[AnimalMuppet]

I'm 53. I've been a programmer for 30 years, mostly in embedded systems. My explicit career goal is to never become a manager.

As you get older/more experienced, it becomes harder to find jobs. When "senior developer" means 5-7 years of experience, what do you do with 30 years? It gets hard to find places that will pay for that experience.

I've found, though, that there are jobs. You won't be switching jobs every 1-2 years - more like every 5-10. "Big engineering" places seem to value the experience more than, say, web places. (This may be just because I'm in embedded systems - there's not much use for that in web services.)

Your advantage isn't how fast you can crank out lines of code. It's how fast you can deliver real value to the business (what else are they paying you for)? Along those lines, one of the most valuable things is the bugs you don't write and the bad design decisions you don't make.

[insoluble]

> Along those lines, one of the most valuable things is the bugs you don't write and the bad design decisions you don't make.

This point is very important yet elusive. I do contract development, and it's often difficult to get clients to understand the significance of this point without sounding negative or exaggerated. It would be nice if maybe I knew of some formal studies done in this area to give the clients a more substantive awareness.

[AnimalMuppet]

I wouldn't use a study. I'd ask about their own negative experiences - where a contractor did something, and it took them another six months to fix it. If that's ever happened to them, they'll get the point without needing a study.

[insoluble]

This approach may be suitable with more experienced clients, but smaller/newer clients may lack the experience or "self-awareness" to reflect in this manner.

It's curious that inexperienced developers are bad for clients while inexperienced clients are bad for developers. Perhaps it takes experience to appreciate experience. At the same time, inexperienced developers may go well with inexperienced clients since they can learn together -- albeit with plenty of inefficiency.

[argonaut]

+1. I know someone around this age, working in kernel-level stuff, very very highly paid. There are only a handful of companies that would hire someone in this area and be willing to pay how much this person is getting paid. The benefit of a long career, though, is that this person personally knows, has worked with, has mentored, and/or has met people working in the same area at all of those companies.

[pedalpete]

Have you found with the growth of IoT your embedded experience has been in greater demand?

[AnimalMuppet]

I can't really say; I haven't been on the job market for six years, which is pretty much the time frame when IoT became a thing.

That said, I'm currently working on telephones for the hard of hearing, and they're internet-connected, so maybe my current job is in IoT...