Ageism in tech — no longer a thing?

[Anonymous]

With insane compensation and demand for tech skills, can we put to bed the worry that when you are 40 or 50 it would be hard to find a job in tech? My DH is a software engineer and wants to take a pay cut to go Fed ($300k to $176k) because he is worried about his current job and doesn’t think he can land another tech job if he is laid off. He’s 49 FWIW

[Anonymous]

I just hired a 52 year old developer.

[Anonymous]

the war for good talent is real. I think ageism is being pushed aside for things like leadership and soft skills.

[Anonymous]

Ageism was worse 20 years ago when many of the founders and decision makers were in their 20s or 30s. IME those roles are now held by people who are now in their 40s and 50s. I wouldn’t take a pay cut to avoid a problem that may not exist.

[Anonymous]

Even young people look old these days. If you look reasonably OK and are well groomed you're good to go assuming you know the Tech and all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even young people look old these days. If you look reasonably OK and are well groomed you're good to go assuming you know the Tech and all

Well, my DH is overweight and grey, so maybe he has a point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even young people look old these days. If you look reasonably OK and are well groomed you're good to go assuming you know the Tech and all

Yep. Slim petite well groomed here and 40. I get called young lady and miss all the time.

[Anonymous]

+1 it's difficult to be old in a young field. But now that the field is aging, so are those original young people.

Also, there are bigger departments, more management (product, project, people), and more options that aren't just being the junior code monkey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even young people look old these days. If you look reasonably OK and are well groomed you're good to go assuming you know the Tech and all

Well, my DH is overweight and grey, so maybe he has a point?

Get him a glow up. Tech bod is fine, but maybe color that hair, nice glasses and some premium hoodies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even young people look old these days. If you look reasonably OK and are well groomed you're good to go assuming you know the Tech and all

Well, my DH is overweight and grey, so maybe he has a point?

Get him a glow up. Tech bod is fine, but maybe color that hair, nice glasses and some premium hoodies

"tech bod"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With insane compensation and demand for tech skills, can we put to bed the worry that when you are 40 or 50 it would be hard to find a job in tech? My DH is a software engineer and wants to take a pay cut to go Fed ($300k to $176k) because he is worried about his current job and doesn’t think he can land another tech job if he is laid off. He’s 49 FWIW

If he's worried about layoffs, 22 or 49 doesn't matter. $300K will often get cut before $50K even if 7 times more productive. He has more negotiating power before the layoff. Support him no matter what. You can always post his resume, after he switches. He only had to take the government job for 6 months for a clearance sponsorship to pay off. He likely will pursue commercial work again after 6 months as he might not feel challenged in such a slow lane.

[Anonymous]

55YO tecchie here. I would not say that I have not suffered the consequences of ageism - your experience matters not so much in core tech skills but most in PM - the ability to manage, create teams, complete projects on time and within budget. Ageism however, is more of a personal problem IMO. As you get older, no matter how sharp you may be, it just becomes harder (and often times frustrating) to keep abreast with advancement in technology. At some point, older techhies just get tired or learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even young people look old these days. If you look reasonably OK and are well groomed you're good to go assuming you know the Tech and all

Well, my DH is overweight and grey, so maybe he has a point?

Get him a glow up. Tech bod is fine, but maybe color that hair, nice glasses and some premium hoodies

Pink or blue tip on the hair and a bushy beard can take off 20 years of aging. Put on funky glasses or shades, erase another 7-10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even young people look old these days. If you look reasonably OK and are well groomed you're good to go assuming you know the Tech and all

Well, my DH is overweight and grey, so maybe he has a point?

Get him a glow up. Tech bod is fine, but maybe color that hair, nice glasses and some premium hoodies

Pink or blue tip on the hair and a bushy beard can take off 20 years of aging. Put on funky glasses or shades, erase another 7-10 years.

Looks are one thing, year of graduation is another. A verifiable legally legit background/reference check is common if "Bachelor degree + 3 years or 7 years experience" is the req. College degree isn't protected under "age discrimination".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:55YO tecchie here. I would not say that I have not suffered the consequences of ageism - your experience matters not so much in core tech skills but most in PM - the ability to manage, create teams, complete projects on time and within budget. Ageism however, is more of a personal problem IMO. As you get older, no matter how sharp you may be, it just becomes harder (and often times frustrating) to keep abreast with advancement in technology. At some point, older techhies just get tired or learning.

Concepts stay the same, from an architectural standpoint we had cloud computing and virtualization since the 90s.