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Ask HN: 40 years old full time dev day job, how it's going?

2 points by alifaziz ↗ HN
Curious, how's the life of devs who is above 40 years old these days. What's your story, what keeps you motivated & inspired, what's your role & responsbility surrounded by younger coders.

Hoping to hear some real career path examples.

Thanks.

2 comments

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tomthumb
48 year old. Still coding every day! Use C and C++ in my job. Generally kernel mode stuff. Have done good work in Golang and Microservices too!
gregjor
Way above 40 —- I started programming as a job 40 years ago. Now I freelance, busier than ever. I don’t usually work surrounded by younger programmers. I lead and mentor a small number of younger programmers but generally they have a decade or more experience.

I mainly do web app development (I would call myself “full stack” if that meant anything, I do front/back/database) and a lot of system admin, mainly cloud deployments these days. I don’t jump on the fad bandwagons but I do keep up with new things.

I stay motivated getting paid well. Sometimes I find the work interesting and fun, though rarely especially challenging. I like working with people and helping businesses solve real problems (as opposed to “tech” problems created by programmers).