I’m 43 and I do worry about this. But… not so much. Been programming since 1982 when I was 10... on a Commodore PET. I was instantly addicted, even though it was a green on black screen, needed to load code on a slow cassette-tape device, and was slow as heck. ;)

You see, in this career you have to be willing to drop everything and learn a new thing. All the time. Make learning new things part of your career.

My strategy is to watch for the “next big thing” and stay at the leading edge of that. 10 years ago, for me, it was the Ruby language, and that has borne much fruit. Now it looks like it’s becoming Elixir, so I’ve been building up a portfolio in that language… just for fun (and maybe profit. Well… Probably profit, down the line.)

Are there 20 to 50 times more Ruby jobs than Elixir jobs right now? Probably. Were there 20 to 50 times more Java jobs than Ruby jobs 10 years ago? Yes. (See where I'm going with this strategy?)

I may not stay as fast as the newest coders, but I will write better code in less time than the guy who writes faster code with more embedded technical debt (which must be paid off in spades, with time, later on), and I’m pretty sure that my ability to mentor others is top-notch, and any good company with 40+ cohorts in management (if also including younger on the front lines) is going to recognize all of that.

I also think that (like it or not… and yep, I struggle with this too) it’s even more important as you age to stay on top of your health… especially in a sedentary job like engineering. It may be a conflating variable here- the demands of family and career (in addition to the effects of age) may add to an engineer’s waistline and double-chin and consequently reduce his “oomph” (or to put it blunter, his T), and ALL of this may contribute to a distaste by the younger teams in hiring the 50+ engineer… Not the age itself, per se, but the impression and deleterious health effects that may typically come along with it. It would be interesting to see statistics which took fitness into consideration.

It may of course seem inappropriate to mention, but the statistics are out there-

http://www.canada.com/health/Bias+against+obese+people+incre...

http://listverse.com/2013/09/27/10-frightening-ways-we-discr... (scroll down to #8)

http://business.time.com/2012/05/02/why-being-overweight-cou...

I DO NOT condone this (heck, I'm a bit overweight right now and these stats are working against me... I'm just aware of them), I'm just wondering if this is a conflating variable.

To all you budding and early-career engineers- If you're doing it because you love it... Don't worry too much. Just stay on your toes, be willing to learn always, and by all means DO NOT EVER "marry a company." The age of the 30-years-at-one-company committed engineer is DONE. You need to look out for #1. Your career will benefit greatly if you switch jobs every so often... Employers do not have your best interests at heart. Don't believe me? http://www.forbes.com/sites/cameronkeng/2014/06/22/employees...

Lastly, if you're 5+ years into this career, NEVER settle for 2 weeks' vacation to start. It's not only a load of bullshit, it's institutionalized hazing AND it hurts the employer (because you'll be less productive overall for the same pay)! http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/the-case...