Comment by tejohnso
19 days ago
> I’m too old to learn XYZ skill if I get laid off, it will be life changing, and for what?
If you're not already retirement aged, how is age stopping you from learning a new skill? This sounds like learned ageism.
19 days ago
> I’m too old to learn XYZ skill if I get laid off, it will be life changing, and for what?
If you're not already retirement aged, how is age stopping you from learning a new skill? This sounds like learned ageism.
Generally from a financial planning standpoint 35-50 is typically the "grinding years" where mortgage, family, and other life commitments means that typically your career investment needs to pay off to make it through. In some ways it is the "danger zone" financially. Hard to change careers (not young enough), but not yet worked enough to retire with large expenses coming in. This isn't unique to software engineers either -> this is most people in most jobs.
There are also mixed people on these forums in different regions, countries, work experiences, etc. For example software in most places in the world had an above average salary but not extremely high (i.e. many other white collar professions would pay similar/more). For those people where it is a standard skilled role it probably hits even harder now than say the ones with lots of stock who can retire early and enjoy the new toy that is AI.
It was said in the context of having bills to pay. Meaning that he is in deep and needs a high-priced developer salary to make ends meet.
Virtually all other careers that offer similar compensation have an old boys club gatekeeping the profession, requiring you submit many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars before they will consider letting you in. That might pencil out as a reasonable investment when you are 14, but once you are mid-career you'll never get back what you put into it.
Learning XYZ skill is something you can do at any age, and doing so will even get you an average paying job with ease. Learning the XYZ skill in the way that keeps the old boys happy is not a realistic option for someone who considers themselves old.