[trashface]

I'm 46 and basically retired now because I felt like my opportunities were drying up.

You'll probably be able to get a job, but it will be at a second or third tier company that is questionably managed and considers you to be a cost center. So you'll have no political power and everyone breathing down your neck to get things done - while also having you sit in meetings half the time.

You won't be able to work at a FAANG unless you are have such innate talent that you are basically god's gift to programming.

In addition to all the normal barriers for interviewing, like whiteboard coding, passing leetcode tests, etc, you are going to need to jump the ageism hurdles. For example, the fact that the person interviewing you is younger and is thinking "this candidate is too old".

(And for the 40+ programmers that are going to reply and tell me they are working with tons of older workers: you guys have survivorship bias).

[fatnoah]

>You won't be able to work at a FAANG unless you are have such innate talent that you are basically god's gift to programming.

EDIT: I misread your comment, and realized you were referring to the newly-minted programmer in their 40's. I apologize, and fully agree that person will have a VERY hard time landing an entry-level role.

Keeping my original post below for posterity:

I like to think that I'm good at my job, but I can assure you that I am in no way god's gift to programming. With over 20 years of experience under my belt, whiteboarding was easy (fun, even), though I did have to practice the leetcode a little bit to make sure I was well-versed on the "smell" of problems and "tricks" required to get to O(n) or O(log n) complexity. That took about 10 hours or so.

Ageism is absolutely a thing, and it's something I worry about, but getting into FAANG at 40+ is 100% doable. There is such a massive shortage of experienced engineers that I spend an hour or two each week helping our recruiters find lots of other experienced folks.

[mikebenfield]

This seems like a pretty extreme point of view. Not that ageism doesn't exist... but I entered the tech industry at age 38 and have gotten offers from two FAANG companies. I do think I'm a good programmer (obviously if you suck you'll have trouble getting a FAANG offer) but not God's gift.

[trashface]

Once you get a job at a FAANG that's your golden ticket. You will never be out of work. If I were you I would take one of those offers, even if the job itself sucks.

Its different for most of us and I'm sorry to say you just don't know how bad it is. Many people I formerly worked with are currently severely underemployed. Its not that we are bad (I shipped a couple Xbox games, so I'm not an idiot), we are simply unfashionable.