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Wow. Based on what I've read in this thread, why would anyone ever be foolish enough to consider a STEM career knowing they'll be a dinosaur by the age of 30? It's no wonder India and China are kicking our collective a$$es in STEM. They're nowhere nearly as backwards thinking as we are.
You are only considered over the hill by 30 at millennial hipster owned startups. At those types of companies, the management values "culture fit" more than knowledge. They are 28 and want a frat culture at their office.
This isn't the case at the majority of IT departments though. I work with a guy who is over 50 who spent a decade at IBM in the 80s and a decade with Microsoft in the 90s. He is a seriously good programmer with more years of experience in this field than I've been alive.
Your assessment that going into STEM is foolish because you will be a dinosaur by 30 is not really correct.
Maybe the coder who is complaining is a UI developer and just makes html and css all day. That would suck. I love my job because every day there is a new set of problems that I have to learn about and something new to create.
A Web UI developer would need to work in HTML, CSS and JavaScript all day and build complex user interactions. It really depends on what kind of product you're working on. If you're working on something like City Data, then yes, it would suck. If you're working on something like NYT, Facebook, or Netflix, it would be really fun as there's a lot of state management and complex interactions to solve for. Beats being a DBA or some sort of backend developer for business functions.
Of course, if you're working in AI, data science or similar areas, being a backend developer is fun.
I feel bad for the people stuck in antiquated languages suck as PHP, .Net and Java. So popular, yet so dated.
Wow. Based on what I've read in this thread, why would anyone ever be foolish enough to consider a STEM career knowing they'll be a dinosaur by the age of 30? It's no wonder India and China are kicking our collective a$$es in STEM. They're nowhere nearly as backwards thinking as we are.
You aren't a dinosaur by the time you are 30. The technical skills can be picked up really fast by someone who is 20 or even 50 as long as they are reasonably smart. However, someone who is 20 has little experience and is willing to work for cheaper... which in many cases is sufficient. However the older folks with experience are still valued.
Also, India and China are kicking our ass because their population is much higher. They have a much larger pool of talent to pick from.
Really? Okay, most jobs don't involve "creativity." Work for the most part is repetitive. Work is not supposed to provide amusement. It's a task. Suck it up. At least you are granted paid vacation and benefits.
She quit. There's nothing wrong with that. Most people will eventually get bored of their careers and retire or switch positions. In school, I was surprised to meet teachers that had different careers before teaching. I had a millionaire small business owner that was bored with business and started teaching English in high school. I had an ex-cop as a history teacher. I have met IT people that switch careers from the finance side. It's normal, we get bored and we are free to switch.
We don't have to suck it up and stay in career for the next 30 years.
You are only considered over the hill by 30 at millennial hipster owned startups. At those types of companies, the management values "culture fit" more than knowledge. They are 28 and want a frat culture at their office.
This isn't the case at the majority of IT departments though. I work with a guy who is over 50 who spent a decade at IBM in the 80s and a decade with Microsoft in the 90s. He is a seriously good programmer with more years of experience in this field than I've been alive.
Your assessment that going into STEM is foolish because you will be a dinosaur by 30 is not really correct.
While there are many exceptions, workers over 30 are becoming more and more like dinosaurs as companies are realizing that they don't want experienced, proven, and accomplished workers because they are too expensive. This is happening everywhere and not just at startups. I have seen this going on in the last few years, as I was an IT guy who watched and researched what was going on. Cheap workers are in, old workers (good performers who have established themselves with good salaries) are out because they are just too expensive. So going into STEM is quite debatable as a valid long term career.
You are only considered over the hill by 30 at millennial hipster owned startups. At those types of companies, the management values "culture fit" more than knowledge. They are 28 and want a frat culture at their office.
This isn't the case at the majority of IT departments though. I work with a guy who is over 50 who spent a decade at IBM in the 80s and a decade with Microsoft in the 90s. He is a seriously good programmer with more years of experience in this field than I've been alive.
Your assessment that going into STEM is foolish because you will be a dinosaur by 30 is not really correct.
THIS. Don't listen to the negativity trolls on this forum who think their bad experiences are the norm
i loved coding also but hated working under tight timelines. I always found satisfaction in finding creative ways to solve small problems along the way of finishing a project.
The best part of coding is finishing a project and knowing you did a good job when the program works.
I loved coding, I loved debugging, I hated deadlines. One of the things that managers did was to ask "how long do you think this will take you?" five minutes after they presented the programming problem to you. There is no way to accurately gauge how long it will take after five minutes of study. People tend to under estimate the time it would take because all of the ramifications have not been considered and could never be considered in five minutes. Management then hold you to these deadlines. The right to make you salaried at a salary less than eighty thousand a year should be taken away from corporations.
You are only considered over the hill by 30 at millennial hipster owned startups. At those types of companies, the management values "culture fit" more than knowledge. They are 28 and want a frat culture at their office.
This isn't the case at the majority of IT departments though. I work with a guy who is over 50 who spent a decade at IBM in the 80s and a decade with Microsoft in the 90s. He is a seriously good programmer with more years of experience in this field than I've been alive.
Your assessment that going into STEM is foolish because you will be a dinosaur by 30 is not really correct.
I agree. Anyone who has extensive experience in IT should consider state or federal service as they start to go grey. It is a good place finish out a career with a pension and medical coverage in retirement.
I agree. Anyone who has extensive experience in IT should consider state or federal service as they start to go grey. It is a good place finish out a career with a pension and medical coverage in retirement.
FYI, most of Federal IT is actually contracted out. There are a lot of Fed IT employees, but percentage wise, most are contractors.
I loved coding, I loved debugging, I hated deadlines. One of the things that managers did was to ask "how long do you think this will take you?" five minutes after they presented the programming problem to you. There is no way to accurately gauge how long it will take after five minutes of study. People tend to under estimate the time it would take because all of the ramifications have not been considered and could never be considered in five minutes. Management then hold you to these deadlines. The right to make you salaried at a salary less than eighty thousand a year should be taken away from corporations.
Being salaried is something I've always resented.
I had similar experiences as a software developer. So very true.
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Still a Danger to Becoming a Dinosaur
