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Adam Crockett πŸŒ€
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

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Age concerning: the cliff

graph from the state of JavaScript survey, the results showing less JavaScript developers as time goes on

Graph from the state of JavaScript survey, the results showing less JavaScript developers as time goes on.


I'm taking the unusual stance to progress my home life and not so muchy career. I have never had a senior position although I know in my mind that I am exactly that, but today I say the state of JavaScript survey and this got me thinking, I'm 32 I'm in the prime of my career apparently, why do we Suddenly all drop off a cliff at 40?

Is it the lack of data skewing results or is there something more?

Top comments (34)

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Other replies here are speaking to a lot of potential sample bias in this specific chart β€” but it's an interesting topic either way!

I'm taking the unusual stance to progress my home life and not so muchy career.

This is the dream isn't it? Today's world provides a lot of potential flexibility in one's career in software. It doesn't always play out that way, but it's there if you're privileged enough to reach for it. Work satisfaction is your own to achieve.

I think a lot of people are happiest when they're able to settle into highly achievable tasks which they don't have to stretch too hard to accomplish. I think there's a lot of human nature and social pressures that inhibit this, but if it's right for you, plateauing in a career as a tech individual contributor is pretty awesome. You need to keep up your skills as to not regress, but if you can do solid work for your level and get paid appropriately for those contributions, you don't need to keep leveling up and risk burning out on the career treadmill.

The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence": employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

plateauing in a career as a tech individual contributor is pretty awesome. You need to keep up your skills as to not regress, but if you can do solid work for your level and get paid appropriately for those contributions, you don't need to keep leveling up and risk burning out on the career treadmill.

Yes exactly, right now I'm standing still or perhaps I'm taking a break from leveling up, career mindfulness I suppose, I have built greater confidence and people skills in this time of plateau. Perhaps that's the illusion, maybe I'm still growing from the inside.

This topic of age in tech is critically important, and something we all need to explore. The big question I think about alot, can I make it to retirement / will life throw a new virus our way and change everything again πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ what will I do when I grow up πŸ˜‚

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rickdelpo1 profile image
Rick Delpo

Hi there coders. I am age 68 and still learning. I played around with React last year and went Serverless too. Now that I am retired I have more time to spend on coding and writing some Dev.to articles. It is so important for older people to keep exercising the brain.

find out more about me at
howtolearnjava.com

or do a Google search on Rick Delpo

Happy Coding!!

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

And now I know what I am going to do when I am your age, thank you for the hope πŸ™ƒ

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nguyenbahoangnam2510 profile image
Nam Nguyα»…n BΓ‘ HoΓ ng

Really inspiring, thank you

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Actually the star comment of this entire post

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rickdelpo1 profile image
Rick Delpo

hey THANKS so much, see below for my other comment about the many benefits of aging that u can all look forward to.

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alohci profile image
Nicholas Stimpson

Perhaps as we get older, we decline to answer surveys more.

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Oh yes definitely! They don't need to know my age, not even I need or want to know my age!

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Jon Lauridsen

In addition to the many problems inherent to an internet survey (self-selecting bias etc) I’ll also add that if the amount of programmers double every 5 years (that’s according to one estimate by Robert Martin) then there is guaranteed to be many, many more young people than older.

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Thorsten Hirsch

That statistic came to my mind, too. And it matches Adam's survey pretty good... even better if we say 6 years instead of 5 years:

  • 5% are 48
  • 10% are 42
  • 20% are 36
  • 40% are 30

Of course it stops at the 24-34 graph, because many developers are still in training or studying at a younger age.

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

This year I have met so many more women in tech and particularly leaders too, very exciting to see this!

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Exponential growth of programmers? Thats unexpected but I suppose there is a lot of tech to make!

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weiket profile image
Wei Ket • Edited

Life happens. Marriage, kids, housework, house loans, car loans, personal illness, family illness etc. 30+ also happens to be a checkpoint where people think about whether that's what they wanna do/can do for 1/3/5/10 more years.

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Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

I'm at 30 that's probably why this post exists. Seems to have exploded, all those do factor in to it. If I had a choice I would build things out of wood and get an amazing workshop started. But I have a family like you said, sort of locked in now and I am happy with that too

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Ben Sinclair

I'm in the middle of the 4.7%. My personal feeling is that this graph is spreading out slowly to the right as time goes by. Around the millenium, programming, especially front-end stuff, was popular with younger people. Now those people are older and some have dropped out.

If this is a specifically Javascript chart, then I wonder what it's like for software in general?

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Probably many have switched languages not always career, I have never met an ex-programmer

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curiousdev profile image
CuriousDev

Where is the data coming from (any URL would be nice)?
Please pay attention to: Amount of answers, where this has been asked (different target groups!) and finally do not forget, that at least 24.2% did not even answer this.

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

I can see your point perhaps this isn't a good study, still maybe there should be a study for age In programming, I would love to see the stats!

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€
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evertvdw profile image
Evertvdw

I think the main reason the graph is skewed is because of the age of the language. As javascript is not that old (20 some years?) it is not that strange to not have that many 40+ people doing javascript. Most of the people probably stick with the language they start with, any 50 year old will have made a switch to javascript, either switching languages or switching careers. My guess is most people stick in their domain. Probably after 20 years if javascript is still popular then this graph will look more evenly distributed.

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ayyash profile image
Ayyash

I didn't get this survey this year :)
personally, as i got older i simply got less interested in answering those surveys, i... don't... care. I think a lot of graying-hair soldiers out there share the sentiment.

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Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Apparently I have grey hairs or so I'm told πŸ˜†

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Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Nate you make an interesting point, I do wonder if there will be a strange lack of people doing other jobs and we may one day all leave to become hairdressers and sea captains however, until that day I'm fine with being a youngish older developer