Ask Slashdot: Will Older Programmers Always Have a Harder Time Getting a Job? 379
Theseuss writes "Given the strong youth culture associated with the modern day Silicon Valley startup scene, many times it falls to the 40-year-old programmer to prove that he can still use the newest up-and-coming technology. Yet the rate at which the tech sector is growing suggests that in 20 years there will be a an order of magnitude more 'old-hat' programmers in the industry. As such, do you think the cultural bias towards young programmers will change in the near future?"
Re:Ignore Silicon Valley (Score:5, Funny)
Oh dear. Sorry you couldn't find a job.
No (Score:4, Funny)
Not when 2038 approaches.
Re: As a 40 something programmer recently intervie (Score:5, Funny)
I've been living in ginormous game engines for 6 years, and the amount of times I've had to, in the span of a timed half an hour, optimize a routine to make sure it was running in the optimal time has been....zero.
Do you happen to work for EA? That would explain a lot...
Thank $DEITY for experienced programmers (Score:5, Funny)
We have one guy that understands build processes. I have done any serious code in years, but some of the crappy code I've seen is pretty horrid.
Here's an example:
Just over a year ago we had some Java developers doing some web code. This was on a Linux/pSeries hardware. I.e., it's a Power chip, not Intel/AMD. I was asked to install the JVM software by the developers. They gave me an Intel binary. OK, no prob. I asked them to send me the Power installation package. They responded that it was Java and the underlying hardware didn't matter. Oh really? One of the developers actually got pissy and started trying to explain that he ran it on his Windows machine and another guy ran it on his Mac. Tried again to explain the difference between the jvm executable and the jar but then I realized that if he didn't understand that, it wouldn't be much point.
The guy we brought in knows that. Lots of other things too.
oddly, programmers more injury prone than firefigh (Score:5, Funny)
Where I work, we have several divisions.
One division trains firefighters and EMS. We have an incredible training facility, so not only do we teach Firefighter I, we also train veteran firefighters on extra-hazardous stuff like oil refinery fires. They also teach search and rescue in our rubble piles and collapsing buildings.
Another division trains cops, tactical drivers, etc. That division includes an on-staff sniper.
A third trains people to work on high voltage electric lines.
Then there is my division, "administration". We're the IT people, bookkeepers, etc who keep the agency running. Guess which division had the worst safety record last year. Yep, us nerds. For my employer, the people clicking a mouse had more injuries than the people putting out big fires, crawling under collapsed structures, or performing dynamic entries (seat raids).
Yes, we nerds are suitably embarrased by this fact.
Re:Ignore Silicon Valley (Score:4, Funny)
And those stock options came on a convenient roll that conveniently mounts on the wall in the mens room.
Re:Still there... (Score:4, Funny)
Cisco is here for example, big, huge, thousands of jobs, and nothing whatsoever to do with startup culture or web apps.
And nothing whatsoever to do with real products either. Zing!