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Comment by sage76 | Hacker News Reader

> Tech is a rare industry where you can easily pivot into it later in your career

Everyone I know who is older and already in the industry, is having a bad time trying to change jobs.

I work for a FAANG, and I don’t know of a single IC here that was hired in their 40s or older. Almost everyone we’ve hired is in their 20s, with a handful in their early 30s. As a 40+ IC, I’m praying I don’t get laid off because it looks rough for older workers.

I got hired by a FAANG when I was 38, but I was definitely an outlier (although someone older than me got hired a few months after me, both as IC's). Looking back, I was lucky to hop on one of the very last trains leaving the station.

If I get fired or laid off, I will probably try to open a restaurant instead of looking for another tech job.

Isn't that more to do with the fact that FAANG often hires straight out of college so they can pay you $80k a year for a degree from a top university and you won't realize you are getting shafted because you are a dumb kid?

FAANG is the best job a person can get out of college. The pay and benefits far outstrip what one can get from startups.

Since we go for anecdata - I work for a FAANG, and I am the youngest person on my team in my late 20s. Half the team is above 40, the other half is above 30. Some of the people from both age groups were hired after I got hired (in the past 2 years).

15years ago I was reading the same ancedotes in slashdot comments. Tech is familiar with ageism, and the occasionally crusty greybeards refusing to go into management.

LOL - I resemble that comment - Black T-shirt and all :-D

If it helps any, I'm in my mid-fifties and got hired as a full-time consultant at a F500 like 2(3?) years ago. consistently have clients select me for open projects. Current client is looking at extending another 3 years...

Hang in there! I'm a firm believer there's more of a 'cost bias' then an 'age bias' and if your on the side of the shop that brings in revenue, age isn't an issue...

> I don’t know of a single IC here that was hired in their 40s or older

Quite likely these older, experienced devs are either moving into management, or own their own consulting/contracting business, rather than be hired as an IC.

The problem with the current way large FAANG hierarchical pay structure is that ic have a ceiling in compensation.

I'm at a FAANG adjacent company and we do hire older ICs. Though I wouldn't want to be interviewing right now. Senior level interviews can be demanding, and junior positions hard to find.

It's crappy answer to age discrimination, but people pivoting can leave less relevant experience off of resumes. I've done that.

I dunno...I'm 55 and was laid off earlier in the year and finding a new job wasn't terribly hard. I don't have a FAANG background and don't necessarily work with the absolute latest tech, but I try to work in one or two areas that seem marketable.

Took me a about three weeks to get two offers, but ended up going with a third that paid a bit less, but would let me learn some new skills.

Yeah, I couldn't square that statement with all the comments about age discrimination that I see on this board.

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