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Comment by fred_is_fred | Hacker News Reader

While I also agree this is true there are weekly threads there that imply people over 35 (or 40) cannot get a job in software. All Gen-Xers are over 35, so only one or the other reflects reality.

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I don't think this is true. In my experience, those who are seem to have a constraint they don't mention, like knowing an older language that isn't in vogue (I spent a lot of time in the ColdFusion ecosystem, and there were many who really didn't know another language), and who haven't expanded their skillset as the industry has changed (front-end frameworks, Docker, cloud, git workflows, etc)

(I'm not on the market now, but I'm 43, my coworker is 41 or 42 I think, and virtually every programmer friend/cohort I know of that's 40+ is still gainfully employed)

I agree with your impression as well and am also over 40. This site I think generally does not seem to agree with this sentiment.

In many ways, I think HN has a very narrow view of the industry.

Agreed - and I suspect a lot of it is where people live. I could not fathom living in the bay area with a family - and I think a lot of people move out once they start to have kids, meaning everyone left seems to be < 30.

> an older language that isn't in vogue

If you've mastered C, you're still in decent shape.

Also, lots of older languages demand higher pay due to the small applicant pool. I know Cobol and Fortan in banking / finance devs making 400k plus bonuses and saw a K / kdb+ job that was offering 500k. Hell, I even know someone getting paid to write and maintain sql sprocs! Obviously these are anecdotal and not ubiquitous but the job market is a really funny thing when you get into esoteric knowledge.

There's something interesting about this in tech - jobs that are lucrative, but not great choices for your future. Oracle DBAs can still make a ton of money, but it's not a growth field - so anyone left is probably over 40.

I work for a startup and I'm in my late 30s. We recently hired a developer in his late 40s. All my friends working in the industry are around 40 and none of them has trouble finding work.

I'm in France at the moment. Maybe this whole "developers have to be [..30] years old" is only the norm in the niche HN talks about most.

I am sure a big factor with this is being married with kids also.

I work in sales and pushing 50 but have no kids or wife. I am spending most the day today drinking coffee and trying to learn to think in functional javascript.

The day just does not look like this when I am in a relationship. I can't even imagine if you throw kids in the mix. If I had a kid I would be spending my time wiring up their brain instead of trying to rewire my own.

An increasing number of millennials are over 35, since 1982 seems to be the accepted beginning of the generation.

Looking around my office (when it's open) proves that there are Gen X-ers in software.

I haven't seen this at all. I know lots of people, including myself, who are Gen-Xers and still happily employed in software. Unless you let your skills corrode and become stale, I can't see it really being that big a deal.

Even accepting that dubious premise, you also seem to be assuming that startups only hire software devs.

GenX is 40+ now

40 is over 35.

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