More broadly, I would not want to be the over-40 guy trying to interview for any team where hardly anyone is even close to 30.
After staying at one company way too long and becoming an “expert beginner” in my mid 30s, I had to basically start over and work my way back up to an architect level position. By “Architect level” I mean either officially by title or by responsibility and respect over the last 10 years. I had no problem getting development jobs. The issue I found isn’t ageism with people over 40, it is that they haven’t kept their skills current, are stuck in thier ways, and/or don’t respect thier younger team leads.
I'm not affected by ageism myself (yet), but even if it was only in SV, which is the biggest tech hub in the US, then it would be a huge problem.
But ageism is rampant outside of SV as well.
Despite the common perception on HN, there are plenty of places outside of SV where a software developer can make a high enough salary to live an upper middle class lifestyle in a lower cost of living part of the country. $135K-160K goes a long way in most of the country and there are literally millions of jobs out there for software developers at profitable companies not looking to be part of the “bro culture”.
There was an article recently on HN that the average age of an entrepreneur is somewhere in thier 40s. But, I’ve worked at startups since I was 35+. Many startup jobs outside of SV are just like any other corporate environment. It’s just the HN/SV bubble that makes people think that all developers are under 30.
More broadly, I would not want to be the over-40 guy trying to interview for any team where hardly anyone is even close to 30.
Such teams are quite common, especially in startups everywhere, and not just in SV, unfortunately.
I'm not affected by ageism myself (yet), but even if it was only in SV, which is the biggest tech hub in the US, then it would be a huge problem.
But ageism is rampant outside of SV as well.