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I have been working in various aspects of IT since 1966 after taking a programming course in college. Along with copious math & engineering classes, I took a programming class each semester and continued to work doing programming (I had to work my way through college, being the oldest of seven children & family no wealthy). Las year in school I got an off campus job doing programming for the company I eventually went to work for after graduation.
I had intended to get into control systems work after graduating with a BSEE. Things being what they were in the US in 1970 when I left college, I ended up taking a job with a small company working in the electric power & steam power control field.
Moved around a bit & ended up working for a company that was making aircraft simulators. Learned a whole lot about building device drivers, OS internals, etc. Job eventually moved me to Norfolk/VA Beach VA.
During the 1980's I gradually moved away from pure programming. And worked out of town & traveled a lot. had a house to pay for.
Fast forward to the nineties, back in VA, not much market for software developers in this area. Got into networking with DOS/NetWare & gradually networking token ring, ArcNet, Ethernet. Moved between jobs a lot businesses seemed to hire for a project & let you go. I also got involved with WIndows programming & eventually Windows NT. I eventually picked up some skills in working with wireless bar code devices.
In 1997, landed at my present job working at a shipbuilder. First assignment, more barcode devices, and wireless (pre Wi-Fi), but also did all work on the architecting the system, building servers, installing databases, installing application software, and interfacing to SAP & mainframe. This naturally led to system engineering (in the IT space).
Today, I am putting together High Performance clusters for this company. The first one I put together involved actually building out the facilities to turn a large room into a datacenter. This involves being a technical lead and being able to have a conversation with people with many different skills and get them working as a team to pull these things together in a working system.
So this is a long winded preface to a couple of observations.
Be able to communicate, both verbally & in writing. I worked a number of proposals where you have time limits, page limits, etc. You have to get your information to the customer in a way that they can understand and still stay within the limits.
Being flexible; doing what you have to to stay employed, hopefully something you like, or at least something that will broaden your experience.
Having a broad background. In my case having the BSEE helped immensely since I worked for engineering companies.
I haven't found getting a job too difficult being older (I passed 50 many years ago).
But one thing I find is that you have to actively pursue continuing to update your skills. Employers pay lip service to that, but don't seem to provide the older worker with training to keep them up to date. Let's face it, you are going to be there as long as the younger guy will, so why invest in someone that will be gone in a few years. I have spent a ton of my own money on HW & SW so that I could stay up to date as much as possible.
The other thing I see is that as an older worker doesn't get assigned to the new cool technologies when projects are assigned; the younger folks do. You have to be aggressive about going after those projects.
Last comment, I in my 70's and had planned on working until I am 80-ish. COVID has handed me an opportunity; my employer has decided to completely overhaul the way the IT organization operates & I am working from home permanently, leaving me without the 45 minute commute each way (on a good day).
Wine is for drinking. Take the cards you are dealt & make the best of them.
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I landed a new job last year at the age of 59. The new role has required me to learn a new system and programming language, and skill up on Python. I'm in the UK.
My trick was to ditch the agencies, and target employers directly.
Exception that proves the rule? Maybe.
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I hardly ever see job postings for junior and mid-level; almost always senior.
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When i got 50, it was not easy to find a job. I got hired by a consulting company. They said me they don't care about age because they have a pool of customers that represent a lot of different programming languages even cobol. I am now 65, sick and taking care of my wife who is sickier but i am working for many years on a project that will end in a year. This project will show what an old guy like me can do with experience.
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In Germany, we have a law that forbids discrimination due age on the job market. That is why in job postings they never explicitly look for younger developers, even if they in fact do. I had to find 3 new jobs in a row at the age of 44 to 46, so I had a lot of interviews. And in about one third of the cases they did not want to have me without telling me any conrete reasons, even when my profile was an almost perfect fit. So I think it was due to my age. In the other two thirds of the cases, age didn't matter at all. So I still had a quite a fair bunch of jobs to choose from. Might be different if you're 50+.
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Thanks. 
I will keep an eye out for the little green men (or women).
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Don't you go inflicting your binary gender / heteronormative assumptions on Martians! 
"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'll have you know that they are NOT assumptions. I have been there.
Old people know these things from experience. 
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Success!
Keep Calm and Carry On
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modified 27-Mar-21 21:01pm.
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There's also a flying drone and a microphone on board: "We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own."
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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I didn't have time to do a proper clue so have an easy one
One charging a flat rate ? (8)
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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He or she?
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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LANDLORD or LANDLADY
Either fits ...
"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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you are up tomorrow - I still can't get AOMEI to work on my Surface 
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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All I know is it worked on my Surface 3 Pro (to my external drives), and it works on my Go 2 (to the SD card).
And I got to order a cable. 
"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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Do you have Bitlocker enabled on the Surface ?
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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No.
It's probably a plot to get you to buy a Surface Duo. I just got an email suggesting I did - starting at £1,300!
Good grief: you can buy a low end iPhone for that!
"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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Yes I got an email today about that
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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@petepjksolutionscom
Where's the CCC?
"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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624 files, 52 folders, and 170mb of disk space - what a piece of crap.
The very same code written against .Net framework is only 3 files, and under 100k.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Yeah,
I can say the same thing about modern operating systems. I'm only using about 20% of the features in my operating system and have no use for most of the rest. Seems like every year the operating system gets bigger. Some of the features should be made modular for easy removal.
I can say the same thing about the C++ language... I have no use for many of the recent additions. Seems to be human–nature that we keep building larger.
Best Wishes,
-David Delaune
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Randor wrote: Seems to be human–nature that we keep building larger.
Or at least the nature of Complex Adaptive Systems[^]
They tend to crop up when enough agents (like human hands, but not limited to human activity) enter a system to make it "take on a life of its own" - be it governments, economies, ecosystems, large software projects, etc.
They are adaptive which means they tend to "defend themselves" in a manner of speaking, and that tends to lead to growth, inasmuch as they are successful at thwarting attempts to curtail them. In that way they are much like any living thing.
All of this happens through these agents, but the individual behavior of the agents themselves doesn't determine the behavior of the system as a whole. A CAS is a kind of non-linear dynamical system so its inputs don't directly correlate with its outputs.
Fascinating stuff, really. Or maybe I'm just a nerd. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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