<story><title>Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)</title><url>https://improvingsoftware.com/2009/05/19/programmers-before-you-turn-40-get-a-plan-b/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwaway000021</author><text>The real problem is that as an &amp;quot;older&amp;quot; programmer (50) I am probably the best I have been, but I no longer believe in the missions of pretty much any company, I&amp;#x27;m not interested in the silly ways the companies try to build their culture with toys and trinkets and blankets and rituals and sparkles and phony constructs designed to create workplace as a funpark. I am diplomatic, so I would of course keep all this a secret - I know how to be a good employee.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m very happy to do a great job, and easy to get along with and productive and a team player, but I&amp;#x27;d be happy to program in a grey box on a plain chair and table.&lt;p&gt;The employment deal for me is this:&lt;p&gt;I program, do a great and professional job&lt;p&gt;You give me money and&amp;#x2F;or equity&lt;p&gt;I do appropriate hours and give me this time I need to leave early for example to pick up the kids&lt;p&gt;I get you a great result&lt;p&gt;I set in a chair and table at an office or ideally I work from home (travel is dead time)&lt;p&gt;But that&amp;#x27;s not the deal on offer.&lt;p&gt;For me, the primary satisfaction comes from working hard and getting a result that advances the goals of the business.&lt;p&gt;And BTW I am &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; much on the cutting edge technically, but I probably wouldn&amp;#x27;t get through any recruiting process for god know what reason why.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>notacoward</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure why you say that&amp;#x27;s not the deal on offer. I&amp;#x27;m 53 (today!) and a lot of how you describe yourself applies to me too. And yet, a year ago, I had no problem getting through one of those classic Silicon Valley hiring processes - code interviews, design interviews, the whole bit. There are two key points I&amp;#x27;ll share that might help you.&lt;p&gt;(1) That process isn&amp;#x27;t always what you think it is. Sure, some companies will copy the &lt;i&gt;superficial&lt;/i&gt; aspects of that process, asking puzzle questions or looking down their nose at you because you don&amp;#x27;t know some trivia about a language that has existed less time than you&amp;#x27;ve been programming. They&amp;#x27;re idiots. However, there are also more people than you might think who have actually been trained in such interview techniques, who almost couldn&amp;#x27;t care less about your solution because they&amp;#x27;re looking at &lt;i&gt;how&lt;/i&gt; you solved it, how you communicated about solving it, how you reacted when surprised or confronted, and so on. That&amp;#x27;s really important stuff, and I for one don&amp;#x27;t mind being measured on it.&lt;p&gt;(2) If you&amp;#x27;re clear about expectations, you might be surprised what kind of deal you can get. For example, this company is &lt;i&gt;notoriously&lt;/i&gt; averse to letting people work from home full time. I&amp;#x27;m one of only a few dozen (out of thousands) apparently. Why? Because I told them right at the start that it was an immutable requirement and if they weren&amp;#x27;t willing to make that deal then we might as well not waste our time. Mentioning that kind of thing post-offer wouldn&amp;#x27;t have worked. Not a chance.&lt;p&gt;So yes, I think people like you and me can get through that kind of recruiting process and get the kinds of jobs we want. I hope that helps.</text></comment>
<story><title>Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)</title><url>https://improvingsoftware.com/2009/05/19/programmers-before-you-turn-40-get-a-plan-b/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwaway000021</author><text>The real problem is that as an &amp;quot;older&amp;quot; programmer (50) I am probably the best I have been, but I no longer believe in the missions of pretty much any company, I&amp;#x27;m not interested in the silly ways the companies try to build their culture with toys and trinkets and blankets and rituals and sparkles and phony constructs designed to create workplace as a funpark. I am diplomatic, so I would of course keep all this a secret - I know how to be a good employee.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m very happy to do a great job, and easy to get along with and productive and a team player, but I&amp;#x27;d be happy to program in a grey box on a plain chair and table.&lt;p&gt;The employment deal for me is this:&lt;p&gt;I program, do a great and professional job&lt;p&gt;You give me money and&amp;#x2F;or equity&lt;p&gt;I do appropriate hours and give me this time I need to leave early for example to pick up the kids&lt;p&gt;I get you a great result&lt;p&gt;I set in a chair and table at an office or ideally I work from home (travel is dead time)&lt;p&gt;But that&amp;#x27;s not the deal on offer.&lt;p&gt;For me, the primary satisfaction comes from working hard and getting a result that advances the goals of the business.&lt;p&gt;And BTW I am &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; much on the cutting edge technically, but I probably wouldn&amp;#x27;t get through any recruiting process for god know what reason why.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vorpalhex</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not an older programmer, I&amp;#x27;m in fact a pretty young programmer, but I want the same things:&lt;p&gt;+ A company that gives me a good work&amp;#x2F;life balance
+ Regular WFH or preferably be fully remote
+ Interesting tasks, in a relatively stable environment&lt;p&gt;Most of my peers seem to want the same thing as well. While I&amp;#x27;ve done the crazy workweek startup thing before, it burns you out and it&amp;#x27;s simply not sustainable. I don&amp;#x27;t have a single peer who still works in startup land.</text></comment>