[itchyouch]

There's a bunch of older guys at my place. It's in finance that can afford to provide 6-figure salaries with high 5 figure or 6-figure bonuses year after year in perpetuity along with the regular slew of standard benefits such as health insurance, 401k, etc.

TBH, I think most of tbe older devs that stay in software have gone down the management route. The 2 top guys are managers, but they provide architecture guidance and vision for our next generation platforms. The CIO, CEO, business unit president is also ex-dev. What is left are a handful of "youngish" 30-45 ish developers of which the older group that is probably going to stick around with their golden handcuffs until they retire.

[scottedwards]

Thanks for the insights, but what I'm really curious about is what happened to the older devs that DIDN'T go into management? Given that you say "whats left" doesn't include anyone over 45, where did those guys go? Given that there is not enough management jobs for all those guys to go into, what did they DO?