etc. There are so many problems in software and so few high performance engineers, globally.
Sometimes, you may be the only person in the world with that specific tech stack and experiences. Demonstrate the solutions and many companies will have to bring you on board, FE or contract at least.
For most companies, the age thing isn’t the issue. It’s that older software engineers have stagnated and won’t be able to keep pace. When you demonstrate high performance and solution delivery, age becomes less of an issue.