from Hacker News

Programmers are 40 years old, should they retire

by JC770 on 7/12/23, 3:02 PM with 14 comments

• by MrGuts on 7/12/23, 5:12 PM

  Are you joking? I was first hired as a software dev at age 57.

  People over age 40 have a secret superpower. It's called "attention span"

  Find out what industries and dev stacks are prevalent in your area. Work the meet-ups: show up, knock back a few beers, ask questions, find out who's doing what. Consider getting up to speed on an alternate dev stack, if need be.

  Another secret: 80% of hires are done end-run around HR. If they want you, they'll pull you through whatever process HR throws at them.

• by tornato7 on 7/12/23, 3:12 PM

  I've worked with many excellent programmers over 40, some over 70. You might want to look for companies that are run by older folk, and maybe in more established companies.

  Anecdotally, I haven't seen a lot of 40+ engineers in Silicon Valley, but here in San Diego I've never met a Qualcomm engineer under 40. Maybe geography has something to do with it.

• by eschneider on 7/12/23, 3:16 PM

  I'm in my mid-50s and still programming. I got laid off early in the year and didn't have too much trouble getting a new job. So yes, it's not Logan's Run for older programmers.

• by richliss on 7/12/23, 3:12 PM

  It's not a straightforward question.

  40-year old VBA developer? That's a tough one.

  40-year old C++ developer who loves learning? Don't give up hope and maybe look at Rust.

  The future for 40-year old developers is to recognise that job certainty has gone, but opportunity is still there as long as you work hard.

  I genuinely think a lot of companies are going to realise in the next 18 months that ai generated code wasn't the silver bullet they thought.

• by scrapheap on 7/12/23, 3:34 PM

  It's very hard to offer advice without knowing any details other than your age - being an older programmer does mean that you will need to make sure that you stand out from the younger programmers (i.e. those who are willing to work for a lot less and haven't yet learned to pace their work life so they don't burnout :) )

  Find your unique selling points and try to get them across (as well as making sure you cover the other areas that all programmers will have in common). Also make sure to tailor your responses to the companies/posts your applying to/for.

• by simonblack on 7/12/23, 8:32 PM

  Retire from companies, or retire from programming?

  Many of us face changes in our 40s and we think that 'My life is over at 40. How ever will I start again?'.

  Quite often those changes are for the best. You may meet the love of your life when you finally part from your first wife. You may find the best programming company in the world when you finally leave that first dead-end job.

  It all depends on your point of view: run away or look ahead?

  By the way I'm just 2 years off 80. I still enjoy programming. But now I program for myself, not a boss.

• by quantified on 7/12/23, 3:24 PM

  Some do. Every one I've been hired to for the last 15 years certainly does, even series-B startups. I can't opine on what works and doesn't for finding a match, but trust me there are enough. The hiring process usually sucks, you'll need to do Leetcode because people don't know any better.

• by sn9 on 7/13/23, 12:20 AM

  Where are you interviewing?

  Like geographically?

  What's your the range of TC you're willing to accept?

• by MountainMan1312 on 7/12/23, 4:41 PM

  This is like those women who think that the moment they hit 30 years old, a switch flips and they are officially deemed old and unattractive.

  Stop putting stock into the idea that specific ages mean anything. It's a direct result of capitalist manipulation trying to subconsciously trick you into buying things.