Me Too.<p>I'll be 51 in a couple months.<p>Age discrimination is widespread in this industry. I get lots of interviews, but quite commonly I find that my interviewer starts finding reasons not to hire me, the very instant they see me in person, and so can see I have grey hair.<p>Discriminating against employees or candidates over 40, for reasons of age, is flatly illegal under US Federal Law, as well as the laws of all the States that I know about. However, such age discrimination is quite widespread.
I certainly don't want to debate that there is age discrimination in this industry. There is. It's entirely illegal. I worry about it myself, a lot! However, a few key people in the industry are amazing and give me hope. In no particular order:<p>Israel Gat, Diana Larsen, David Spann, Woody Zuill, Ward Cunningham, Robert Martin<p>Actually, as I make the list, it just keeps getting longer. Those are all people I have worked with or associated myself with in the last 12 months professionally. They are all extremely fantastic engineers as well as speakers, managers, and educators. Each one of them. The difference between them and the standard engineer is they have built a personal brand around themselves. They write, speak, and help with open source projects. Instead of being thought of as "older" they are thought of as the sages of the industry, filled with wisdom that can only be purchased with decades of industry experience. And companies bang down their doors to hire them. I happen to personally know that one person in that list makes a day rate of $10,000 and honestly, that person wishes they would get FEWER calls for work.<p>Keep going! Build your personal brand and you'll get the job you want.
This resonates profoundly.<p>But I'll tell you who I REALLY feel sorry for. I feel sorry for today's 20- and 30-somethings who will likely never know the $1000-$2000 days many of us knew in the 80's, 90's and 00's.<p>Back in the days when FedExing diskettes across the planet was a normal thing.<p>Take today's 20 and 30-somethings and project forward 20-years, I wouldn't want to trade positions.
Not to downplay the age discrimination angle (because I believe it is a real problem) but what constitutes a "better" job?<p>Is it a compensation issue, a work/life balance thing, a new technologies thing?<p>Conversely, are you willing to lower your compensation, work/life balance, technology choices, etc. to accomplish that?<p>Hard for Santa to fix these problems without knowing the tradeoffs...
There are truly horrible jobs - I said it just to get it out of the way but ...<p><i>The rest of this comment doesn't apply to convenience store clerks with degrees in computer science.</i><p>Many times when I hear people say something like this, they're working in a job they hate because they're making good money. If you can't make job change because you're expecting the same wage, that's a different problem (Dear Santa - please include personal budgeting software).<p>Fortunately, unless you have one of those truly horrible jobs, there's a better way to get the job you want. Change your own job - and you start with changing your own behavior. This method requires a lot more work than sitting in your cube all day (playing with your red Swingline stapler) but broadly try this (not every problem will require all the steps):<p>1) Exceed your bosses expectations but still be on time.<p>2) Change how you do the job so that you're enjoying yourself.<p>3) Learn something new in the process of doing 1 and 2 above.<p>4) Use an appropriate new technology to replace something old - make sure you can justify why you replaced the old (presumably working) way.<p>5) Teach others in your office how you achieved more by doing things this new way.<p>This makes a few changes:<p>1) You think differently about your job and the enjoyment you get from it.<p>2) Your boss thinks differently about you.<p>3) Your coworkers think differently about you.<p>Don't underestimate the important of your perceptions - you can probably do your current job in a way that you find enjoyable if you tweak the job and change your attitude!
That is why i'm working to get all the certifications I can to become a full time DBA (database administrator). For some reason companies want young programmers, but old time database administrators. I guess when it comes to data integrity, experience and being stuck in your ways counts more.
Just make sure you stay current with the latest trends, technology, usability, target demographics for your space. Kids out of college and recent grads inherently have this because it is what they learned. So when putting two people side by side regardless of their metrics - looking at what they know. Far often the person who is in the know and up to date rather than complaisant will have the edge. (At least in my experience)