Re:Why Non-Linear Career Paths Are the Future
by ChrisMarshallNY on Friday March 03, 2023 @06:13PM
(#35016288)
This is true.
Everyone knows that old dudes can’t code.
Re:Why Non-Linear Career Paths Are the Future
by knightofmars on Friday March 03, 2023 @10:30PM
(#35017872)
It's funny when people generalize this way. You cherry picked specific scenarios as if that suddenly supports your claim that ageism is well justified. Anecdotally, I've worked with engineers across age ranges. Sure, there are the "rest on their laurels" types who stagnate in their careers. But there are also battle hardened veterans who can debug issues that are mind bendingly difficult to unravel and are happy to stay as IC. I'm curious what metric you'd pick to validate the claim that "...young fresh grads are running circles around old timers." Because based on the quality of the code and other observable aspects this isn't the case. Google introduced a whole new programming language (Go) because fresh grads weren't running circles around anyone and it was easier to go that route than get them to parity with the industry veterans.
The underlying reason is that young fresh grads are running circles around old timers.
I hate to say this, but in quite a lot of circumstances, ageism is very well justified for these reasons:
1. IT/CompSci is constantly changing and high growth area, any engineer worth his/her salt will grow rapidly.
2. High performance old-timers have either retired (earning their $$$) or moved up the ladder to manager/director/VP/Founder levels.
3. Regular IC old-timers who have not progressed in their career - companies don't want them, because old-timer who has not grown in his level - is a red flag for companies.
4. There are some old-timers who prefer part-time/consulting type gigs, but I put them in Founder category, all of them have their own LLC/S-corp and run one man consulting/entrepreneurship shop