Software engineer in his 30s

I'm an aging software developer in my 30s who's finding it increasingly impossible to compete with younger people in the job market. Is it time to just throw in the towel and kill myself or is there still some kind of hope left? I have no savings thanks to the expensive area I live in and I essentially live paycheck to paycheck thanks to my salary, so if I get fired from this job I'm going to be homeless.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_Systems
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Why have I seen this post before?

>I'm 30 and can't keep up
>There's too much new shit to learn
>I have no money saved

The advantage older people have over younger people is that they have highly specialized knowledge in an area. If you don't, then you are fucked

And what if that "highly specialized knowledge" goes bust? Then what? Plus technolo/g/y changes at such a fast pace it's nigh impossible to keep up

>he didn't go into management in his early 30s

I kinda feel your pain. I'm 35. I work for this "company" for over 12 years. Current job is not in IT but thanks to the benefit package I can retire at 50 with full payout/paid med/401k package. To many years in to just toss that away. Been trying for past 3 years to get over into our IT division. But like a lot of places they have out sourced a lot of that to contractors. Not to many in house IT jobs left. Many are upper level positions. Which I don't want, yeah I'd make a shit pile compared to what I make now but there's a lot of bullshit,stress, and paperwork that goes with it all. No thanks.I'd much prefer just low end network/pc support. Ironically I'd still end up making more than I do now.

While I'm fairly sure this is bait, can anyone else who isn't a bullshitter confirm if this is true or not? If it is how does this happen because I don't get it. What is "constantly changing" that you can't keep up with? Most languages that are in use have been around for years if not decades

It's the culture as much as the tech. I was told a few months ago in an interview that my methods were "old and tired" when I created my own classes to solve a problem rather than leaning on a hip library. The realm of development isnt what it was as weve traded academics and hobbyista for angry hipsters who love Javascript and Ruby. And you know what, it makes sense becuse its what the world seems to want. Problem is, the dinosaurs dont get a ticket to ride. As for the rest of IT, it does change and theres no prize for playing the longest; you either still know "how to" or you dont. I looked at my cisco and microsoft recerts recently and just said fuck it. I dont have the energy anymore and no one will give a shit.

>He didn't save up to retire before 40

Sorry user but you're fucked

freelance

you'll need to learn this tho.

I'm 30 and just started studying CS. Luckily people think I'm in my early 20s. I've went back to university and am enjoying it. Want to go all the way for a PhD DESU.

Not OP, but I've been saving up since I was 22 and I still don't have enough to retire at the good ol' ripe age of 40

That's the spirit!

Thanks mate.

Being a manlet can be good after all.

life is so depressing

>software developer
I think you're probably a web developer actually.
Problem intrinsic to areas where you don't have solid ground.
You fucked up thinking front end web development is a sustainable career.

Cmon that doesn't make sense.
Nobody thinks 20+ men aren't fully grown.

kek

fucking asswipe, YOU are the one who not that long ago firmly believed you'd be the hot shit forever and your early to mid twenties period will last aeons. what a surprise, it didn't!

all those young douches you have to compete with now are exactly your sort.

L.M.O.A.I.N.G. @ thou're life. you deserve zero sympathy.

I'm not a web developer

>so much projecting
There are probably a few things I regret when I was in my 20s, but I'd like to think I was a decent level-headed individual who simply liked pro/g/ramming

M8 you can't retire at 40.

A. Compound interest doesn't even take enough effect literally to make the amounts you COULD make if you didn't.

B. You would have to invest in something crazy and make orders of magnitude past normal day-to-day job savings

web developer === software developer

What the fuck do you think the difference is?

This is strictly speaking for lower-middle/poorfag class. If you make 200+k a year sure you can retire at 40.

It's BS. Most of the people in Sup Forums are college students in their late teens/early 20's. At that age people tend to think that men in their 30's are ancient, and that there's a fuck huge gap between where they are now and turning 30.
Unless you've been fucking around doing shit work for the past decade, your 30's are the time where your skills are polished. You're the guy teaching the younger kids pointers and how to see through some of the bullshit in the real world.

Exactly, web is software. Not sure what the original poster of this meant.

Just because web is used more productively in actual scenarios and not some weeabo in his basement coding in rust/C his entire life trying to re-learn pointers.

How the fuck aren't you a wizard? Did you just start writing code last year, and now realize you can't keep up?

it's still a stretch. you'd have to live with your parents and have no kids all that time.

Dude, you could try to make your own business or code for not so common platforms, you can still learn a lot though. Where are you from?

I'm 31 and don't really understand it either (although, I'm not from the US, so maybe that's the difference). I've never had an issue "competing against younger people" when it came to looking for jobs.

If anything most companies I worked for were struggling to fill headcount in engineering because younger applicants had fuck all knowledge and people with actual experience were all either already employed in cushy positions or wanted Google-tier salaries.

take note americucks this is what life is like in countries where you aren't considered cattle unless you were born into a family with oil money from the frontier days
consider this: the emancipation of the slaves was the worlds biggest psyop to distract from the fact that the slave class was instead being extended to 99% of the population
suck shit retards

>late teens/early 20's. At that age people tend to think that men in their 30's are ancient, and that there's a fuck huge gap between where they are now and turning 30.

this state of mind is what gives you all the energy when you're ~20 though.

too bad it's only 5 short years between you, the coolest 23 years old faggot ever who owns the future and you, the 28 years old still a faggot standing right in front of your quickly approaching 30th birthday.

I have a 65 year old uncle who makes $200,000 a year with visual basic. Just have to get ingrained into an industry.

Oh yeah? Well my dad works at nintendo amd then comes home and puts the tip of his penis...

Big tech firms pay like 150k starting so its not too crazy to retire in like 15 years if you can save half

Yeah, but that's negated since typically you'd live in a very expensive area

Freelancing is even more stressful than working as a company employee.

this

I'm only 23, but I too can confirm that this is bait. I've had my ass kicked by competent guys in their 30s quite often in interviews.
In fact, in the academic world sometimes I see the opposite: guys in their 30s being preferred over older, more experienced guys.

Move to a less experienced area once you retire.
Problem solved.

time for you to become a cute trap and launch a porn and coding website

For example trying to explain pointers with your mouth stuffed with cocks.

Don't give up senpai!

Teach.

I’m in a similar situation but I’m 6’6”

For this to be a problem in your 30s shows you never had much talent in the first place~
Don't give up senpai uwu

You can move to managerial positi...
>no savings, live paycheck to paycheck
Never mind, just kill yourself.

How fucking hard can it really be for somebody who's been programming for 15+ years to learn a flavor of the month Python framework?

You have options
1*. Become a plumber, builder / skilled labourer
2. Learn Block Chain Technology, lots of high paying jobs in this area
3. Kill yourself


* I'm also in software development. One of my colleagues become a Arborist and makes more than code monkey job. Live a little, code for fun be a man & not a soy boy.

Do you have a degree? Why not tell everyone to fuck off, enroll in a PhD program, get into research and shit on all those meme fancy frameworks?

>One of my colleagues become a Arborist
Doesn't one need to go to a medical school for that?

talented people are very few~

normal people have normal problems

It's trimming trees faggot.

>30s
>impossible to compete
this means you're shit. If you'd be in your 40s, that's another story. You're still young, you lazy piece of shit.
Educate yourself.

>1*. Become a plumber, builder / skilled labourer
probably my exit plan in a few more years desu

whenever i get sick of programming for money i'll look at switching to a trade or something like truck driving to keep the final working years interesting before i retire

You should be at the peak of the game in your 30's.

If not do what all the other brainlets do: become an IT consultant.
You'll be a piece of shit but at least you'll be a rich piece of shit.

Brainlet nearing his 30s here, are you talkin' pentesting as a third party?

>code
Code is not verb.
Amerifats.

Most IT companies hire more consultants than programmers.
Consultants also get payed more.

OP, don't forget that young people tend to overestimate and exaggerate their skills.
Yes, the young brain is more fluid and sometimes quicker, but it's far less experienced.

Yeah starting manual labor at 30 you really know what you're talking about

Iktf all too well, all the more depressing, if you're a jobless bum whose never had a job entire life and 28, like me, which I am

Seriously how are you not retired and set for life by now? If you were being paid dogshit and live in an expensive area then its your fault for not moving, idiot.

>30s
>not retired
take the /biz/ pill

>64176457
im a 30 year old self taught programmer, started to program since i was 12, i seriously thought I could get a job if I became a wizard. It was a possibility back then, but 20 years later things have certainly changed in the industry

Today you could be like "teehee im a transgender coder and want to help the refugees" and not really know anything about coding. If you have the good normie personality during the interview that alone would get you the job.

Employers are not really sure about requirements, they ususally don't know much about coding as you do but they still need tech in their business. They just want to get the meme website to promote their meme business, so when posting ads they throw in the buzz words and ask for fullstack ninja samurai. After that they pick out the biggest normie that goes to their interview. I am already sperging out reading the ads so you can guess how I'll be like at the interviews.

Essentially I've screwed myself by only learning to program throuhgout my 20's. I always had no friends, and just hate being with people. I had thought programming would be an escape from the normie world. I really believed you could be a genius hacker and make millions alone by knowing how to code but that turned out to be a early 2000's meme that I fell for.

All hope isn't lost though, you can use the tech knowledge you have acquired throughout the years to build a solar shack or use your savings to get a trailer and live off grid. If i wasn't completely broke I would have done this already. Instead i gotta collect scraps and figure out where to build my shack in the wilderness.

Its not the ideal life but with improved batteries and efficient solar energy they have now you can live like the unabomber but still have electricity so you will still be able to post on Sup Forums.

The people like us is our mindset is geared to please normie aethtics. We just have to modify it a little to make it benefit ourselves.

Yeahhh, it's just that we're putting new coversheets on all the KYS reports before they go out now, so if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great

Go work for the government. Seriously.

You won't be rich or whatever but it's a stable paycheck and you can get away with doing ~10 hours a week of actual work. You don't need to be a genius or anything. You can fuck around the rest of the time or, like one colleague I've seen, brush up on new skills and practice questions on LeetCode.

Do you work for the government? Easier said than done

Also this is the default answer I hear from everybody, I guess the gov't is filled to the brim with people who have nowhere to go in life. What will you answer when they ask you, "Why do you want to work for us?"

>tfw young programmer
>people love my work
>I'm not competitive and I willingly help everyone, so even my seniors like me
>still want to kill myself
welp

It only gets worse young lad

It's definitely harder to maintain an IT career nowadays. It wasn't like the Boomers' days or Gen X where they could just ride the wave and live comfortably in some position. Now you have to compete with Pajeet more than ever, along with trying to learn 8 million different technologies.

xD kek

>tfw young programmer too
>people love my work
>I'm not competitive and I willingly help everyone, so even my seniors like me
>fix other peoples problems and let them get the credit
>paid more than senior guys but socially retarded so i will never get a management role
>still want to kill myself

Do not do this

Yes you will get decent pay and benefits, although worse than private sector if you are good at your job.

But remember, you are then making your primary customer retard government workers, PLUS you get handcuffed because of god awful rules put in place "to keep big government down", so you get maintain legacy systems for years after their end of life dates AND put together the most retarded shit just to get everything to work "properly".

Job security is a myth. You get to talk shit to your boss without fear of being fired thanks to being in a (shitty) union, but you won't get much training or be able to keep up on new things during business hours so if you get fired/laid off you are truly fucked, go find another career because the skills aren't applicable. Better hope you can fake it in an interview.

Oh and you have to deal with the most awful retarded entitled shit clients ever, professional politicians.

Government is employed by two main groups, those who are desperate for a job and weren't able to crack the roulette wheel that is job hunting, and people who have been fucking shit on for 15+ years, and are burnt to a crisp, and are now stuck forever in their positions, which are only still there because of political bullshit and complete inability to change thanks to retarded politics.

It all looks like fun and games because all you get to see is "high paying" salaries, "job security" and other Republican propaganda shots. But if you are someone who sits on the sidelines you don't have a fucking clue as to what goes on and how shitty it is to work in an environment where half the country wants you to literally die in a fire and even the smallest mistake is heavily scrutinized, to the point where your minor errors while trying to navigate the shitshow that is every day could end up in the news and your section/department replaced with shitty contractors who will fuck everything up even worse.

my experience (working in vancouver, seattle and gaytown is that the younger programmers are a lot more motivated to prove themselves and rush things out the door. im an oldfuck who is very thorough with his work but my experience gives me leverage over these young fucks
>mfw we hired 3 youngfuck programmers
>do shit work
>mfw we fired 3 youngfuck programmers

not sure if this related to web and the other world, but in embedded and LDD oldfucks win

>getting baited this hard

>haha i'm not retarded, just trolling you guys

Fuck off kid

Hey man im really interested in embedded but I don't have enough experience to get a job yet, I was wondering what the market is like. My current situation is I am a senior computer science student and I have a really good job offer for when I graduate doing web development, however I like low level stuff a lot so I'm thinking about turning it down and going to grad school for embedded systems but I'm worried if I do that I won't get as good of a job after I graduate.

>How easy is it to get a job in embedded
>What is the pay like (my job offer is 75k out of college, could I get a comparable offer?)
>Is it as cool as I think it will be doing low level embedded/firmware, do you really enjoy it?

I'm not a shitlord who only does web, I've taken two electronics courses and done assembly, networks and systems but I just don't quite have enough knowledge to feel comfortable applying for embedded jobs yet.

Any advice would be appreciated thanks.

Complete bullshit. Or he was slacking during his past 5-10 years.

Do you work with embedded development?

I am looking to pivot from backend server development (mostly Python, Java, and some C) and devops into native or embedded development. Is this possible with around 8 years of professional experience?

I figure I'll just start applying and see what comes of it.

The days of developers sitting in one office and sysadmins sitting in another office with minimal communication between the departments are quickly coming to an end. You need to learn DevOps and new technology, i've seen so many old school developers have issues wrapping their heads around container technology that's being adopted everywhere. It's easier/cheaper to run and has way less downtime since you don't have a single point of failure. A lot of corporate, mid, and small businesses are adopting the technology and young guys are good at it.

>How easy is it to get a job in embedded
>What is the pay like (my job offer is 75k out of college, could I get a comparable offer?)

You don't need me for this. You have access to job posting in your area, colleagues and professors. Do research, don't be lazy.

>Is it as cool as I think it will be doing low level embedded/firmware, do you really enjoy it?

Read the history of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_Systems and how they helped get real-time (almost) patches into the Linux kernel. If that is interesting to you then you know your answer. Oh, and ACTUALLY LOOK at the patches.

How young are you?

Realistically there is only so much embedded information someone can learn. If you are young and have strong (and secure) C programming skills then a company will take the risk. But you will most certainly take a pay cut if you absolutely no experience with any embedded/bootloader stuff.

>and I have a really good job offer for when I graduate doing web development, however I like low level stuff a lot

Keep in mind that if you end up doing webdev for several years after graduation, that will be your career. Most companies are only interested in hiring mid-level/senior staff who have the existing skills.

>> You have access to job posting in your area, colleagues and professors
This 100x

I regret not making good relationships with my prof when I was attending uni. Many people are good friends with their prof's after they graduate and even consult together!

Not 30 yet, and yea I realize there will be an experience gap, but I do have experience with AVR chips and such from personal projects, just not professionally.

Ok one more question, what kind of education do you need, how much electronics stuff do you need to know? Is knowing C, operating systems and networks enough or do you really need to know the hardware/software interface and be able to dive in there too?

Im 26 and cant even find a job in software engineering

there is a bias towards older sr software engineers

keep working OP

Stay away from SV and companies that just want to employ exploitable code monkeys. There are plenty of places that just want competent staff.

management sucks, don't do it, literally every staff engineer in our company that has gone to be a manager has regretted it and swapped back to staff engineer since they hated it so much

Rust devs.
Veterans make mad cash.

>whenever i get sick of programming for money i'll look at switching to a trade or something like truck driving to keep the final working years interesting before i retire

imagine working in tech and actually believing any company will need truck drivers by the time they're ready to retire

Don't count on it. It'll take just one major accident to delay the widespread deployment of self driving vehicles for decades.

> what kind of education do you need, how much electronics stuff do you need to know?

I have a CS background but took hardware and electrical courses because you cant do embedded with programming alone. So yes, hardware is most important than software. You'll run into a lot more electrical engineers than CS grads.

> He felt for the STEM meme

give me one good reason not to go into devops

I outsourced your asshole to India and China. Now Ching Chong Chris and Pajeet have your job lol.

I'm 30 and haven't even had a job yet. What do?

>one good reason not to go into devops
it's lonely as fuck and you'll be ostracised by both developers and sysadmin/operations.

You'll spend most of your time trying to help devs troubleshoot their shit, because have somehow managed to code a distributed application when they've spent their careers writing web or mobile apps, never leaving the IDE. They have zero understanding of *nix or how servers work, let alone virtualisation, containers, automation, deployments, monitoring etc.

You'll bump heads with old-school sysadmins who still want you to submit a ticket to provision a database or change firewall rules and want to review your deployment and back-out plan (which must be in document form, over email).

You'll introduce great improvements by automating everything and making it as dev and operational friendly as possible but by doing so you will have set the precedent to be the bottleneck in the organisation. Every single goddamn request will come to you.

You'll get paid a fuckton of money though.

It's the worst of both worlds

Imagine the stress of simply being a software developer, implementing features, fixing bugs...

Now imagine that in an operations environment where you're on-call 24/7, imagine getting paged at 3am and you have to fix a time-critical bug by 7am and still be in the office for an important meeting that day...

senpai stay stong desu since you are 30 i imagine you have been working as a software dev for atleast 3 or 4 years literally having that experience will gurauntee you another job in the field desu. If you are living paycheck to paycheck i suggest you apply for some higher paying jobs you should be earning enough to support yourself and save some mo0ney since you are an experienced dev