Hi Everyone,
So today I started to think about the following:
Most of the people are working about until age of 65. I was working at several companies, together with really a lot of people, but 80% of the developer colleagues was under 40 years and I was working only once with a developer over 50.
Ok, it is pretty clear that nowadays much more people are starting a carrier in this field, than 30 years ago.
But still I don't understand: where do the "older" developers work?
And I think it is an important question for all of us, because one day we will be old as well and we still would like to work somewhere.
Do you have similar experiences? Do you have any idea, why?
Top comments (38)
I'm pushing 60 and still programming. Of course, no "cool" tech company will hire me once they deduce my age when they see me in person. So, I've been working in the corporate information systems world for the past 15 or so years, primarily writing in-house web and desktop applications for logistics, inventory control and manufacturing.
I probably could have moved into project management, IT management or the like years ago if I wanted to. That's where most other programmers I knew and worked with 20+ years ago have gone. But, I enjoy developing software so I've kept writing programs.
I've had the fortune of working with an older developer only once. It was a terrific experience.
This guy had been there done that and helped us avoid so many issues early on. He completed his work on time, sometimes early, left at 4:30pm, and liked guiding people on the team.
I hope when I'm his age I can contribute like that to teams. Older developers are worth every penny.
I Respect YOU
Usually, the older dev go to freelancing. I'm 54 and have been programming since I was 16 years old. Most the people I knew in dev work are now freelancing or gone to management. That seems to the the two routes people have taken.
Or they write books, some also teach.
Just to point out a counter-example. I worked at a decent-sized dev company where the median employee age was in the 40s. Many of the employees had been there for double-digit years. My experience at that company violated the demographic norms in a lot of ways actually -- great experiences in general.
For most companies, I have an unsubstantiated belief that a lot of devs switch to management as they get older. After 18 years dev experience, I feel like I'm finally getting to a good understanding of how to write software well. But I have come to the realization that a lot of my value is now in guidance and idea-development for the rest of the team.
Anyway, it's probably less about where older devs have gone and more about a huge influx of new devs skewing the ratio.
Contracting/Consulting, Freelance, Starting own business, Architecture, Leadership, Teaching, etc. Older devs are out there doing things and making very good money. If you work at a start up u wont find them there. Older devs cost more. Other mature devs no longer interested in progressing can be found in corporate settings doing legacy support work. I currently work at a place where 80% of the gang is much older. They dont mind supporting legacy frameworks and working with outdated tech. And thats a good thing. As a developer you also have more opportunities to move around into other domains like info sec, networking, dev ops, QA, just to name a few. I enjoy working with older devs. Respect.
Quite a few people in the programming world are not passionate about it, and end up doing whatever requires the least effort and they can still earn a salary.
This leads me to believe that it was the case also earlier and many of the older people in the industry never bothered to learn new languages and some are still stuck in some basement maintaining their COBOL applications and such, while others just switched professions when their FORTRAN skills weren't needed anymore.
Then there are entire companies full of these people providing high priced consulting for the business sectors still stuck using the old technologies.
I can see this happening to young people too, people who learn exactly one language, not even that do they care to learn well, and then they complain if anyone even suggests that a new language be tried out. In 30 years there's a big pile old timers maintaining all the awful PHP applications being built today.
Wow... Generalize much Janne? Sounds much like the general judgement that millennials get about entitlement and impatience. Having been in hiring positions in both startups and corporate I always try to keep my teams as balanced as possible. When it comes to the gender, race and age. I find it the best way to have a well functioning team... But that's just me I guess... Being a developer over 40 and all...
I have no idea what you're on about.
"many" != "all"
I've said exactly nothing that's targeted as a negative comment about older programmers - it's a generic comment about many IT workers, which I expect includes the people who started earlier, i.e. are now older
It's simply a fact that quite a lot of people working in IT are not passionate about it. Nothing wrong with it, simply explains why some of these people don't become "old programmers". Most professions that are as easy to pick up as programming is (quite easy), have lots of people working on it who are not very passionate about it. IT as an industry also uncommonly has the ability to hire pretty much everyone with even the tiniest bit of skill to work in it.
Add to this the fact that a lot of them end up accepting promotions that take them away from programming to drawing powerpoints or managing technical teams or whatever, and that the whole IT industry has been massively booming for ages, so the younger generations are naturally more highly represented in the IT workforce.
If you've got a specific claim you'd like to refute, feel free to point it out.
So Sorry! I must have misread! Must be my ol' eyes not keeping up...
Sounds like you're trying to make some remark with this, but I fail to see the point.
Only one: I read you wrong, and I'm sorry :)
Oh, sorry. I'm tired and probably on a bad mood and just assuming malice in tone where there is none :)
COBOL now is a hole of gold, if you work in banking.
Yea, if you happen to be one of the people capable of and interested in still working on it, and have the connections to get work for it.
If there were tons of people available for it, it wouldn't be one.
What really financial institutions should do, is invest in upgrades for their systems, and set up a continuous development plan, which they can easily afford.
Getting approval for upgrade plans go something like this...
"The upgrade project committee meets for 2 hours every other Tuesday like they have for the past 3 years. Once they settle on a design then it will go to the planning board for approval. After that it will go to the executive budget for review. If they sign off on it, then we can move it to the information systems architecture committee."
Basically, it's a 10+ year process, or used to be.
There are some new federal banking regulations driving a lot of new development at financial institutions that have been slow upgrading. You'll find a lot of ancient COBOL, VB6, PowerBuilder and Gupta code that's needing to be upgraded or replaced ASAP. I passed on that when I was looking for work earlier this year since the pay was low and the projects stank of desperation and micromanagement.
This is a very interesting article on the subject: It’s COBOL all the way down
To answer this I will use myself as an example: I am in my 40's and I seem to be one of the oldest developers around - we are very few. About 6 years ago I took a detour into management for 3 years - totally hated burnt out, and returned to active development.
However I am clearly defining my role, as a bridge between technology and business (in this case health program implementation), and I enjoy it very much, since it provides great leverage for my experience and skillset.
The key challenges are the fast moving technology (especially the Javascript world), with a short lifespan 18 months and lots of churn which I am struggling to pickup and also understand their place in the world, since the systems I work with tend to have a lifespan of 5 - 7 years in production.
The older devs are there - hidden in management, team leads and supporting business goals. There are few who stay actively coding due to a shortage of support systems to keep them there and leverage their experience and skillsets
A number of factors at play (at least in the US):
Couple other factors - some of which boil down to "it depends one where you're looking"; but the ones listed above account for a big chunk.
Yep, nailed it. For a guy over 60 who has been through my share of RIFs, having to look for a new job later in your career is tough. I've been where I am now for 12 years and seen a lot of developers be forced out. I believe they all eventually found work, but most went to work for less pay and for the state or consulting. I'm lucky to have hung on this long, I think although who knows for sure. I work hard to keep up the best I can. Completed a master in Comp Sci a few years back. I usually get the interesting projects to work on that include learning new languages, frameworks, etc.
Most have moved into executive leadership. Or out of the industry completely. Leadership positions pull you out of technology and into politics. Many say screw it and make tons of money with their own venture/app. Microsoft and other big firms hire old guys that code but you will mainly see them in training/travel positions. Many of my peers have grown kids that code.
My story: Im 43, first dev job at 21 - the internet was fairly new when I started so I rode the web 1.0 and 2.0 bubbles as a dev and then architect. After architecture I started a consulting firm and did pretty good. 2008 hit me hard, as did the 'Affordable Healthcare Act' but all in all I had a great ride for a college dropout. I'm in executive leadership now and code on the weekends and at least one night a week. I don't code for work as I have an issue with companies making millions on my creations and not getting a fair share if total profit. I code so i can remain relevant while building a product line for my new business. In this 'new' digital world you will see some 'new' technology but the developer role is coming to a slow end.
If you accept number of developers has roughly doubled every ~5 years since the 1950s, then then simple result of that is that at any point since then half the active developers have 5 years or more experience, 1/4 have 10 years or more, 1/8 have 15 years or more etc.
Combine that with the the age at which someone becomes a developer (mostly younger), the tendency for experienced devs to move to management|consultants|speakers|writers, older devs to retire etc. then there are probably only 1 in 500 developers with 30+ years experience
Compound that with the self selection of choosing jobs where you work with your peers, which seems to be echoed in some of the other comments, then the less frequent older developers seem to cluster in the same companies, it would be quite possible for some younger devs to have never crossed paths with them
I wish I had invested in Google and Amazon 20 years ago. Instead, I invested in companies that went up in flames in the dotcom bust.