Old Geek
I am not really &quot;old&quot; (ie over 40), but I have interviewed older candidates for some technical roles at very different companies, and I&#x27;ve found there are either old people who believe they know better at everything whose skills have not improved much since their early 30s, and then old people who stay up to date on technologies, trends, and realize that programming is a field you never really ever master with time or age; it shifts too much to be able to ever fully grasp it.<p>The &quot;old&quot; people who are curmudgeonly and stuck on older technical stacks are the ones who don&#x27;t fare well. The ones who are current in skillset never seem to have an issue and generally impress the people they meet, as they bring both experience and current technical knowledge to the table. Anecdotally, I would say 8&#x2F;10 of the 40+ crowd I have interviewed fall into the &quot;old technical stack&quot; &#x2F; &quot;i know better&quot; crowd, and I think these are the ones that poison the well for the good guys.<p>I am beginning to believe that the trick to software engineering as a career vs. management is to stay current above all else. If you let yourself become obsolesced, you will be thrown aside like an old PowerBook. That&#x27;s the reality of the technology industry and has little to do with age.