I’m 44 and can’t find a job for the past four months. I’ve almost given up.

At 44 most places would consider you too old (if you're looking for dev jobs). Prove them wrong with a strong portfolio of things you've built / learned over the last 20 years of your career.

@unsignedint it’s pathetic. When I was young we always had older folks on our teams because they knew what the fuck they’re doing.

@chovy it depends on the team. In some places the older guys are very opinionated / too set in their ways / cant be bothered learning new things and it holds everyone back. I've been in jobs when i've been glad the older guys finally resigned because it allowed everyone else to work in a more modern fashion

@chovy U already nailed it. I'm 43 and there is no to old in our business. Its very much about seniority in your case and beeing a senior is nothing you can get by having done a few projects in your middle 20th. Its about having years of experiences...professionaly and private. This also includes beeing rejected or dealing with the feeling you are having right now. THIS ist what brings you experiences and don't let you bother with bullshit some Kiddies like to sell as wisdom. Be yourself, show and stay to what you have archieved in the last 20+ years.

@unsignedint Not good in my opinion and very dangerous

@oxmox Maybe 10-15 years ago. Now you can easily look up almost anything on world wide web, online manuals/references, stackoverflow and so on. No need for walking manual for PHP 4.3 when you want to be using Ruby on Rails.

@arraysstartat1 mh? Are you in the wrong section? I have nothing to do with PHP...what are you trying to tell me?

@arraysstartat1 Exactly, and someone with 20 years of experience in PHP 4 / 5 MVC will be about as useful as a fresh junior when a company has moved over to PHP 7 / Laravel and REST.

@oxmox It's just an example, at the time of PHP 4 Ruby was the next evolution...

@hitko still...what does this have to do with the origin of this Post?

@hitko If you have just done PHP in the last 20 years and nothing else ...Well it might bei challenging, but this is also not equal professional experiences and this argumentation actually proves a junior

@oxmox I guess you're too young to understand that reference. At the time, "experienced" web devs were all on PHP 4, and there was a shitload of debate on how Ruby is just a fad and how it'll never be a thing, even though "new" Ruby devs were able to create an app in 1/2 the time those experienced PHP devs needed. It's a prime example of how "experienced" devs were refusing to move to a new technology and holding companies back.

@hitko i think I'm a bit older than you...43...still your Argument is not covering the issue. Its not only about how long you have doing this or this language and whether you accept specific technical orientations, trends,... If you are a Person which in general has Problems to adapt, you have difficulties in any case.
For me a developer with 15 years experiences and even with its nerdy attitudes regarding specific language is 100 times more of value than a script-kiddie which have super abilities in what might be the latest, hottest shit, but does not have any other experiences in professional Life at all...and this heavily includes Handling professional crisis.
Just See this in our company...huge re-org and guess who is crying and acting Like chickens Most?...for sure not old trouper

Ever tried for a job in the government sector (assuming you are in the US)? Most contractors want more experience and don't care about age because they can charge more. And most government agencies do the initial prescreen and interview via phone, so as long as you don't put dates of graduation on your resume and go back 20+ years on work history, you'll be fine.

@oxmox Good for you, maybe that's why you have juniors crying and chickening out? Because every single company I've worked at valued attitude and personality over age and formal experience, and guess what, there wasn't a single case where someone would cry over a broken server or something another coworker said / did.

Also my guess (regarding this specific rant) is that no one wants to hire someone in their 40s acting like:

@oxmox thanks man. I appreciate that. Sooner or later I’ll find the right match.

@hitko http communication 101

@chovy "Serverless" is an execution model where you deploy software as raw functionality (library), without any kind of HTTP / CGI / WSGI / ... handler which would act as a server.

@hitko sounds stupid.

@chovy Like anything you don't know about.

@chovy So what if it sound stupid? Serverless software is helping companies significantly cut down on hardware costs, while at the same time improving scalability and software availability, and minimising errors related to software execution (memory leaks, insufficient hardware, dead requests hogging server queue, ...). Oh, and it's been commercially available since 2008, so it's not really something only the freshest kids talk about.

@hitko no you are!

@chovy I am what? Having a stable & well-paying job? Doesn't sound like you'll have one of these any time soon...

@hitko no you

It's really sad that people like @chovy getting on board here. I enjoyed this platform for a long time as "read-only", and I'm not used to read posts insulting other users in this childish way.

@istobic I know you are but what am I? You’re a naked movie star!

@chovy Any luck yet?