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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Tech isn't inherently ageist, IMO.  It's a field that:

1) is fast paced
2) rewards current skills
3) rewards demonstrable output

As we age (myself included), fewer of us have the energy or inclination to meet those criteria.  Hell, I didn't want to keep pace with emerging tech 5 years into my career, let alone 20.  Layer on top of that the demands of middle-age - families, aging parents, life in general - and there's a disconnect between the demands of the industry and what some aging people are able to deliver.

There are PLENTY of 50, 60, 70 year olds in tech.  But, as a percentage, they drop off over time because of the above.[/quote]

Complete BS. “fast paced” really only applies to startups, large tech companies have processes and workflows like most corporations.

Current skills? Most older engineers can learn the new tech; going from old languages without garbage collection and hand rolling your own threads, versus todays programming which is so high level and abstracted that it’s more akin to operating an application than coding assembly. Sure they aren’t fresh out of college, but given the choice of laid off or spin up this new tech stack what do you think?  And older engineers are way better at CM control, documentation, thorough testing, which means you will have fewer defects and likely cheaper more reliable development cycles.

As for “output” I suspect your metrics don’t look at delivered quality code vs speeding out lines copied and pasted from StackExchange or an LLM.

It probably comes down to lower pay and willingness to work long hours, which older employees will push back as unwise for delivering quality. They can’t just cut pay because then the ageism would be obvious. So even if an older employer would accept lower pay because of business conditions they aren’t considered because “entreat level” provides cover. [/quote]

I don't know what to tell you, but every tech company/org I've been a part of rewards innovation, to include the application of emerging technology.

I think you're misinterpreting me.  I'm not saying older workers are inherently less valuable or capable.  They're not.  But I am saying that the natural course of aging - for most - tends to erode the qualities and characteristics valued by the tech industry.  There are of course positions that experienced techies can move into that don't require constant retraining and high output, but those positions are far more limited than the worker bee engineering roles.[/quote]

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