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I think you nailed it on the head. Another aspect (I am 65) is that new fads in code development like agile and DevOps tend to be something programmers used to thinking find hard to accept whole cloth and hiring managers (or teams) my be leary of being questioned.
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interviewed two decades ago with a company. The PM was a twit and the lead consultant was a pompous twit that could spout acronyms but didn't do anything. I solved a development issue the team was having in 30 seconds. Still didn't get the job. Pretty sure the twit figured out what I thought of him.
One thing you have to realize. I rarely come across people who can actually hire people smarter than them. And it's getting worse.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Pretty much exactly what I ran into. It wasn't my attitude or what my face told him I thought of him as I was eager and excited to get the job, but you cannot alter opinions of the inferior.
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welcome to the other side of the hill.
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One of the things I find a bit troubling is when you see a posting for a senior developer with 3-5 years in the core technology requirement.
My own experience working with such developers (generally) is that is about the time to kick off the training wheels. (Some exceptions apply, but not many)
So if 5 years of experience makes you a senior dev, what about us with 20, 30 or even 40 years of professional experience? Where do we fit in?
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Because of the growth rate of software jobs, the average first-level manager is about 30. A person with that little experience cannot understand the value of experience because he doesn't have any. What he does understand is that the resume of a person with 30 years of experience doesn't look like the resumes of his best workers, who are also around 30. He may decide your experience is irrelevant. But you demand for more pay is extremely relevant. Being as old as his dad may also be a negative.
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I just retired!!!
My last position I was filling 2 roles, sometimes 3. (Scrum Master / Mainframe/ .Net programmer) Why? well, I volunteered ....Silly I know but it allowed me to remain current and employed for the last couple of years. Besides it was fun learning something new.
Years ago, I worked as a contractor for a company supporting a major player in the mainframe market. We had to rewrite some assembler routines. I was getting through it slowly. One of the senior senior people (70) came over to see how I was doing. We started talking about it, he sat down and started coding assembler. The code flowed from his fingers as easily as watching water flow downhill. He finished in 2 hours what would have taken me 6 hours to complete. I remember talking to him about it, his only comment was "takes a bit of practice". He spent some time helping me to improve my assembler language coding skills.
That is one of the reasons why you should have senior people hanging around.
Cegarman
document code? If it's not intuitive, you're in the wrong field 
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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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