9

I’m almost 49, which is now considered “old” by most tech companies if you’re just a lowly staffer. If I can manage to stay employed until I can afford to retire, my goal is to just push through in whatever job in the industry (or even out of it) I can manage to do. Learning and being proficient with zillions of languages and frameworks like all these job postings want is impossible for me. I’m trying to figure out a way to work in some aspect of the commercial spaceflight industry without having to go back to school for an engineering degree and clawing my way up again. If that means being a janitor at SpaceX or Blue Origin, I’m fine with it. I’m done with ladder climbing and ass kissing.

Comments
  • 4
    I learned a long time ago that “to old to learn” is an attitude and has nothing with actual age to do.

    I am turning 53 this year and am still learning new things all the time, most importantly I can easily keep up with the younglings coming out of school.

    Experience is a very good foundation for future learning and once you have a couple of languages in the pocket, learning a new one is not as hard.

    So do not devalue your self due to age, practice learning by learning fun things so that you can learn important things more easily.

    Learning is a skill that you can train and should train, but most importantly have fait in your ability to stay relevant.
  • 0
    @mansur85 Correct. Ask literally anyone over 50. No matter how much determination they pour into powering through learning new things, it’s harder to make it “stick”. I’m nearly there in age and I’m already feeling it. I was never the type of learner who had a great memory. And now it’s just gotten comparatively worse.
  • 0
    @mansur85 I am not so sure its a hard biological border, I am 53 and I still learn new things daily.

    I find that its much more a factor of how motivatedI am to learn something.

    I have always had a hard timd to force my self to learn just because I “know I should” but when I have good motivation I is not a problem.

    Now I still love my job and mostly look forward to it, I think that greatly help when it comes to motivation for learning, but I also really believe in that learning can be trained in by it self.
  • 0
    @mansur85 as I said, I am 53, I was born 1970 and I still do not experience any problems learning new things :)
  • 0
    @mansur85 sorry,I do not publish my image, especially not when using an alias, that would defeat the purpose of not using real name.

    But what do you mean by biological age, if you do not mean actual number of years?

    If you mean that some look younger than their years, the yes, I often get people assuming I am as much as 10 years younger or even more, colleague’s in the late 30 that thought we where almost the same age, which is a bit funny ;)

    But I have had a student once on a computer course that was 80+ and also did not have any problem keeping up with all the others, and that was when I cemented my opinion that to old to learn is more of an attitude that actually age related.
  • 0
    @Voxera I’ve also taught plenty of seniors how to do new stuff. The norm is that it’s hard for them. Others who have an easy time of it are definitely outliers in my experiences.
  • 0
    Completely reasonable. The instant you bond w/your employer, esp. in Corporate America or wherever, you're nothing more than a donkey with a carrot dangled in front of you.

    Your employer doesn't fucking care if you live or die. You are an expense, not a resource.
Add Comment