DEV Community

I'm too old to be here ?

Saeed on April 06, 2022

I would like to get into web development, but the problem is that I'm 25 years old and I have the feeling that I'm too old for this area. I mean th...
Collapse
 
jesterxl profile image
Jesse Warden

Naw, I’m 42 and know people who started in their 50’s, you got this!

Collapse
 
aritdeveloper profile image
Arit Developer

25 too old?? No, no and NO! I became a developer at 38! You GOT this!!!

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I'm 25 years old and I have the feeling that I'm too old for this area.

My brother got into software development in his late 30s/early 40s and is thriving a few years in. You'll be fine if you're excited about it.

Collapse
 
cyph3r57 profile image
cyph3r57 • Edited

Old? I'll tell you my story. Three years ago I retired from a government job where I was a stistem administrator. After that at the tender age of 65 years, I decided to learn web programming, gradually realizing my dream. I know well that the road is long, but I still have a lot of time ahead of me ...πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ‘‹πŸ‘‹

Collapse
 
skinnypetethegiraffe profile image
Bobby Plunkett

Programming is still a growing field, and personally I don't think you can ever be "too old" and this is coming from someone with 12 years experience in the field. What you learn starting out may be useless in few years if the industry mindset changes, or if a new techonology replaces it. If you are willing and excited to learn software/web/app development then your age shouldn't be a consideration.

Collapse
 
jackmellis profile image
Jack

I had the same concern when I started at 25 and everyone at my job had been coding since they're in their teens. Age honestly has no importance here. It's all about gaining experience and being passionate about what you do.

Collapse
 
clflowers5 profile image
Chris Flowers

Ha, no dev is "senior" at 25 years old unless maybe they went full career development mode at 18. That's certainly not the norm. Titles mean very little in this industry, other than a very rough approximation of pay ranges. If you want to jump into this field, just jump into it.

Collapse
 
rogerpoliver profile image
Roger Oliveira

Definitely not, I got my first internship and started to work with Web Development when I'm was 23y. In that time I felt the same as you bc all my friends already had their degrees at 21y, so I always had the feeling that I was late for something. Today, five years later, I realize that it's not about how long you've been in the field, it's about how you make the most of it.

Good luck on your journey!

Collapse
 
andypiper profile image
Andy Piper

I'd definitely encourage you not to think about age here - there's no barrier to learning and getting involved at all. Not only that, but the range of age groups and experience levels is one thing that I value about communities such as DEV and others - everyone is constantly learning, and remembering how they learned, and discovering things they didn't know about, because they never went back to find out how something worked.

Welcome to the community!

Collapse
 
garyk2015 profile image
garyk2015

too old??

There's plenty of devs that are 50+

I started (back in 1981) at 13 then went into software dev and did it for years, now 50+ I tend to do product work but with a technical bias. 25...you still got decades ahead!

Collapse
 
tdx profile image
Thien DX

Title mean nothing outside the company since each have their own performance rating.
IMO consulting firms usually go easy on title, some cases after 1 year you're already Senior, one reason is they want to appear like a strong team to clients.
While product oriented company take this harder, they don't need to impress outsiders, and promoting the wrong people also affect the morale of others. At my company the youngest Senior is 27, he'd worked here since he graduated (~5 years).

Collapse
 
tswiftma profile image
tswiftma

You're never too old to be a software engineer but you'll have to be able to adapt to constant changes. Your projects will change, your scrum teams will change, the technology that you're working with will change. They'll ask you to work on many different things. You'll debug issues. If you can do all that and code you'll be fine πŸ™‚

Collapse
 
gustavoalias profile image
gustavoalias

Here is a 50-year-old programmer analyst, who went through languages like VB, FOX, Delphi, and now developing backend with SQL Server, .NET(C#, MVC), frontend with React.
I never felt old, on the contrary, I am excited to learn new technologies, therefore I recommend that you continue in this beautiful profession and that age is not a concern at all.

Collapse
 
jeremyf profile image
Jeremy Friesen

First, welcome to Dev. Second, I'd encourage you to not compare yourself to others. Your journey is different. What brought you to where you are is different. That is a uniqueness only found in you.

The question I ask is "What is it that attracts you to the path of web developer?"

Collapse
 
huntix profile image
Kalin • Edited

First off, NO! You are not old for programming, no one is actually. You can learn programming at any age as long you desire and like it.
"I mean the developers my age are already senior" - In my experience I've worked with people that are in this area for 10+ years and they still don't know anything mostly because they don't know how to progress or they are too lazy to do so. How you progress is up to you and honestly the age should not bother you at all.
Now go out there, explore web development, have fun(or cry when something breaks) and never again question your age. :)

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington • Edited

I think you're never too old to start.

And consider this, the rate of change in technology happens so quickly that there are always new things coming out. New programming languages, new frameworks, new methods of thinking, ways of working, etc. ... with all these new things coming out that means that lots of folks are new. There are devs that spend lots of time really specializing in something, but stepping outside that specialization, they still have to learn new things too, so I'd argue that even experienced folks commonly have this feeling of newness too.

I imagine it's very difficult trying to absorb so much information when you're new... the breadth and depth of things to learn is far and wide. Don't get too down on yourself and know that imposter syndrome is a common feeling... just look at all these posts on the topic!.

I bet you have a whole lot to offer and new perspective to bring to the table. Don't count yourself out, you are absolutely not too old to be here. You are very welcome in this community!

Collapse
 
itaikla profile image
Itai Klapholtz

It’s never too late and you’re never too old!
Programming is not only skill or coding, but also, maybe mostly, state of mind, where you can use your soft skills, skills you have already acquired - team work, diligence, creativity, passion and comprehensiveness.
If you have those - you have what you need, maybe more than some knowledge like specific language or computer science concept.
So if you really want it - go for it!

Collapse
 
jordygrunn profile image
Jordy Bakker

Most of my colleagues are around the 30 years old. Currently, I'm 27 years old

Collapse
 
levanted profile image
Levan Tediashvili

I'm 31, started working as a developer 4 months ago after 9 years of working in Finance.
It's never too late!

Collapse
 
thiagomg profile image
Thiago Massari Guedes

25 and senior developer means nothing. The role not necessarily mean salary and if it does, good job for them.

The most important thing is to understand that people who started at 20 had 5 years of experience. People on their 40s who started in their 20s have 20 years of experience.
If you want to be as good as someone your age that started 5 years ago, you'll have to study hard and work in meaninful project to build your experience.
Also, to ramp up, you can learn from them - that's likely, besides studying what will help you more.

Collapse
 
andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

You're totally okay :) If anything, I wish I started at 25 because I had more experience that was helpful as a web developer!

Collapse
 
ludamillion profile image
Luke Inglis

Naw, I got into the business when in my late 20s (closing in on 40 now). I'd say the only real liability is just being 'the old guy' in other words being out of the loop on cultural references and such but that's more of an issue for people like me not some one who is 25.

Collapse
 
pheromona13 profile image
pheroMona13

I clicked this preparing myself to talk to a 50+ years old person and to say they are not old at all, so...

Collapse
 
siddharthshyniben profile image
Siddharth

"Age never matters" goes both ways. There's still a ton of time, you got this!

Collapse
 
said96dev profile image
Saeed

I want to thank you all for the comments and for the motivation, I'm really excited to be a web developer and I sure won't give up especially after this motivation πŸ’™.
I am very happy to be a part of this community

Collapse
 
thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt β˜•

Oooh no ! No age to be here and to practice web development. πŸš€

Collapse
 
ecyrbe profile image
ecyrbe • Edited

Hello,

Just to add to the discussion. There is no such thing as being too old for being a developper.

However there is a thing about being motivated. If you enjoy programming it's a first step. If you like learning it's a second one.

Indeed, software industry is always evolving and unlike some jobs, you'll need to contantly learn new technologies, update your skills and when you'll be experienced enough, you'll need to evolve your game by mentoring less experienced developpers. So you'll also need to like sharing your knowledge.

I see some developpers coming to this industry only for the paycheck without motivation for programming or software engineering. They have a hard time keeping up with the pace of technology evolution.

So, if you enjoy programming, go for it. Come join us. You'll see that a vast majority of software community is welcoming.

Collapse
 
mark_slima profile image
Mark Slima

Forget doubt, forget who around is where they are. Just jump in and start doing! I started at 40 without knowing a lick of code, you definitely can do this.

Collapse
 
bangrobe profile image
bangrobe

I'm 34, and no company accept me anymore. They only hire younger people. If you're from an asian countries then it's kind of late for your beginning.
25 is still young anyway.

Collapse
 
theaccordance profile image
Joe Mainwaring

You're not too old, I didn't start my first engineering role until I was 27.

Collapse
 
mike_andreuzza profile image
Michael Andreuzza

πŸ™‹ 37!

Collapse
 
tmchuynh profile image
Tina Huynh

Never!

Collapse
 
stackcafeteria profile image
keshava kumar

Boss I'm 23 and I do feel the same . I started coding since the age of 15 c++ was my first love, at that time I used to think. Coding is for older folks. Now i thinks it's reverse πŸ˜‚. But anyway learning is somthing you will do through out your life time. And there is no such things as being old to code.
"Key mantra to succeed is never compare with anyone's timeline". Enjoy life and be consistent learner.

Collapse
 
miketech profile image
Mike

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. You got this bro!πŸ‘¨β€πŸ’»πŸ’―

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

I'm 45. You're never too old and experience (inside the field or even outside of it) is a good thing.

Collapse
 
unsalkorkmaz profile image
Ünsal Korkmaz • Edited

Man.. you guys are lucky.. do you even know internet explorer 6's nightmares? its good time to start and there is no end age to start

Collapse
 
deepaksinghkushwah profile image
Deepak Singh Kushwah

Junior/Senior doesn't matter, there are lot of learning. Just get started.

Collapse
 
k_penguin_sato profile image
K-Sato

Tought you were gonna say u are 95 or something. 25 is defenitly not too old!! You should give it a try. And if u actually like web development, you should start grindingπŸ˜†πŸ˜†

Collapse
 
npobbathi profile image
Nagesh Pobbathi

Not at all... One of the interesting things about being a developer is things are always evolving with new languages, frameworks, methodologies. So everyone's constantly learning.

Collapse
 
tuwang profile image
TuWang

leetcode and level up

Collapse
 
aghost7 profile image
Jonathan Boudreau

I don't think its too late to change careers, no matter the profession.

Collapse
 
dumboprogrammer profile image
Tawhid

Don't worry you've got this! I used to think that I'm too young but age doesn't matter.

Collapse
 
610470416 profile image
NotFound404

It depends on where are you. It would be yes if you are in China.

Collapse
 
said96dev profile image
Saeed

no, I'm in GermanyπŸ˜‚

Collapse
 
ridhwana profile image
Ridhwana Khan

I don’t think you’re ever too old to do anything you set your mind too. Development is ever evolving and so you’ll always be learning no matter what age you are. Hope you do it! Good luck 😊

Collapse
 
jawa profile image
Lou Susi

I'm 52 ... and I'm from a galaxy far, far away ... so there's that :]