Been using UNIX since the late 80s; Linux since the mid-90s; virtualization since the early 2000s and spent the past few years working in the cloud space.
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Education
B.S. Psychology from Pennsylvania State University
First and foremost is that, while there's a lot of buzz around encouraging kids and people in career lulls to learn programming, that's only a very recent phenomena. So, absent other factors, the pool is somewhat youth-weighted to begin with.
Several decades worth of waves of recessions, outsourcing and overall realignment of the industry have pummeled senior programmers' careers: experience/seniority tended to equal high-salaries. When times came for cuts - due to economy, general staffing trends, etc., a lot of those high-salaried people were cashiered and never returned
Not everyone that programs stays a programmer for any number of reasons (the languages they wrote in fall out of favor; career burnout; more upward-mobility opportunities when not in the trenches; etc.)
You can't even begin to understand the rampancy of ageism in the tech field
Couple other factors - some of which boil down to "it depends one where you're looking"; but the ones listed above account for a big chunk.
Yep, nailed it. For a guy over 60 who has been through my share of RIFs, having to look for a new job later in your career is tough. I've been where I am now for 12 years and seen a lot of developers be forced out. I believe they all eventually found work, but most went to work for less pay and for the state or consulting. I'm lucky to have hung on this long, I think although who knows for sure. I work hard to keep up the best I can. Completed a master in Comp Sci a few years back. I usually get the interesting projects to work on that include learning new languages, frameworks, etc.
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A number of factors at play (at least in the US):
Couple other factors - some of which boil down to "it depends one where you're looking"; but the ones listed above account for a big chunk.
Yep, nailed it. For a guy over 60 who has been through my share of RIFs, having to look for a new job later in your career is tough. I've been where I am now for 12 years and seen a lot of developers be forced out. I believe they all eventually found work, but most went to work for less pay and for the state or consulting. I'm lucky to have hung on this long, I think although who knows for sure. I work hard to keep up the best I can. Completed a master in Comp Sci a few years back. I usually get the interesting projects to work on that include learning new languages, frameworks, etc.