What was the job market like when you graduated from university? Do you think it's easier for you to get a job now than it is 10, 20 years ago? Just curious to hear your thoughts.
I also think I wrote kind of silly code then. I always laugh when I think about a persistent hash table I had to write and how I went out of my way to find prime numbers for M slots using Fermat's Simple Theorem (not his last theorem) and testing for Carmichael numbers. Of course, there aren't that many prime numbers in the first place and a static table would have worked just fine! I always remember this as part of my evolution from an inexperienced academic kid solving a problem that doesn't need solving vs. experience to know where to comprimise and just get it done.
Even then, I knew it was important to start specializing where the needs were evolving, which was win32 programming at the time and eventually Windows MFC programming. This all dove-tailed nicely years later when I started working on the Playstation 3, where you develop in MS DevStudio but the PS3 was essentially a Unix box. It's funny how things work out.
The only thing that sucks about being a 40+ engineer is when I say "whachoo talkin' bout Willis" or "it's tricky to rock a rhyme", half the people don't know what I'm talking about.
There's your problem. You have to ask it as a question.
Try telling someone they're "2 legit 2 quit"; the kids today are not sure if that's good or bad.
Interesting! Was it ageism or was it because you were inexperienced? This is tricky because I feel like even if younger developers are discriminated against based on their age, they might be less likely to attribute it to ageism. If this is true then I wonder if older developers are for some reason more likely to blame ageism for their career ills instead of skill obsolescence, hence making ageism seem like something that mostly affects the older devs...