Tech hiring is tough on veteran workers

I'm 46. I was just unemployed (voluntarily and happily) for 10 months. In that time I wrote an iPhone app, took a Rails course, and generally tried to upgrade skills that had been neglected over the last few years.

I'm employed now because I didn't spend 10 months sitting around in my dirty underwear (they were clean). I learned and I networked. He could have been learning Java while he was unemployed. Or Ruby. Or anything that would increase his job prospects. Maybe he did, but it doesn't sound like it.

I also missed out on a good job because I was a generation older than the rest of the company. They took one look at my gray beard and immediately looked to see if I was wearing socks with sandals. My modern accomplishments had no bearing. I was too old.

I also hit the "why isn't an old guy like you in management?" issue. They weren't convinced that I really like writing code.

So yes, ageism is real, but it's not the only issue. We old guys have to prove that we're keeping up. We need to leverage our vast amount of experience and show that it has some relevance.