> but also a job that made me feel more unhappy than any other job I’ve ever had.
I can relate. I worked for many years for one "those" companies that is a household name. The pay wasn't outstanding, and the job was not one that gave me much fulfillment, but it was at a marquee brand. My business card opened a lot of doors.
When that job finally ended (after almost 27 years), I started looking at working for other companies. I would have been a particularly good fit for startups, as I was financially secure (thus, didn't need to be paid too much), and have a huge arsenal of skills and experience, that can be quite useful to any small outfit that has "many hats" employees.
What I found, is that us older folks are quite unpopular, and got tired of slamming doors and passive-aggressive insults.
So I just decided that I was in early retirement.
Best decision I ever made.
I would have liked having the extra money, but the soul-sucking aspect would have probably killed me, by now.
I am in a good position. I have enough set aside to be OK, but not at an exorbitant level, and I get to write awesome code every single day. It's basically, my "dream job."
I feel terrible for over-leveraged young folks, having to deal with this kind of thing, early on. I feel even worse, for the ones that have "crossed over" into "old," and are still over-leveraged. They won't feel old, but they will be treated as such.
it's weird to hate on older generations, particularly when you consider so much of what we use today in terms of algorithms was thought of in the 70s or older. none of that became irrelevant.
the only maybe maybe advantage that younger folk have is that they might use newer languages or frameworks, but then when those go out of style and they only have 1 tool in their belt and you've collected dozens over the years... it really won't matter if they're more proficient in one tiny area.
but let's be real, the languages and frameworks were never the problem to begin with. its the knowledge and foresight to see where things are going to go wrong which you can only get by years of experience
> What I found, is that us older folks are quite unpopular, and got tired of slamming doors and passive-aggressive insults.
Some of the older engineers I've worked with are among the most brilliant and productive people in the groups. In those cases I have seen bar none, they have been revered and respected among the other members.
Age discrimination is definitely a thing, but not everywhere. Maybe that rotted mindset of prejudice has taken hold in the "I'm saving the world broken by boomers by working at a corporation that sells advertisements on the internet" crowd.
As a slightly older engineer, I believe there are 2 sides to the coin. Age discrimination can happen. On the other hand , older engineers don't always help themselves. In my last job, a colleague who was early 50s kept talking about 1980s TV sitcoms (which included various racist, sexist content that would at least come with a warning nowadays). This made him look like a dinosaur to younger colleagues. I generally find, younger engineers can sometimes play it a bit cocky and make out they know more than their older colleagues but when you show 'em a few old skool command line tricks or rapid edits in vim, and generally be a nice person to pair with, they quickly appreciate what you've got to offer, and the combination of youth and experience can be a great team dynamic. But its true I guess, people shouldn't have to get past initial prejudice based on age, and work harder to prove themselves, same as they shouldn't have to for race, gender etc.
> This made him look like a dinosaur to younger colleagues.
Can't be helped. We will always look like that, no matter how hard we try to "fit in."[0]
Tension between younger and older folks is as old as humankind.
I think that a team is best served, with a combination of youthful enthusiasm and creativity, and experienced caution and completionism. I think that the whole from these teams, is greater than the sum of the parts.
If we have just older folks, stuff gets done, but it may not be that interesting.
If we have nothing but younger folks, we have ... FTX.
The difference, this time around, seems to be extremely young C-suite execs.
In "the old days," when we watched Archie Bunker rag The Meathead, companies were generally run by folks in their fifties (there were plenty of problems -not exactly the Halcyon days). These folks didn't have anything against older folks, except, maybe, that we were relatively expensive (but not, compared to these days). If they discriminated against older folks, it wasn't personal.
These days, we have people in their twenties and thirties, at the top, and their discrimination is personal. They also make it OK for their employees to have the same attitude.
What's that saying that the "olds" have? "The fish rots from the head down."?
I can relate. I worked for many years for one "those" companies that is a household name. The pay wasn't outstanding, and the job was not one that gave me much fulfillment, but it was at a marquee brand. My business card opened a lot of doors.
When that job finally ended (after almost 27 years), I started looking at working for other companies. I would have been a particularly good fit for startups, as I was financially secure (thus, didn't need to be paid too much), and have a huge arsenal of skills and experience, that can be quite useful to any small outfit that has "many hats" employees.
What I found, is that us older folks are quite unpopular, and got tired of slamming doors and passive-aggressive insults.
So I just decided that I was in early retirement.
Best decision I ever made.
I would have liked having the extra money, but the soul-sucking aspect would have probably killed me, by now.
I am in a good position. I have enough set aside to be OK, but not at an exorbitant level, and I get to write awesome code every single day. It's basically, my "dream job."
I feel terrible for over-leveraged young folks, having to deal with this kind of thing, early on. I feel even worse, for the ones that have "crossed over" into "old," and are still over-leveraged. They won't feel old, but they will be treated as such.
It's really humbling and infuriating.