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I'll be 66 in July, currently a systems designer. Other than the four months of COVID shutdown I have not been out of work - other than taking time off for travel - since I
got out of school in the mid 1980s.
There is no real "obstacle" IF you have kept your skills up (there is not much call for FORTRAN programmers). AND IF your are willing to work (there is always a place for
do-nothing managers but they are never hired as such). AND IF you like what you do (being
miserable at work because you don't like what you do is just plain dumb).
Do not let someone sell you on this idea "it ends at 40". Maybe it did for them, maybe they
should have been selling insurance from the beginning not doing IT.
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Completely agree!
I'm also in my 60's and the only time I couldn't get work was really early in my career during a massive unemployment crisis (if you have heard the UB40 song "One in Ten", I was one of the one in ten!)
In fact, just after I turned 40 I sought out a new job, in a skill set I was completely ignorant of, for much higher pay and a much nicer company car.
Within 3 years I had doubled my income from my previous job.
So I overcame the (non-existent) problem through hard work, picking up new skills all the time and generally making myself useful and not resting on my laurels
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If I understand the premise correctly, by not seeing it as an obstacle.
Have a simple lifestyle, which suits me. When I was still working, I couldn't spend the money I made developing software. I was probably a bit better than average, but certainly not an all-star developer.
I have the advantage of being in USA#n. I can't speak for salaries in ROW.
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You find your comfortable spot. My income for the area I live in brings me to about upper(ish) middle income, but if I moved to somewhere like Seattle, I would be low middle income at best.
Since I have no want or desire to live in a big city, this works great for me.
Being 45 now (25 years professionally writing software), I'm more concerned about growing my retirement packages and as keep the best health care package I can find. I've had job offers in the last couple years that would move me out of this, but grow my career, and I've declined those offers because at the end of the day, it just wasn't worth it.
As far as the skill set goes: some of the languages, OS API's, most of the tooling, and all of the frameworks/libraries learned in my early career are no longer in use, and don't have much of a bonus on a CV, I could put down that I was writing graphic print drivers for HP printers to work with DOS applications, or use dbase 1 databases, but no one cares anymore about that stuff, it's fringe work at best.
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Don't even think that you will make it into your 60s with the current trends in IT.
Ageism in our profession is considered one of the worst in all US industries, considering that a majority of IT trends today are made up fantasies by people looking to make a name for themselves.
If I were you, I would look to strike out on your own into consulting, commercial software development, teaching, or writing.
After 42+ years in the profession I retired at 64. I could have continued but I was simply fed up with the hypocritical bullshit from management...
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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Knowing more tools and more tech doesn't necessarily relate to making your employer significantly more profit, you might produce less bugs and be slightly more efficient than someone with less experience but it doesn't scale well, they can easily just hire 5 grads instead of giving you 5 times your current salary.
Working in financial markets is one place where your coding efforts can have significant impact on a company's bottom line and where the rewards can scale accordingly.
Honestly, if you're not a 'wiz' and adding multiple times your peers to the bottom line why would you expect to be further rewarded for experience or years of service to the company or industry? It is fine to plateau.
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I still have years to go but am going to end up in management probably replacing my boss when he retires in a couple of years. We are a small shop so he still gets to program sometimes and that's what I am hoping for.
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... Specifically, he can turn it on, he can send emails, he can make phone calls.
But tonight he's been demonstrating an new ability: he can turn on Herself's Galaxy tablet and ... use Google ...
His chosen search term? "How to get cat urine out of a sofa". I'm really, really hoping he's not planning something.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I love the fact that you think your cat will do something evil, not trying to correct something wrong 
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He's a cat.
They are all fiends from Hell - that comes with the territory.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Once he opens a youtube account you have to find a new place to live 
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Keyword here is "CAT". Speaking as someone who's best friend as a toddler was a cat, they're always up to something.
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I'm sure it was just auto correct.
The less you need, the more you have.
Why is there a "Highway to Hell" and only a "Stairway to Heaven"? A prediction of the expected traffic load?
JaxCoder.com
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Maybe he'll start a cat porn site and let you live with him after he buys Caernarfon Castle.
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I was born alongside Caernarfon Castle - kudos to you spelling it the Welsh way - don't get why you mention it in this context though - if it's because of OG he's the down the south end of Wales 
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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OG seemed to have a long drive to get anywhere, so I figured he lived atop Snowdon or something.
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They wouldn't allow southern Jessies on Snowdon
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Had to look up that term.
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Then there was the kitty that nudged the long-handle faucet in the bathroom and flooded the whole house; or started a fire by knocking over a heater.
Hope you're around when your kitty is active.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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Here's another reason to switch to the Brave Browser[^].
If you're looking at something on your desktop or pad or whatever and you want to look at it on your phone you can easily (right-click) and select [Create QRCode For This Page]
Here's a snapshot showing the menu item and generated qrcode[^].
Also, I've never used an add blocker but this makes some of those Tech Magazine sites (computerworld, zdnet, pcmagazine, etc) actually tolerable. No more popup garbage and you'll see that like 53 tracking cookies and popups are blocked. Amazing.
By the way, you can sync all of your devices -- I have my desktop (linux), laptop (win10), Android Kindle Fire and ipad all synced up to share history and it is really cool and works well.
You'd think I work for them or something, but I have not affiliation and only get $5 for every view of this post. 
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raddevus wrote: [Create QRCode For This Page]
Chrome has that too.
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That makes sense. I left chrome about 4-5 years ago and had been using FireFox, but recently switched to Brave. Thanks
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Lytton, B.C. 46.6°C
I've experienced minus 45; nothing over 40 though. Not sure which one I prefer.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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At -40C, your double-double will freeze solid in minutes.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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