This is the biggest lie in tech. Doing this will keep you overworked because you’re reliable. You will never get promoted and when you try to get another job you will be so good everybody will be afraid of you.
Is this advice in contrast to how you ended up in that spot?
No networking, soft skills sure but not social skills, depends?
Asssuming these variables stay the same how does age affect hirability and at what age?
In any area, you'll suffer "ageism" while doing this because you won't have the same energy and potential as a fresh graduate.
The problem isn't your age(ageism), but the fact that you haven't managed to truly achieve seniority.
Sure, you could have gotten your senior title within 3 years from graduating, but you don't have the soft-skills that are needed to have a longer career. This applies to any area, it is expected in nowadays society that you don't behave like you live in your moms basement as you are older.
If you behave well and is generally nice, clear and have good work ethics, there's no way people won't like you and vouch for you in new positions. Sometimes they will get promoted and will want to have people around them that have worked with them before, and will want to invite you to their company.
Meanwhile a company might be ok with a 22 year old struggling to communicate with others or keep their supervisor up-to-date, they won't have that kind of patience for a 40 year old+ that has been working for decades.
And by the way, anyone can get those skills, just study and practice like you do with coding.
Thanks, I will. The likeability problem I have is because I am constantly in a position of having to disagree with others on technical grounds. Maybe I need to find a role where that's not the case.
The amount of opportunities available to me just grow year after year, because I get to know more people (which also move to different companies), that would like to work with me in the future.
Just be a person that ships, makes things work, in a friendly mood and you are set for life.
People you work with also grow in their careers, which means that often enough, they make the calls on who gets hired and who doesn't.
I think that during your 50s, you should have built a good "base," though, like paying off your mortgage. You should have more leeway to actually take life in a less demanding way, so perhaps do some consulting or not work full-time and earn a living to retire in peace.