amcrouch

Not all of us feel like that.

I actual care more about the product and how it's built, the standard it is built to and the processes used to build and manage it.

Any manager that's worth working for still codes. Once they code no more they care more about process and profit.

Hmmm ... disagree!

18 years ago we had much of what we had today. Things might move on but they do not change. I mean hey, everyone still hates Visual Basic!

At least 18 years ago we were actually writing the majority of our code rather than relying so heavily on libraries and third party code. I mean someone only has to pull a Node.js plugin for padding and there is complete melt down!

Perhaps then the issue is that all developers see a path to management as the only way to progress their career and in actual fact there is only a minority of developers who love their job enough to want to do it for their entire career?

This is an AWESOME idea and I totally appreciate both Tim's original article on the subject and your efforts on this job site.

As a CTO I have long appreciated real world knowledge and experience over inexperienced, cheap, eagerness. Our employee's are all 30+, most have families and I believe that leads to well balanced and focused employee's. That is not to say I would not hire a younger employee but with age comes the kind of experience you need when building a new company quickly.

To be honest the "we work hard and play hard - we are a family" line would have put me off of a role even in my early 20's. Just because I want to work hard, it doesn't mean I want to always be hanging out with a team, I want a life as well.

I actually think that the ageism in tech is a result of it being a young industry. As more and more dev's go grey the problem will resolve itself.

One final note I have seen here and on other places - The why not become a CTO or Start your own company suggestion is fine for those that want to but there are a large number of developers who actually _love_ being a developer and have no interest in moving up into management. That's great and I hope that as the industry matures people realise that being a developer for your whole career is a choice and not a failure.

That's actually FUD in itself. I have known several people pick up infections from SourceForge which lets face it is not exactly a dark corner of the internet.

I have a Thnkpad T430 currently running Antergos (Arch based) Linux. It is an i5 with 4gb and a 256 SSD. It has the 1400 x 900 screen which looks great. I got the machine new on eBay and it came with the docking station which is useful when at a desk. I have personally only ever purchased Thinkpads as they last really well and have great keyboards.

For my day job I have a PC Specialist Cosmos IV (https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosIV-15/) maxed out with a Full HD IPS screen, 16gb, SSD & traditional disks and it is currently running Windows 8.1. It's a good PC replacement and I have used PC Specialist for about 10 years for work laptops. I have to say this is the first one I have had some concerns about as the keyboard is wearing out after 18 months. My first one from them lasted through 4 years at my first start-up where I was using it 6 days a week 12 hours a day.

I have worked on projects which are developed against stupid deadlines where getting the code out is all that matters. These projects are always doomed to maintenance overheads and cost.

I agree with the comments below that state code the simplest solution to make your tests pass but learn the best approach to tackle given problems so they are second nature.

My experience has shown me that learning various principles and pattens results in smaller code bases that make maintenance and refactoring easy. In turn you are able to deliver quicker.

That being said, its not always so easy to achieve with established code bases.