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Salaries For Workers in Technology Roles, Including Software Engineers and Product Managers, Peak Around Age 45 (hired.com)

A report released on Thursday by the job marketplace Hired reveals that salaries for workers in technology roles, including software engineers, product managers, and data analysts, peak around age 45. After that, earnings level off or drop until retirement. According to the report, the average salary of US technology workers is about $135,000, with the highest pay in the San Francisco area.

206 comments

  1. San Francisco pay more but in other areas half the by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    San Francisco pay more but in other areas half the average salary is good in SF it's shit

  2. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    lol what?

    Well... you did get first post... so there's that...

  3. $135000 by Major_Disorder · · Score: 1

    Damn, I need a raise.
    Vancouver Canada, almost as expensive as SF.

    --
    First law of people: People are generally stupid.
    1. Re:$135000 by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      shut up you get free health care!

    2. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ask for one.

    3. Re:$135000 by Major_Disorder · · Score: 1

      Not free.
      Damn cheap, but not free. I pay $75 a month. Also Americans could have decent healthcare if they would just stop being so stupid about it.

      --
      First law of people: People are generally stupid.
    4. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We need to cut the military budget by ~50%, still plenty of ability to defend the homeland with that. Take the money we save, invest into single payer healthcare and infrastructure. If we did that, the USA would be the single greatest place to live on planet Earth. As it is, we're probably average to slightly below average. But fuck it we keep our rich people safe.

    5. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      $75 a month may as well be free.
      I pay $1,700 a month for my family plan.
      USA healthcare sucks.

    6. Re:$135000 by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Yup, in Canada everyone gets all the healthcare they want for free. They just need to go out back and get some off of the healthcare tree. It's not like they pay taxes or anything like that.

    7. Re: $135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US defense budget is 3.3% of US GDP

    8. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Cutting the military budget would be like cutting the cable bill when you can't afford the mortgage. The biggest part of the US federal budget every year is paying back social security. 40% of your annual tax payment goes towards this. The military budget is not as large as you might think, relatively.

    9. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We need to cut the military budget by ~50%, still plenty of ability to defend the homeland with that.

      I'd be happy to see our most expensive weapons systems mothballed. But to defend the homeland we need more actual troops. We should be doubling or tripling or quadrupling the reserves and national guard. More weekend warriors. We spread way too thin with most of our forces concentrated at hot spots or major bases.

    10. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Less than my cable bill might as well be free.

      My healthcare is $1200/mo.

    11. Re:$135000 by vux984 · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Cutting the military budget would be like cutting the cable bill when you can't afford the mortgage."

      Sort of. If social security and medicare are your $2300 mortage, the military is your $600 car payment. Education is your $100 cable bill.

      https://www.nationalpriorities...

      Take a look at the 3rd chart.

      The military budget is not as large as you might think, relatively.

      I guess it depends "what you think", but no matter how you slice it it is still a massive amount of money; especially when put into perspective:

      https://www.washingtonpost.com...

      Even if we cut it in half the US still has vastly more invested than anywhere else in the world. (And if you look at that chart, of the next 14 after the US, most of them are pretty close allies too; so in terms of spending the US + allies still would drastically outclass all plausible opponents combined.)

      Returning the mortgage analogy; my first home cost me $1200/mo in mortgage payments for a single bedroom+den apartment; and was probably among the least expensive places in the area; the loan payment of $600/month for a Porsche 911; on the other hand was an extravagance. Yeah the mortgage was the bigger expense, but it was still the car that was the extravagance.

      If cash had been an issue at the time, I'd have traded down to a more sensible vehicle without a second thought... I'd have bought a $5000 used honda or VW, had no payment at all, and freed up 10s of thousands in cash in the process too depending exactly where along the loan it happened.

      Likewise, the US military is a collection of exotic hyper-cars; it may not be the biggest piece of the total US budget but it is still a ludicrous extravagance. It's perfectly legitimate to argue that you improve the efficiency and reduce costs in social security and medicare, because you absolutely should do that. But refusing to even consider selling even one of your 918 Spyders or Rolls-Royces or Pagani's when cash is tight is a bit absurd.

    12. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm American, almost 40, and mine is free because I exercise my ass off and stay fit.

      American culture is about as conducive to cheap healthcare as black culture is to getting a job.

    13. Re:$135000 by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      I hope you are joking. There's this thing called "asymmetric warfare". If China pulls up in the beltway and starts raining cluster bombs on our standing army it will be pretty clear to everyone how obsolete strategies like that are. There are many, many cases where this has been made painfully clear on the battlefield. Consider the case of the "modern" Iraqi army randomly shooting tracer bullets in the sky because they couldn't figure out where our stealth aircraft were. They had waay more of everything we had, but their defenses might have as well been fruits and vegetables.

    14. Re: $135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you asshole. Your virtue signal is upside down, shows what a jerk you are.

    15. Re: $135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      The US defense budget is 3.3% of US GDP

      And 3.3% more than we can afford, given the tax cuts and infrastructure crumbling thanks to Reagan tax cuts.

    16. Re:$135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      Ooops, the SS money you owe is what was stolen to prop up the government after Reagan's tax cuts for the rich.
      The military budget includes DOE, a portion of Dept. of Ag, All the VA, most of HEW, been over 1 T for more than 20 years.

    17. Re:$135000 by erapert · · Score: 1

      So... you're agreeing that the budget needs to be balanced by cutting our expenses? In order to have a budget that will actually yield a surplus and pay off the debt we need to cut both the military and social security and medicare right?

    18. Re: $135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your just mad because he is right. Not for why he thinks he is though. American health and black employment prospects are both systematically undermined by corporate interests.

    19. Re:$135000 by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      Ah, but if Americans stopped being stupid about it, the healthcare companies would lose their cash cow. And where do you think prices would rise to make up for this loss? Yep, you're it.
      So everyone with cheap good healthcare should really hope the US never gets its act together on this.

    20. Re: $135000 by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      Did you know a conservative angel gets it's wings every time someone blames Reagan for something.
      Just like how a liberal one does when FDR is blamed.

    21. Re:$135000 by Solandri · · Score: 1

      Evaluating a country's military spending in absolute dollars makes as little sense as evaluating the food budget of a household while ignoring their income and how many people live there. If you want to compare expenditures properly, it has to be as a percentage of GDP.

      The U.S. isn't even in the top 20 in military spending as a percent of GDP. Cutting the U.S. military budget in half would actually put us (currently 3.3%) below the world average (2.2%). And if you factor in that the U.S. is obligated by the treaties ending WWII to provide for Japan's national defense, our military spending as percent of the combined GDP drops to 2.6% - not much higher than the world average. Subtract NATO and we'd probably be right around the world average.

    22. Re:$135000 by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      no, it's more like the Canadian government uses the tax money it collects for that instead of blowing up people on other continents.

    23. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because we do it for you. Otherwise you'd have to pay for your own defense, freeloaders.

    24. Re:$135000 by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Social security is biggest, but military spending is still massive. Military spending in the US is over half of all discretionary spending. And discretionary spending are things that the president proposes for the budget and congress votes on, thus it is easier to make cuts here without changing legislation.

      There are people who whine about government waste pointing to programs that cost maybe a couple million but then turn around and try to give the military even more money (more than the joint chiefs ask for). Note that under Bush, Rumsfeld was interested in scaling back military spending at first until the Iraq war. So the idea is not unheard of. There are a lot of boondoggle military spending that is encouraged and promoted by congresscritters that want tax dollars to flow back to their states.

    25. Re:$135000 by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Here's a 2015 chart, showing military budget as percentage of discretionary spending: https://www.nationalpriorities....
      The entire total of discretionary spending was $1.11 trillion, and military spending alone (not counting VA, agriculture, etc) was over half of that.

      I think you meant that the military budget PLUS all those other things will add up to over 1 T.

    26. Re:$135000 by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Iraq had way more than we had, if you only count what we actually deployed. We sent over a small force, whereas Iraq deployed everything they had.

    27. Re:$135000 by vux984 · · Score: 1

      That would be oversimplifying my position considerably, but sure yes, I think a combination of spending cuts across several areas combined with tax changes would be the solution.

      On the social security / medicare front in particular I think getting more value per dollar is a very acheivable goal. We don't need to cut services, we can do more than we are now AND spend less.

      I'd also cut DHS funding; $40+ billion plus for mostly worthless security theatre; yeah... its smaller thing but these little things add up too.

      Oh, and I'd cancel the fucking parade Trump is planning too. :p

    28. Re: $135000 by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      The US defense budget is 3.3% of US GDP

      And 3.3% more than we can afford, given the tax cuts and infrastructure crumbling thanks to Reagan tax cuts.

      Funny... https://www.usgovernmentspendi... - there's many other areas where spending can be more easily cut...from discretionary/healthcare/pensions/education, and more...

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    29. Re:$135000 by TemporalBeing · · Score: 2

      Here's some real numbers for you - https://www.usgovernmentspendi...

      Solving the Healthcare problem would do so much better than cutting defense - since Obama took office Healthcare went from $641.8 Billion (2007) to $1,130 Billion (2017). Defense however has only gone from $652.6 Billion (2007) to $832.1 Billion (2017). Yeah - ObamaCare (PPACA) did nothing but exasperate it as it had no real spending controls in it.

      Or take federal government pensions - $636.1 Billion (2007) to $1006.1 Billion (2017).

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    30. Re:$135000 by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      hmm...some real numbers - https://www.usgovernmentspendi...

      Not sure where you get the $1.11 Trillion for discretionary spending...but military was only $798 Billion for 2015. Military has yet to break the $1 Trillion mark; yet Healthcare did in 2015 ($1028.4) and Pensions was just shy ($953.6 Billion); "Pensions" seem to include Social Security.

      Oh - I figured out the $1.11 Trillion - a misleading chart that pulls from various budget items and compares against select items. How'd I figure that out? The numbers don't match up against actual data...so be careful with your "nationalpriorities.org" usage.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    31. Re:$135000 by vux984 · · Score: 1

      "The U.S. isn't even in the top 20 in military spending as a percent of GDP. "

      "If you want to compare expenditures properly, it has to be as a percentage of GDP. "

      That's a fair comment but look at the top 20. The top bunch skews towards a bunch of lousy countries.

      I'm also not sure what that chart is including; the US currently line items military spending separate from some of the various war and homeland security efforts. So depending on what you are counting its 600 billion ... or its 900 billion.

      In any case, I agree with you, we shouldn't cut it in half, I think cutting it by about a 1/3rd, plus scaling down DHS etc.

      As a large populous wealthy country with a very high GDP, and a very high per capita GDP we should be benefiting from that scale, and really should be very well served in the 1.8% to 2.2% range. (For example, does South Sudan have a magnificent military? Or just a small population and even smaller GDP?)

    32. Re: $135000 by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Or we could repudiate the debt and expropriate the usurers.

    33. Re: $135000 by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      So you're on public assistance?

    34. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Military isn't discretionary spending, in fact it is one of only two mentioned spending requirements in the Constitution. In what is referred to as the General Welfare clause the Constitution states:

      to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;

      So paying the debts of and providing for the defense of the United States is specifically mandated.

      Now many people like to interpret the and general Welfare of to mean the Constitution is authorizing all of the hand out programs. It is not. The actual subject of this sentence is the "United States" , the collection of sovereign States that came together to form the union. It is not the citizens of the various States, it is the States themselves. According to the Constitution you, the human, are s a citizen of your State, not the Federal union. Your State is member of the these United States.

      That is why the citizens technically do not select the President, the States do that via their electoral votes. There is absolutely no requirement in the Constitution that says the State must permit the citizens of the State to decide the electors, each State can do that however they want. By convention all States allow the citizens to vote and many of the States have that enshrined in their own State Constitution, but it isn't required. That is why the entire bullshit about who may or may not have earned the legitimate popular vote doesn't matter, the people don't elect the spokesman for the sovereign States, the States do that themselves.

      And as further evidence of the point the States are supposed to be primary authority, note how it is the Senate that has approval over the President's appointments and it is only the Senate that has authority to accept a treaty. The Senate was supposed to be the voice of the sovereign States and that is why it has these powers. But that all changed with the 17th Amendment where the State (the entity in the persons of the State legislatures and government) no longer appointed its representatives and tossed it out to state-wide popularity contests instead. And now the States have no real voice in what is becoming an increasingly autocratic central government.

      So it was agreed that all the debts of all States would be absorbed into a common Federal liability and it was agreed that the Defense of the States from outside aggression would be at the Federal level and that funding of both of those would come from the common Federal funds.

      Therefore military spending is in no way discretionary it is required by the Constitution. So aside from servicing out debt, all other spending is what is truly discretionary.

    35. Re:$135000 by dcw3 · · Score: 2

      "Education is your $100 cable bill."

      Out of your federal taxes it's only 2% of the budget ($46 in your example), but you're way off because the majority of educational money comes from state/local taxes, property tax in my case, which amounted to about 25% of my overall taxes.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    36. Re:$135000 by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      One thing people don't realize is that while the DoD budget is an extravagance, part of that funding does eventually end up in the private sector. GPS was DoD funded for military use before becoming widely spread. Your iphone wouldn't be what it is today without DoD spending.

      One of the tenets of the DoD Research Labs is to help small businesses get off the ground through SBIR contracts - and then make sure they can grow and sell to the public after that initial investment by the Gov. If you follow the money, a very small portion goes to the guys/gals in uniform. Most of the money goes to defense contractors - keeping those STEM folks employed, or to mom and pop businesses selling supplies through GSA.

      It's not so much an extravagance as it is a re-investment in local businesses. You may disagree with the technology being built, but I doubt you disagree with keeping US minds employed.

    37. Re:$135000 by vux984 · · Score: 1

      "Evaluating a country's military spending in absolute dollars makes as little sense as..."

      Let me stop you there. absolute dollars is a pretty important metric. Suppose two countries were in a cold war, and one was twice as large as the other economically and by population, etc. Suppose the smaller country is dedicating 20% of its GDP towards military supremacy. The larger by a factor of 2 country doesn't need to dedicate 20% of its GDP to maintain parity, it only needs 10% to maintain parity. (By parity, I mean an equivalent force, same size army, same number of same value planes, tanks and ships etc...) in other words: parity is the same absolute spend. This is how the US won its cold war, it was able, thanks to its higher GDP to afford a higher absolute spend than the USSR, which was forced to allocate a higher portion of its GDP to compete and the strain on its economy that caused is what led to the collapse of the USSR.

      Relative Absolute military capability (absolute spend, absolute capacity, etc, total headcount, total ordnance counts, etc...) is extremely important. And there is tremendous benefit to the US by having the largest absolute spend, largest gross total capability.

      It should not be discounted as irrelevant.

      But let's carry on with your argument...

      "... Evaluating the food budget of a household while ignoring their income and how many people live there."

      That's also a valid point. The US is a big wealthy country with a lot of people, so the absolute spend can be quite high relative to smaller or poorer countries, without it being a strain on the economy; I have no argument with that.

      " If you want to compare expenditures properly, it has to be as a percentage of GDP. "

      I think its important to ALSO compare it as a percentage of the GDP.

      However, also like food, you benefit from economies of scale. It's more expensive to feed a family of six than it costs to feed a single person, but its not six times as expensive.

      The US as a big wealthy populous country should also be benefiting from those economies of scale. So that while it should spend a lot more than a country 1/10th its population, it shouldn't need to spend 10x more.

      Especially since in absolute terms, it doesn't need 10x the army to win a conflict against the smaller country. Surely it will handily win any conflict with 8x the army (everything else being equal). Therefor the US can spend less as percentage of the GDP vs other countries and still come out very much on top in any match up.

      The upshot is that, as a percentage of GDP, the US would remain uncontested and dominant with something in the 1.8 to 2.2% range.

    38. Re:$135000 by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      The number quoted was the entire discretionary spending, military part was only $598 billion, from the chart I linked. People punch up the numbers differently depending upon what stories they they tell, such as including VA in military spending, but I just presented the top hit from a web search.

    39. Re:$135000 by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Read the Constitution and pay attention to what the words mean. The US is not required to spend money on defense (although spending some is a very good idea), and General Welfare is not as limited as you conceive it. The welfare of the United States is the sum of the welfare of its citizens, and establishing universal health care would benefit both that and any individual state.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    40. Re:$135000 by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Okay, when was the last time the homeland was attacked by military forces? I'm not aware of any such since WWII. Given this, it looks like the defense of the homeland is working just fine as it is.

      There have been other attacks, including terrorist attacks, but the armed forces are the wrong thing to try to counter those with.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    41. Re:$135000 by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Exactly. In Desert Storm I thought, "Whoa! We're out gunned !! We're going to be the personal property of an Arab nation that hates us !!"

      But I was in the 3rd grade, so cut me some slack ;)

    42. Re:$135000 by vux984 · · Score: 1

      Its interesting to note that although they didn't include Vancouver, they did include Toronto, and the average in Toronto is 73K USD (92K CAD). Cost of living in Vancouver is only slightly higher than Toronto.

      It's also worth noting that we shouldn't put too much faith in this this data... it seems pretty low quality.

      I did some poking around and it suggests that the average salary for a network admin in Boston is 120K, in SF is 128K, and in New York City... 30K. Tell me that's anywhere close to right.

      Meanwhile the average salary for desktop support in SF is 132K. Really? 132K for desktop support? More than a network admin (120K in SF, and more than a sys admin 129K in SF, and more than a Data Analyst 131K in SF).

      Where did this data come from and how reliable is it?

    43. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (Not the GP AC)

      The welfare of the United States is the sum of the welfare of its citizens

      No, it isn't. By your definition, the same clause allows the federal government to use taxes to pay down debts for individuals citizens (or the sum of the debt of its citizens).

      "to pay the Debts ... of the United States"

      In plain English, when you say "this to pay the A, B, C for X", the understanding is that X is the same throughout.

    44. Re: $135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      October surprise, criminal conspiracy, theft of government property, money laundering, tripling the budget.,
      And that's just the criminal acts of Reagan so why would anyone need to invent things?

    45. Re:$135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      "National priorities" a project of the New American Century? Give it a rest.

    46. Re:$135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      As I said, add in the DOE, which exclusively handles nuclear weapons for the Military
      the dept of ag biowar research (excuse me, insecticides and viri to order)
      The VA.
      Black Budget
      Real cost of the warfare state passed 1 Trillion circa 2002.

    47. Re: $135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      Oh, I see, kill off citizens instead of $4,000 hammers

    48. Re:$135000 by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      By your definition, the same clause allows the federal government to use taxes to pay down debts for individuals citizens (or the sum of the debt of its citizens).

      Certainly, as long as we're not talking about bills of attainder. The Federal government does use taxes to pay down some debts. You have such a minority viewpoint that approximately nobody in the judiciary branch seems to agree with you.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    49. Re:$135000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm American, almost 40, and mine is free because I exercise my ass off and stay fit.

      Enjoy your 1 in 200000 sudden cardiac arrest. Marathon runners are really hard on their bodies. They are worse off than someone of modest activity that eats small meals and goes for short walks every day.

      Also being fit doesn't really help you with costs for child birth. I'm going to guess you're 40 and without kids or other responsibilities.

    50. Re: $135000 by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      Oh, I see, kill off citizens instead of $4,000 hammers

      $19/does (Dateline and 20/20 news reports in the 1990's - 76,000% markup - $0.025 USD/dose at the *most* expensive end per Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., 2014 price) meet $4,00 hammer (445% markup, $9/hammer cheapest decent thing I could find on Amazon). Yeah - a lot easier to trim the excess from healthcare without compromising service than it is to cut from defense.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    51. Re: $135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      Given the multiplier of $4000 hammers,no it is easier to end the empire and break up the army after 2 years
      Like Article 1 of the Constitution DEMANDS!

    52. Re: $135000 by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      Given the multiplier of $4000 hammers,no it is easier to end the empire and break up the army after 2 years Like Article 1 of the Constitution DEMANDS!

      Not quite. You're referring to Article 1 Section 8 Paragraph 12 with respect to appropriations; however, paragraphs 9-13 stand in contrast to that - providing for the creation of navy and militia (army), training thereof, as well as buildings (forts), etc - none of which are limited to 2 years terms.

      Now I would probably grant your argument over term durations...but then, budgets typically run year to year, even if a contract is over a longer period term it's still subject to budgeting every year, thereby getting around Article 1 Section 8 Paragraph 12 since the appropriation doesn't last for more than 2 years, but separate appropriations are made.

      Nor does the Constitution require that the army or navy be dissolved after 2 years time period. Rather, Congress can "raise and support armies" but is forbidden from the "appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years" which as I showed above Congress has figured out how to hold to the Constitution while maintaining the army. By a strict reading that wouldn't apply to the Navy (which is separately listed); nor would it apply to the Air Force (not listed at all - which means it's also not prohibited). Thus there are plenty of ways to get around it as a result.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    53. Re: $135000 by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      Ah, it said "appropriation".
      What has not been paid for as of that date cannot be appropriated.
      The truth is that a standing army was the forbidden agency, now we know why.

  4. 45.. about the time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That companies layoff techies for being too expensive.

    1. Re:45.. about the time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In my case, 45 was the age I developed old man smell...maybe if I used cologne I would still be employed.

    2. Re:45.. about the time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I’m 45 and work as a freelance contractor doing FE Architecture and Lead Development.

      I struggled a bit to find work in 2015, but then I deleted the first five years of my CV and I have just landed the third back to back contract in a row. After I am hired I have asked the teams I work with how old they think I am and I normally get around 35.

      We will see how long I can get away with this for. But for now I am starting to save hard with the aim being ready to retire in my 50s.

      I also expect living with a girl who 8 years younger than me might help.

    3. Re:45.. about the time by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I suspect that 45 is probably around the age at which most people stop improving. Young people are often motivated but ignorant. Older people are more experienced, but past a certain point (particularly in a tech field) experience doesn't add much because things have changed. Most of the things that you learn in 10 years of experience will be beneficial. In 20 years, a load of the stuff you learned early on will be either irrelevant or actively harmful. In 30 years, a lot of the stuff that you learned early on will be counterproductive (seriously, try reading code from someone who still thinks that a modern processor behaves like a fast 386 - you can often make it much faster by just stripping out the optimisations). If you think that the last 20 years of experience are the most useful, then someone aged 55 doesn't have much of an advantage over someone aged 45, unless they happen to have specialised in something particularly useful.

      I'm not even 40 yet, and a load of the stuff that I learned early on in my career is now painfully obsolete to the degree that if I made decisions based on it then they'd be exactly the opposite of the sensible course and most of the things that people are willing to pay me for relate to things I've learned in the last 10 years.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  5. I don't make anywhere near that in academia by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    On the other hand, my benefits are way better than most of my IT friends working in the private sector, and the "feel" is different. For me, anyway, this is the best fit.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:I don't make anywhere near that in academia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had a job in academia and left for bigger $ in the private sector. To this day, I still wonder if I made the right decision.

    2. Re:I don't make anywhere near that in academia by Whorhay · · Score: 1

      I'm not in academia, but similar situation. Plenty of vacation time, separate sick time that rolls over indefinitely, some pension, 401k matching, and reasonable health insurance. Salary is well below the summaries stated average, however the job isn't in silicon valley. Around here a nice home can be bought for two years salary, and three or four years salary will buy a mansion.

    3. Re:I don't make anywhere near that in academia by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      If you came up back in the days when you could get a PhD without $150,000 worth of debt, academia was the way to go. The heaviest teaching load I ever had was four classes, I got great benefits, a TIAA pension, I was surrounded by bright people and a lot of my students went on to do very well for themselves.

      If any of you out there are in school, and close to matriculating your masters or PhD, do NOT quit school for a job offer, no matter how lucrative. Get the PhD. People call you "doctor" and life is pretty goddamn rosy, especially if you can get an appointment to a nice school in a nice place. My friends who went into private industry are still working and I go surfing. They have big debt (because no matter how much you make, the system is rigged to get you into a lot of debt) and my only debt is paying off our credit cards every month. And best of all, I can actually look at my many students, some of whom have gone on to great things, and see that I have made a difference.

      Decide what kind of life you want.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:I don't make anywhere near that in academia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you came up back in the days when you could get a PhD without $150,000 worth of debt, academia was the way to go. The heaviest teaching load I ever had was four classes, I got great benefits, a TIAA pension, I was surrounded by bright people and a lot of my students went on to do very well for themselves.

      If any of you out there are in school, and close to matriculating your masters or PhD, do NOT quit school for a job offer, no matter how lucrative. Get the PhD. People call you "doctor" and life is pretty goddamn rosy, especially if you can get an appointment to a nice school in a nice place. My friends who went into private industry are still working and I go surfing. They have big debt (because no matter how much you make, the system is rigged to get you into a lot of debt) and my only debt is paying off our credit cards every month. And best of all, I can actually look at my many students, some of whom have gone on to great things, and see that I have made a difference.

      Decide what kind of life you want.

      As a counterpoint, I dropped out of a Ph.D. program in physics when I realized that no one graduating was getting any decent kind of employment. I picked up a masters and then went into a corporate job. Now several years out, most of the people I went to grad school with are poor post-docs who have to move around the country every two or three years trying to chase the next short term post-doc position. They have pitiful pay, no benefits, no 401k, dismal prospects for tenure or long-term employment, and their skills are so terribly narrow and specific that they have no hope of being employed outside of academia. Half of them still bug me on LinkedIn to this day asking if I know of any job openings. Well, I do, but none that they are even remotely qualified for.

    5. Re:I don't make anywhere near that in academia by mikael · · Score: 1

      Depends what you left in academia and went out into industry to do. If you get to work with interesting hardware /technology then that is a win. The most important thing is to work with the latest technology (parallel processing, cloud computing, machine learning, etc..)

      If you are doing industrial research then you can always go back to academia later. Save up your money in case you want to go back. Robotics, computer vision and autonomous vehicles are a big thing now.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    6. Re: I don't make anywhere near that in academia by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I hope you catch cancer and suffer a slow painful death, you pretentious piece of fucking shit. Burn in hell mother fucker!

      You sound triggerd. Are you triggered? Send me a DM and we can talk it out. You're not alone, snowflake. It gets better, and I'm here to help.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    7. Re: I don't make anywhere near that in academia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Truly, the life of a compliant nomenclaturist is easy and sweet.

    8. Re: I don't make anywhere near that in academia by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      And lucrative. Don't forget lucrative.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    9. Re:I don't make anywhere near that in academia by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The people I saw graduating with Ph.D.s in Computer Science were not generally going to particularly nice places, or places they'd expect to do much research in.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  6. Makes sense by ranton · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While it quite possible to have your salary bump 10% per year on average in your late 20's / early 30's, it's not like that could continue forever. Once you reach a Senior Architect / Manager / Director / VP role by your 40's there isn't much room to grow for most people. Sure a select few will become executives or successful entrepreneurs, but that is not possible for everyone.

    Having your salary peak at around $150k and then only keep up with inflation isn't that bad of a thing. Plenty of professions are worse off (actually nearly all professions).

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    1. Re:Makes sense by avandesande · · Score: 1

      They mention product managers but I would guess Director/VP are not included... that would keep the averages low.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    2. Re:Makes sense by avandesande · · Score: 1

      FTFA: Note that in this report, the definition of “tech workers” refers to software engineers, designers, product managers, and data analytics roles.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    3. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correct.

      Having your peak earning years come earlier is a good thing, not a bad thing.

      Consider a lawyer whose compensation only spikes when he or she makes partner towards the end of a long and difficult career.

      He or she does not have time to invest it and let it compound.

      Given the choice between $135k at 45 and $500k at 60, I'll take the $135k every time.

    4. Re:Makes sense by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sure a select few will become executives or successful entrepreneurs, but that is not possible for everyone.

      Also, anyone moving into executive management and/or self employment will no longer be included in this data set. The data only includes people hired thru hired.com for tech positions. That is likely the reason why they report salaries peaking at 45. How many good people over 45 are going to be looking for a job on a website, rather than using their professional network?

    5. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why we are entering a program to offshore as much technology/IT work as possible. The price proposition overseas is much closer to its actual value.

    6. Re:Makes sense by nahpets77 · · Score: 1

      The ROI for any salaried employee means that there's an upper limit for any individual contributor role. The difference in ROI between someone with 10+ years and 1-3 years experience is large, and their respective salaries reflect that. However, someone with 20 years experience doesn't necessarily generate 2x ROI over someone with ~10 years experience. From what I've seen in my industry, salaries for experienced engineers is about 2x what a junior engineer with 3-5 years experience make. Total compensation on the other hand can differ by more depending on stock performance though...

    7. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The big point about this is the availability of opportunities shrinks the higher up the food chain you go. When starting out everyone is a developer and there are plenty of options to "move to the next level".

      If you don't want to go into management, you might hit architect but then you'll most likely stop going up from there. Few places have long term career paths for individual contributors.

      On the management side of the house:

      Once you hit manager your options are restricted as there's a smaller number of director positions.
      If you get director you're limited to an even smaller number of VP roles.
      If you get VP you're pretty much done as the number of available C-level roles for IT folks is extremely small and a very incestuous circle.

    8. Re:Makes sense by decipher_saint · · Score: 3, Funny

      Our crystals start blinking at 45 and we proceed to Carousel...

      --
      crazy dynamite monkey
    9. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good point. I'm 40, a software engineer, and have not looked for a job through job websites in at least 10 years (back in days of Monster and Dice). It's always been contact from friends, coworkers, headhunters, or me directly applying to a job on the company's website.

    10. Re:Makes sense by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I'm growing slowly I think, I'm 55ish and each year my salary keeps going up. Though there's a bit of a rocky past, with leaving work and going back to grad school and leaving with nothing in the bank in my early 30s, taking a lowballed job offer for a few years since I was hungry, and then the salaries started catching up. Only single income and in Silicon Valley, so while I have a bigger salary than the Vice President, I don't actually feel rich. If I was in my home town though with this salary, I'd be doing awesome. I'm not very good/disciplined at investing, so I worry about retirement or what place I'll have to end up eventually (most likely someplace with too much snow, or too much dust).

      I also felt that those in their 40s with the senior positions peaked too soon. Very often they didn't have the experience for their positions. There were even some senior director roles for people in their twenties...

    11. Re:Makes sense by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Yup, you get the good jobs from your network contacts. The jobs you get from websites and agencies are going be below par.

      So a hint for younger workers - don't just impress your boss, also impress your coworkers, and don't burn any bridges when you leave.

    12. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably quite a lot, as many companies operate an open hiring policy.

    13. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've had plaudits and awards for my work, but this has yet to result in a job offer through other than standard competitive tendering. Maybe it's just done differently in the UK.

    14. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This kills me about you smug, arrogant assholes. You think because you "made it", everyone else should just do the same. You're supposed to be brilliant (at least you like to pat yourselves on the back for being so) yet you can't see the this one very simple fact. Organizations are like pyramids. The farther you go up, the fewer the positions that exist.

      There just aren't enough "Senior Architect / Manager / Director / VP" roles for everyone to get one, Marie. We can't all eat cake.

      This notion that average, normal, decent people are worthless pieces of shit that should just go fuck-off and die at the age of 40 is going to bit you all in the ass, soon. Madame Defarge is knitting away.

    15. Re:Makes sense by ranton · · Score: 1

      There just aren't enough "Senior Architect / Manager / Director / VP" roles for everyone to get one, Marie. We can't all eat cake.

      My post was clear that there weren't enough high level positions for everyone, but I disagree that there aren't enough architect, manager, etc. positions to go around for everyone interested in and capable of that level of responsibility. Everyone I have worked with who is both interested in and capable enough to work at that level has reached it. That may not be true in XX years when the IT field is not growing anymore, but it is true today.

      This notion that average, normal, decent people are worthless pieces of shit that should just go fuck-off and die at the age of 40 is going to bit you all in the ass, soon. Madame Defarge is knitting away.

      What part of having your salary capped at closer to $120k (in the Midwest suburbs anyway) is the same as believing someone is a "worthless pieces of shit that should just go fuck-off and die at the age of 40"? For people either without much motivation or who prioritize other measures of success other than busting their ass in the corporate world, that is a very good salary.

      My coworker sitting next to me makes about $50k less than I do for nearly the same job, but he doesn't want the responsibility of a major project's success on his shoulders, wants to take vacations even during busy times, and generally spends his free time on his hobbies rather than learning new technologies. He still makes just over $125k, and certainly isn't being treated like a worthless piece of shit. He is merely paid differently because of a different level of dedication and responsibility level.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  7. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your incoherence is breathtaking bordering on unemployable...

  8. $210,000 USD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm 58 and $210,000/year is the least I've made in the last 20 years. The most was about $500,000.

    1. Re:$210,000 USD by edtice1559 · · Score: 2

      That's pretty good pay for somebody who doesn't seem to understand the concept of averages!

    2. Re:$210,000 USD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's pretty good pay for somebody who doesn't seem to understand the concept of averages!

      I guess my point wasn't clear.
      My experience is very different from "peak around age 45. After that, earnings level off or drop until retirement". I changed jobs again and went up another $100k last August.

    3. Re:$210,000 USD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's pretty good pay for somebody who doesn't seem to understand the concept of averages!

      I guess my point wasn't clear.
      My experience is very different ...

      No, that much was very clear.

  9. Sorting? by jmcharry · · Score: 1

    These studies always make me wonder whether they are taking into account that techies graduate into management and other higher paying jobs. It may be that the higher earners are getting sorted out of the studies by that age.

    1. Re:Sorting? by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Isn't that true with most jobs, though? If we study what salary burger flippers stabilize at, I'm sure part of it is because they eventually become shift managers or graduate and get on to a high paying job.

    2. Re:Sorting? by ranton · · Score: 1

      Isn't that true with most jobs, though? If we study what salary burger flippers stabilize at, I'm sure part of it is because they eventually become shift managers or graduate and get on to a high paying job.

      It is true of most jobs, but we are talking about careers here. Your analogy is more like looking at when software developer intern salaries peak.

      But if you truly want to see where technology workers cap in salary, you need to look at the entire career progression. This includes Director of IT, CTO, entrepreneur, etc. The only thing this study shows is that you should have a career plan past senior developer / architect or your pay will stagnate in your 40's and beyond. Either that or be happy with $150k per year, which most people would be.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    3. Re:Sorting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called the "Salary curve". In 2015 I did a simple (degree 7) polynomial regression on the difference in median earnings between an associates degree holder and a bachelor's degree holder.

      https://www.desmos.com/calculator/pfwtgopsd6

      It's trivial to take the definite intergral of both polynomials and find the difference between two ages to infer a naive estimate of the value-added of a college education (given that the assumptions hold true/the median values are representative for your field of study/school you studied at).

      The actual economic value is more complicated, for a number of reasons. Eg. the median value will have confidence intervals, so there's an expected value component, as well as discounting for the time-value of money/probability of surviving long enough to enjoy the benefits.

      Your internship accomplishments during your summers between quarters/semesters also have a large impact on starting salary which has a large impact on the snowball effect of an impressive track-record. Success breeds success essentially.

      You have limited control over your graduation year, but you can control your GPA to a large extent, as well as your extracurricular/student org activities and the amount of hours you spend hunting for internships. Both of these have a large impact on that pivotal 1st job offer.

    4. Re:Sorting? by avandesande · · Score: 1

      There is no need to wonder. TFA states it tops out at product manager.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    5. Re:Sorting? by mikael · · Score: 1

      Of the students that graduated in my year, about a third moved into the financial industry (architects, consultants). Some moved abroad to places like Singapore or Europe. A few work on embedded software, and a the rest left the industry altogether to run their own businesses (retail, gardening).

      With the Agile/Scrum process, some people are expected to become scrum-masters, architects, team leaders and project managers. Some well-qualified entry-level software engineers can earn as much as a project manager.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    6. Re:Sorting? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Some of us are very insistent on not going into management. My manager makes more than I do, and I have no problem with that, because I really don't want his job.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  10. Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    To live like here I need $400K San Fransisco money. Cheetah no like northern California. Stoners want sex with Cheetah. And Jane turn lesbian in SF. She no like Tarzan no more.

    1. Re:Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here are some posts from creimer's old accounts. I'll start with his love of child brides.

      If all my assets were liquidated, I would still have enough cash to buy a new car and head off to Mexico to find a chica to marry.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      You're aware that are some states in the U.S. that allow underage marriage as young as 14 years old?
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      As for my comment, I've heard stories of engineers retiring at 50, moving to Mexico and marrying underage girls. Since I work with ex-military, the Philippines is a popular retirement spot for marrying underage girls as well. It's all about getting the most bang for your retirement dollars.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      That only works if you retire to Mexico, build a mansion (by local standards), marry an underage sweet thing and bequeath all your possessions to the village.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      You need to be more specific. I wrote 3,000+ comments this year.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      Nah... I just do it to piss off my trolls and make coffee money off of them.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      We have different priorities. You want to climb the corporate ladder. I want to own the corporate ladder.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      Your bitch licks your balls. Most people don't brag about practicing bestiality. Is there a reason why you married a dog and not a goat?
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      My employers don't care about what my Slashdot trolls think. Now go off and lick your balls somewhere else.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      iPhone 6s and reduce my monthly bill from $80 to $50. As a phone and a video camera, the iPhone 6s isn't obsolete. As a Sprint customer for 20+ years, Sprint will always offer me a new iPhone if I decide to stop using the 6s as a phone in the next several years.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      Miracle workers are never afraid to ask for a second opinion. Supervisor gave me his opinion ? and a mess to clean up. Lesson learned from this incident: if something isn't quite broken, break it.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      So you can turn around call me a liar again? People have been playing that game with me for years.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      Based on what I've read about Uber, he need to tell the boys to clean up their locker room behavior, zip up their pants, and attend sensitivity training until everyone agrees that women are not sexual objects.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      Which doesn't violate the Slashdot TOS. If you got a problem with that, take it up with management.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      This year I've posted ~4,000 comments.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      I don't bother with mod points. I'm doing something much more sinister. It took ten story submissions ? I'll have to double check the

    2. Re:Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aren't you the guy who thinks he sees "homo" whenever he sees the word "home"?

    3. Re:Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, yes, I am. That's funny LOL ROFL!

      Also, creimer dreamt about becoming a crisco kid and went to work for cisco thinking it was crisco.

      Then when creimer found out, creimer thought it was really funny and creimer did a double-take!

      That's funny, ROFL!

    4. Re:Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only with Hom[e|o]Pods.

    5. Re:Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy FUCK you're funnier than Joe Rogan and Duncan Trussell on mushrooms!

      Hilarious! Did you do a double take too!?

      Wow!

    6. Re:Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you, thank you. I'll be here for the rest of eternity.

    7. Re:Tarzan say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then, so you can tell others later when eternity takes a rest, I will tell you the story of creimy the mountain:

      Here is the story of creimy the mountain and his royalties!

      This story was inspired by cdreimer, the parent poster. The story was written by a visionary on cdreimer birth date.

      The story of creimy the mountain explained:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Creimy is a typical mountain who poses for postcards, living with his wife Ethel, a tree, between the cities of Rosamund and Gorman, California. The main features on his mountainous face are two large caves, resembling eyes, and a cliff for a jaw, which moves up and down when he talks, puffing up dust and boulders.
      click above link to read more, he even destroyed Edwards Air Force Base just by passing by...

      Listen to the audio version here:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      "Creimy The Mountain"

      includes quotes from Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major (Edward Elgar), Johnny's Theme (Paul Anka), Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder (Crawford), O Mein Papa (Paul Burkhard), Over The Rainbow (Harburg/Arlen), Star-Spangled Banner (Smith/Key), Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Stephen Stills)

      One, two, three

      CREIMY the Mountain
      CREIMY the Mountain
      A regular picturesque
      Postcardy mountain
      Residing between lovely
      Rosamond and Gorman
      With his stunning wife ETHELL, A tree! A tree!

      CREIMY was a mountain ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder

      CREIMY was a mountain
      (CREIMY was a mountain!)
      ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder
      (ETHELL was a tree growing off of his shoulder)
      (hey, hey hey!)

      Creimy had two big
      Caves for eyes,
      With a cliff for a jaw
      That would go up 'n down,
      And whenever it did,
      He'd puff out some dust,
      And hack up a boulder (HACK!) Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK!)
      Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK! HACK!) Up a boulder

      Now, one day, now I believe it was on a Tuesday, a man in a checkered double-knit suit drove up in a large El Dorado Cadillac, leased from BOB SPREEN

      ("Where the freeways meet in Downey!")

      And he laid a HUGE, BULGING ENVELOPE right at the corner of CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, that was right where his 'foot' was supposed to be.

      Now, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, he couldn't believe it! All those postcards he'd posed for, for ALL OF THOSE YEARS, and finally, now, AT LAST, his Royalties!

      Royalties! Royalties Royalties! Royalty check is in, honey!

      Yes, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN was RICH! Yes, and his eyeball-caves, they widened in amazement, and his jaw (which was a cliff), well it dropped thirty feet!

      A bunch of dust puffed out! Rocks and boulders hacked up, (hack! hack!) crushing 'The LINCOLN'!

      I gave him the money He acted real funny He hocked up a rock and It TOTALLED my car!

      Oh, do you Know any trucks Might be bound for THE VALLEY?
      I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (Dear Lord)

      I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (No shit!)

      I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar!

      By two o'clock, when the bars are already closed down, CREIMY had broken 'THE BIG NEWS' to ETHELL. And with dust and boulders everywhere, CREIMY, choked with excitement, announced

      "ETHELL, we're going on a VACATION!"

      Yes, and they WERE going on a vacation! (Oh, and ETHELL, ETHELL, ETHELL, like every little woman, she of course was very excited! She creaked a little bit, and some old birds flew off of her.) CREIMY told ETHELL they were going to Yes! They were going to NEW YORK!

      "ETHELL, we're going to New York!"

      But first they were gonna stop in LAS VEGAS

      It's off to LAS VEGAS to check out the lounges Pull a few handles,
      And drink a few beers, (Oh, ETHELL!)

      ETHELL, my darling, you know that I love you!
      I'm glad we could have a Vacation this year! (Oh, N

  11. So by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    If I did that level at 30, that’s good?

    1. Re:So by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Maybe. How much did you save?

    2. Re:So by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      It means your best years are behind you.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  12. 41, and I'm happy with that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just turned 41 and work in IT. I'm happy with that $135K cap at 45 projection. I have a flexible job where I can work 7-3, 8-4, 9-5, or 10-6. My commute via automobile is 15 minutes, or via bike on an isolated bike/jogging trail is 30 minutes. I grossed US$121K last year, and contracts have raises lined up for the upcoming years and I'll be just over US$135K/year when I hit 45. So long as we keep getting the equivalent of COLAs, I'm fine at where I am.

    The biggest difference is that I don't live in the Bay Area. My mortgage for a 5 bedroom, 2,500 sq ft home is $1,200/mo, including all taxes, insurance, etc. It's a nice home, nice neighborhood, medium-sized city. So I have the equivalent of a low-paying SF IT job, but low-cost housing and zero commute.

    So, yeah, I'm happy with that. Just gotta keep my skills up until retirement. I do plenty of other things that make me happy, mostly volunteer work with 3-4 different organizations throughout the year, and no longer chase better work positions to feel fulfilled. I've passed on 2 supervisor positions in the past 10 years and will be passing on yet another this year - no need for more pay and sure isn't worth the headaches.

    1. Re:41, and I'm happy with that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm 45 and I'm at $110K as a software engineer in the Los Angeles area doing Java programming for clinical genomics software - with a biochemistry PhD and some post-doc experience in developing bioinformatics software.

      I'm happy with my salary at the moment and would feel very lucky if I could stay at this salary level (adjusted for inflation) until retirement.

      But if I were to get a job offer doing similar work in a more positive work environment - more enthusiasm for the goal of helping people with genetic disorders and less worrying about trivial coding style issues (such as whether to use "continue" statements in loops) - then I wouldn't necessarily say no. :)

    2. Re: 41, and I'm happy with that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are vastly underpaid!!!

    3. Re:41, and I'm happy with that by computational+super · · Score: 1

      Yeah, as long as it doesn't go down (or maybe even keeps pace with inflation?), I'll be in good shape when I'm looking at retirement in 20 years.

      --
      Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
    4. Re: 41, and I'm happy with that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...I'm at $110K ... doing Java programming for clinical genomics software...

      You are vastly underpaid!!!

      Any recommendations for good (particularly in terms of work environment) companies in the clinical genomics field?

  13. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a great point and Ill clarify.

    Tech salaries in San Francisco and Seattle are high but the cost of living is so high that even making 400K (which I do between salary+stock+wife income) that you are house poor (average house in decent school area 1.5-2M due to farcically low interest rates/money printing) or pay $5000+ in rent just to exist - thats 60K just to exist. And taxes here with AMT are around 50%, so 400K -> 200K (California charges more than 9% income and sales tax). 200K - 60K means 11K / mo. Now childcare, private schools, cost of living, etc. You would be shocked how just food, fuel, child costs, etc, all rack up here. Its insanity how fast 11K/mo turns into dust and at the end of the day you either have millions of debt in mortgage or are facing crushing rents.

    It would make sense to make 200K anywhere else and live like a relative king.

    The biggest sadness about San Francisco / bay area is the children of tech people are lost. Latchkey, parent-less, druggies, no very smart and no hope. Cost of living is hopeless for them and competition with all the H1B etc for them will be them vs the rest of the world. So extreme cost of living and horrific competition from the entire world.

    So Joe_Dragon is right. Salaries are high here. Cost of living is crushing along with abusive confiscatory taxation and the tech companies are ALWAYS trying to flood the market with H1B and scabs to lower your "rate"

  14. I'm 47 and can't complain about my salary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd have to take on a lot more responsibility to make more money from here and I'm not interested in giving up any more free time.

  15. Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 50. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Rising health care costs and a desire on corporations to avoid training workers (it costs money and corporations fear they'll leave) drive many IT workers from the field at about age 50.

    It spiked up after the supreme court gutted age discrimination protection in 2009.

    Likewise, younger workers have open said on slashdot that older workers "don't fit their culture".

    Which would be amazingly blunt if they said, "black workers don't fit our culture" or "female workers don't fit our culture".

    Google actually approached the same 41 year old female engineer 4 times because their automated software was selecting her was a highly qualified candidate and younger human managers repeatedly rejected her. I'm not sure how her lawsuit turned out. So 41 is too old for some managers at Google.

    Thing is .. everyone gets older every day. And I've known 64 year old java programmers who programmed the pants off younger workers with a few years experience.

    The best thing you can do is to save hard and take any training opportunities you can get. Then also self train in what little spare time you have after the historically longer than average IT work weeks. Eventually, unless you are lucky, all the training in the world won't help because some young managers won't care about your skill set and simply say you are "too old". That's when you retire early on your savings.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  16. you have to move around to get that kind of money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unless you were lucky and smart enough to end up at Google, FB, Amazon, etc right out of high school, you definitely need to leave at least every 3 years in order to achieve maximum income by the time you are 45. I only have two years left, so I should really hurry up :)

  17. Aww sheesh! by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    I'm behind the trend. Mine peaked when I retired at 55.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:Aww sheesh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Mine peaked at age 42, when I retired.

      It is 10 yrs later and I've seen the world, hiked on 6 continents, and my list-o-things-to-do is 50x longer than it was when I was working.

      People get stuck working far too long.

      The 5 yrs that my stock investments earned more than my salary made it clear that I was wasting too much time working.

      I'm not a billionaire. In fact, I'm in the low millions, but my lifestyle has contracted on spending to match.

      Oh - and I'm 20x healthier than I was the last 10 yrs working. Dropped 80 lbs, spend much more time outdoors, camping, with family. The only downside is that I fly couch, not 1st class.

  18. For me the problem is real inflation by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Informative

    vs statistical inflation. I find the cost of things I actually buy (food, shelter, transportation, my kid's college) goes up about 3.25-3.5% a year. The cost of things I don't really buy (vacations, electronics, cars in the $30k+ range, etc) go up 1.5-2.5%. There's a 'net' of about 2%. But I don't see that 2%, I see the 3.25-3.5%. Meanwhile my wages go up 2.5% a year if I'm very, very lucky. Most years it's 1.5-2%. And I'm doing better than most. Lots of folks I know haven't had a raise in years. For them the only way to get a raise is to get a new job.

    I saw a story about a woman who started at K-Mart in 1974 making $3/hour. When the store closed this year and she was laid off she made $10.50/hr. Thing is, $3 in 1974 was just shy of $16/hr today. She'd lost 1/3 of her pay in 44 years. Us tech workers don't have it as bad, but we're still feeling it. Everybody's losing ground. You just kind of hope you make it until your kid's are on their own and that you die before the layoffs in your 60s come.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:For me the problem is real inflation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. Hint: investment returns from savings when I was young.

  19. SV/Seattle, plus there's a natural cap by ErichTheRed · · Score: 1

    I think there's a bunch of factors at work.
    - People working in Seattle, and SF/SV make tons of money because of that region's out-of-control housing market and other cost of living factors.
    - If this is recent data, don't forget that this is the Second Dotcom Bubble. Large Seattle/SF/SV employers heavily favor younger workers and hip startup types. So, on average the age of people reporting high salaries will be lower, while their salaries will be comparatively higher. Microsoft and Amazon are throwing money at people who can spell DevOps and cloud, and the insane development cadence ensures that workers are younger. If you can handle "Seattle Hundreds" year in and year out, and save your money, you will make out until the bubble pops.
    - The reality is that there is an upper limit to tech salaries no matter where you go. You have to be exceptional to get executive-level pay in places with normal cost of living. This either means you've invented something for the company, are literally holding the entire org together yourself, or are a consultant traveling 11 months out of the year deploying the newest hotness.

    Now that I'm starting to hit that magic number (I'll be 45 in 2 years) this is starting to make sense. There is a constant downward pressure on wages and you have to stay relevant if you want to stay near the top. I like where I am in my career...I'm paid to keep up at a reasonable pace and enjoy being able to pass on wisdom to the new grads as they filter in. But no one should expect that they'll get beyond that cap, whatever it is for their specialty, unless they're willing to consult or hop jobs every six months for increases before the next recession hits.

  20. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    The biggest sadness about San Francisco / bay area is the children of tech people are lost.

    The Bay Area is a great place for a kid to skateboard and smoke pot.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  21. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You are terrible at budgeting. Even if your rent is $5k you have 140k clear according to your own numbers and you feel hurt? Get over yourself and learn to manage your finances.

  22. Be careful interpreting this! by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

    You cannot conclude by looking at current salaries vs. age that the average person younger than the peak will peak at that point! The comparison across age is an apples and oranges one. The salary environment at the time you entered engineering has a long-term effect on your salary progress.

    With that in mind, it is possible that the peak indicates older engineers took a bigger hit in 2009 and that starting salaries and early career raises have been growing faster than the salaries of experienced engineers in the post-2009 recovery due to rampant age and experience discrimination in the industry. This would result in a peak that is moving up in age (recovering to the normal early-50s range) though likely not at a year for year rate.

    In other words, that peak might be 46 in two more years and 47 in four as the younger beneficiaries of the salary increases age.

    Some large corporations experience this as a matter of policy because they limit max pay raises of employees to 1.5x the average pay raise but have to pay the market price for new engineers. This creates a situation where it is not unheard of for an employee to receive maximum raises for years and be responsible for managing new hires who make almost as much or more than they do because the market rate has been increasing by more than 1.5x the corporation's average salary increases.

  23. After 50 or so you quit working so many hours by karlandtanya · · Score: 1

    Or....you retire at 50-60, come back as a contractor, and pocket the whole rate (less income & self-employment taxes of course) because you've got benefits through your retirement or your spouse.
    At least that's what controls engineers seem to do.

    --
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
  24. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by karlandtanya · · Score: 2

    And I've known 64 year old java programmers who programmed the pants off younger workers with a few years experience.

    Is that how you get their pants off? Well, I never learned Java, so who knew?

    --
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
  25. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have 800K+ saved. 60K in rent is no joke. And while you think you smart, RSUs are "income" if you dont hold them for an extra year. So ~200K base + 100K stock is 300K income + wife 100K, joint, using a quickie calculation here:

    https://smartasset.com/taxes/c...

    Comes out to ~43% or so.

    Of course there are SEP IRA, ROTH IRA, 401K etc being used as well.

    I drive shit cars, rent submarket, and I cant really afford a house here - I could certainly buy one, but would be house poor.

    Avg house price here is 1.2-1.5M for shitboxes.

    So im not poor by any stretch, but for someone being close to a M in the clear I dont feel rich or safe or prepared to pay for higher education for kids. Its wage slavery central.

    So spare the " manage your finances " crap.

  26. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by T.E.D. · · Score: 2

    Likewise, younger workers have open said on slashdot that older workers "don't fit their culture".

    The response to which is of course that if this is the case, your culture is effed, and you should probably work on that. Hiring an older worker or two would be a good start.

    FWIW: I'm pretty sure this happened to me a few years back when I was in my late 40's. I got through 2 rounds of technical interviews with no problem, and then got a really weird call from someone at Google HR that appeared to be designed to somehow trick me into saying I'm a manager and don't actually program any more. The problem is that couldn't be farther from the case, so we had this really bizzare dancing conversation about how much coding I do for about 10 minutes, until she apparently heard something she could use and ended the convo. Got my "rejection" letter ("rejection"? You fools called ME) in the mail a week later.

    Just something for others to compare notes with.

  27. Makes sense to me by OldMugwump · · Score: 1

    I'm in my mid-50s. My own programming productivity peaked around age 45. Youthful fast-learning minds that don't tire quickly have an advantage. Aged minds with lots of knowledge and experience have an advantage. The two trade-off, with a peak (in my case) around age 45.

    --
    "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."
    1. Re:Makes sense to me by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I'd put my peak somewhat later, but I'm definitely going downhill. My manager still considers me middle of the pack, and it's a darn good pack, so I'm happy with that. I'm in my mid-60s and intend to retire next year.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  28. Peak isn't static :) by internet-redstar · · Score: 2

    We who where in our early 20s when the Internet and Linux revolution arrived, are 45 years or less (I'm 41). So, it seems correct that this is where the peak is ;-) And the peak will move up as we grow older too ;-)

  29. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, you're just bad at living, also at lying about it. You can't survive on 400 imaginary thousands of dollars per year? How impressively retarded, good for you imaginary chatbot.

  30. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wait, I thought California was the Left Wing Worker's Paradise that was going to secede from the rest of us naval gazing, redneck reprobates?

    You mean with all that liberal conscientiousness they've created a hellscape that only serves the rich and their impoverished server class?

    Say it aint so!! I'm shocked, shocked I say. This is the same disappointment I felt when I found out that the Fundamentalist Baptist preacher who sermon'd endlessly on sexuality was a cruising for twinks online.

  31. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by DamonHD · · Score: 1

    I have been approached many times (maybe 7?) by Google. I am now over 50! I'm not interested. I had to nominally get G's legal dept involved to stop the unwanted contacts... Got SPAMmed one more time by accident along with (apprently) ~1000 others recently by fumble-fingered recruiter... %-P

    And aren't most people in white-collar jobs at peak earning potential in their 40s? I always assumed so. I have only worked a few weeks for anyone else in the last 30 years, but I always assumed something similar would apply to me.

    Rgds

    Damon

    --
    http://m.earth.org.uk/
  32. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "competition with all the H1B"

    No, I think the main reason why people these days have so many problems with money is that they look for the highest wages, and idolize technology, but do not consider quality of life (spending time with family, not the number of pretentious ethnic restaurants and movie theaters) nor cost of living nor lower cost alternatives nor other careers.

    There is more to life than high income. There are better places to live, better jobs. High wages are always a farce, an illusion, a delusion. There is always a catch. Always. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

  33. That's why I quit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I prefer to leave at the top of my game. I invested all the money I made over the years and now have a few mil in the bank. I put half in bitcoin and half in gold and other solid non-fiat investments and I am sitting fucking pretty. I have money, women and power.

  34. $135,000?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Crikey, am I underpaid. Of course I'm in the middle of 'Fly Over Country'(tm) so the cost of living isn't anywhere near what it is on the coasts. I make around $90,000 here and that's well above average (I think $73,000 is average or something around there). I guess I really can't complain though, I have good health care, a fun yet fairly easy job, a great boss (although that can change in a heartbeat), a pension (remember those kids?), and good job stability (although once again, anything can happen).

    I've thought about moving out to CA since my wife is from there, but at 40 I'm rapidly approaching the age where you need to entrench and hope not to get outsourced or replaced with a college kid you have to train. Sadly my skill set isn't unique, I'm not a job hopper, and my sex/race/religion isn't PC these days so that hurts my salary a bit. Plus moving across the country is hella expensive and these days no company is going to pay for that unless you're the second coming of Steve Jobs. Still, I can't complain. I'm not hurting or wanting for anything and I'm in much better health than many of my friends who seem to be killing themselves at startups or gaming companies (they want to be 'in the biz' that badly I guess).

    1. Re:$135,000?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > my sex/race/religion isn't PC these days so that hurts my salary a bit

      I hear ya bro. Us straight white men are the most downtrodden minority today. We get ZERO representation in govament especially.

    2. Re: $135,000?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know youâ(TM)re making a joke, but it actualky does hurt when youâ(TM)re looking for a new job. Quotas (even if theyâ(TM)re just âsoft quotasâ(TM)) are real. Maybe you donâ(TM)t run into it at smaller companies, but if your company is big enough to make news then they have to play the quota game.

    3. Re: $135,000?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, there is a dearth of white male CEOs looking to hire other white men...

    4. Re: $135,000?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ever hear that saying "if everyone you know is an asshole, then you are the asshole"? Yeah that is probably closer to the truth of why you aren't getting hired.

  35. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by CptLoRes · · Score: 1

    For some reason experience seem to be of no value any longer. Sure the youngsters not knowing any better will happily work 100+ hour weeks. But the experienced worker will do the same work or better clocking in normal work days, because you know experience. And then go home and have a life. And it turns out that having a life outside of work, makes for happier and more productive people. Who would have thought?

  36. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by swillden · · Score: 2

    FWIW: I'm pretty sure this happened to me a few years back when I was in my late 40's. I got through 2 rounds of technical interviews with no problem

    Two rounds of face to face interviews? If you had that, then the first round of interviewers must not have been able to make a definitive hire/no-hire decision.

    then got a really weird call from someone at Google HR that appeared to be designed to somehow trick me into saying I'm a manager and don't actually program any more

    A call from HR seems extremely unlikely. I suspect you were actually called by a recruiter, perhaps because the second round of interviews was also inconclusive and they were trying to decide whether it was worth trying a third time. If so, you might have been better off if you'd said you don't program any more, since it would indicate that there's a good chance that if you did some prep work to blow the rust off, you could pass the interview process. If, on the other hand, you are in practice and still couldn't get a strong "hire" signal in two rounds of interviews, then it's unlikely a third attempt would be any different.

    FWIW, Google hired me seven years ago at age 42. Many others on my team were hired in their 50s and 60s. In my time with the company I've seen no evidence whatsoever of ageism, though I've obviously only seen some small slices.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  37. would that my pay were that high. by cmaurand · · Score: 1

    I make about 1/3 of that and I'm 60. Since 2008 my pay has dropped by more than half. After age 50, you'll be lucky to be working. If you're 60 and out of work, it'll be time to work for yourself, because nobody will hire you. You blow the healthcare costs for the company out of whack. The excuse for not hiring the older worker? He's not a good fit which means, he's too old even though he meets all the rest of the criteria. Health insurance is the problem, not the solution.

  38. A tale of three friends by Hasaf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When it comes to the difference between the trades and college paths I am reminded of the story of three friends, of which I am one. We met in a community college trade program. All three of us were recently out of the military and drew together.

    We had a similar starting point; but ended in different places. One of us went directly into a trade, repairing office equipment. Another bounced around a bit between various county and state technical jobs until he started his own HVAC business.

    The friend who started his business was able to do it because his mother poured, quite literally, everything she had into his business to get him started. I remember delivering some of her personal jewelry to be sold in order to raise money for his business. He is now doing ok. We are all now in our 50s and he is pretty much completely broken down from the physical demand of his job. However, financially he is now stable (and has a lot of great guns, I love going out to his place just to see what he has added to his collection).

    The other friend tried to stay in Office equipment too long. As he got older his numbers declined and he was let go right about 50. For reasons not understood by me, he decided to take that “opportunity” to get his college degree in a field that doesn’t hire people over 35 unless they are entering with a tremendous amount of experience. He is now delivering pizzas and struggling to hold onto his house.

    Me, I saw the writing on the wall. Right around the time the company I was working for canceled the defined benefits pension program I looked around and realized that I saw no old guys. I went back to college and got my BA and eventually my MBA. I am not tall or good looking, I lack family connections and there was no way I could afford an expensive internship. I came from one of Americas poverty areas and, without question, it is part of who I am.
    I was able to get a job teaching and took the accreditation over a period of a couple of years of evening courses. I now work as a teacher in rural district that, due to the number of immigrants, has many very urban problems.

    What does this short biography have to do with the trades? Of the three of us one made it in the trades, mostly because his family had the resources to prop him up as long as it took to become stable. One just plain left, bounced around and left the trades. The other tried to stay until he was pushed out.
    Those promoting trades, look around. Do you see many old guys in that trade? How many 60 year olds? How many 70 year olds? As we push up the national retirement age who is going to hire that 70 year old?

    I do not think trades are wrong, what I think is wrong is how our society treats tradesmen. As long as people are nothing but disposable cogs to be discarded once they are worn I am concerned about the pure trades’ path. It can, and I think should, be part of a person’s life

    1. Re:A tale of three friends by geek · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In my area, most of the trades guys are in their 50's. Home Depot is now teaching classes for the millenials on how to use a measuring tape and hammer because they've never been exposed to them before.

      The problem in the trades is that cheap labor gets the job every time. That means all those meth heads and ex-cons who can't find work elsewhere get picked up to swing a hammer for minimum wage. The quality of the work suffers but since everyone is hiring from the same bottom of the barrel that's what you get. The demand is high but they fill it with illegals rather than kids fresh out of school who 50 years ago would have been all over those jobs.

      Your story though can be said of any profession. Every person our age older not in a management role is in danger. People think "wow they are middle age, why aren't they managers, what's wrong with them?" I was a manager, a good one. But I hated it. I'll never do it again unless I start my own business and set my own terms.

    2. Re:A tale of three friends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess it depends on the trade and location?

      I know a lot of electricians that are in their 50's and 60's, no problems getting jobs, though they have paid into unions to fight for them for years.

  39. $135k doesn't buy much in 2018 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean, that's one just porn star.

  40. IT is a shitty career. Get out. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I left for finance. I'll be retried in 3 years at 45. Then I can do what I want.

    EE. Tech is for suckers. If you're smart enough to be a good engineer, you're smart enough to get properly loaded in finance of medicine.

    $100k is a bonus check, not an annual salary..

  41. Because of the rampant age discrimination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone who's still in the technical side of the industry at 50 is probably pretty damn good, and they don't suddenly lose their desire to keep improving either. But with most of SV treating anyone with grey hair like a leper, they have to take jobs at levels below their ability and experience because it's all they can get.

    1. Re:Because of the rampant age discrimination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can always dye your hair :)

  42. Me, myself and I. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Me, myself and I.

    There you are spamming amazon and youtube affiliate links with yet another fake account, you revenue stream hogging disgusting fat sexist tube of lard, Christopher Dale Reimer!

    You can be sure I will be watching this fake account too. I know this is you because you told me you were working on your freepass 11 file server and you are so dumb that you can't even masquerade yourself properly.

    Now, I told you I was out of meds last week and you didn't even care to contact me you lazy fucker.

    How many times do I have to express the emergency of the situation??????

    The python click script you wrote for my pheromone revenue stream web site suddenly stopped to work!!!!!!

    You fucking incompetent python script writer!!!

    When it works, I get 4000+ clicks a day on my pheromone revenue stream web site but only 5 or 6 without it!!!!

    Now, it seems like you dont care and that you have abandoned me you heartless fucking pig!

    Bonus:
    Here is a story that creimer told me when convincing me what a hard life he had:

    The tree was him and the tree knot was his butt hole!

    So, his uncle packed his fat ass with lard and with his cock! Not that it makes much of a difference but anyway, there it is!

    Signed:
    Ethell, The girl that used to love you and now hates you, burn in hell where you belong you sexist pig!

    1. Re:Me, myself and I. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Creimertard. Mod down.

  43. Very funny! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Very funny!

    There you are spamming amazon and youtube affiliate links with yet another fake account, you revenue stream hogging disgusting fat sexist tube of lard, Christopher Dale Reimer!

    You can be sure I will be watching this fake account too. I know this is you because you told me you were working on your freepass 11 file server and you are so dumb that you can't even masquerade yourself properly.

    Now, I told you I was out of meds last week and you didn't even care to contact me you lazy fucker.

    How many times do I have to express the emergency of the situation??????

    The python click script you wrote for my pheromone revenue stream web site suddenly stopped to work!!!!!!

    You fucking incompetent python script writer!!!

    When it works, I get 4000+ clicks a day on my pheromone revenue stream web site but only 5 or 6 without it!!!!

    Now, it seems like you dont care and that you have abandoned me you heartless fucking pig!

    Bonus:
    Here is a story that creimer told me when convincing me what a hard life he had:

    The tree was him and the tree knot was his butt hole!

    So, his uncle packed his fat ass with lard and with his cock! Not that it makes much of a difference but anyway, there it is!

    Signed:
    Ethell, The girl that used to love you and now hates you, burn in hell where you belong you sexist pig!

    1. Re:Very funny! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Creimertard. Mod down.

    2. Re:Very funny! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      C.D. Reimer is a renowned Slashdot collaborator, as he puts it himself; "Because of the quality of my posts and my article submissions, I'm a highly rated commentator and moderator."

      But does anybody ever wondered what "C.D." stands for? Well, it stands for Creimy Dumpty of course!

      Creimy Dumpty sat on the wall,
      Creimy Dumpty had a great fall.
      All the king's horses
      And all the king's men
      Couldn't put Creimy Dumpty
      Together again.

      Creimy's siblings video and theme song, very realistic, especially the pants, just like Creimy's:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      With "Vice President Pence Vowing US Astronauts Will Return To the Moon", we are sure they will need miracle workers up there, here is what it would look like. Note that Creimy takes care of bringing a lot of food to the moon as depicted below:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Creimy's real pictures:
      Before the sex change:
      https://ibb.co/cc7Ddw
      After the sex change:
      https://ibb.co/gVad65

      Creimy's "enterprise-level" chair, he talks about it all the time on slashdot:
      http://www.keynamics.com/image...

      Creimy's head, while his supervisor was talking to him, not with him, since it is impossible to do with Creimy:
      http://ibb.co/mRVSaG

      Creimy acting in educational resource document, he actually confirmed himself on Slashdot that he was handled by Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education! He is really a king Dumpty!:
      http://www.sccoe.org/depts/stu...

  44. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

    Okay... here's some evidence. Now at least you can't say you've never heard or seen evidence of google senior managers making comments about employees being âoeobsoleteâ and âoetoo old to matter."

    http://www.evetahmincioglu.com...

    If you work at Google and one of the founding employees of the mega search engine company starts calling you âoeobsoleteâ and âoetoo old to matter,â your days may be numbered.

    Thatâ(TM)s what Brian Reid, Googleâ(TM)s vice-president of engineering, is claiming happened before he was fired at age 54 from the company. He worked at the tech giant from 2002 to 2004 and detailed a host of old-guy bashing comments on the part of Google employees in his suit against the company.

    This former Stanford professor who said he got great reviews, believes Google, based in Mountain View, CA, gave him the axe because of his age.

    His case was thrown out by a lower court because the direct manager who fired him never said a disparaging word about Reidâ(TM)s age, at least not to his face. Even though other Google staffers made fun of his age, the court viewed those comments as âoestray remarks,â and not relevant to Reidâ(TM)s case.

    Well, the stateâ(TM)s highest court ruled yesterday that those stray remarks may indeed matter and the case is now moving forward, much to the chagrin of employers across the country.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  45. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dear Team Creimer,

    My YouTube channel has 222K subscribers and many videos with hundred of thousands of views:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Now, with some slight adjustments, I think that together, we could make the view count skyrocket on your very own Team Creimer youtube channel :)

    Please feel confident to contact me if you want me to coach you, we aren't living so far away from each other so we could even easily meet.

    Love XX,

    --
    -Granny

  46. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come on Granny! creimer is already far away in dreams so please don't push him any further!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    I have just closed my eyes again
    Climbed aboard the Team Creimer train
    Driver take away my worries of today
    And leave tomorrow behind

    Team Creimer, I believe you can get me through the night
    Team Creimer, I believe we can reach the morning light

    Fly me high through the starry skies
    Or maybe to an astral plane
    Cross the highways of fantasy
    Help me to forget today's pain

    Team Creimer, I believe you can get me through the night
    Team Creimer, I believe we can reach the morning light

    Though the dawn may be coming soon
    There still may be some time
    Fly me away to the bright side of the moon
    And meet me on the other side

    Team Creimer, I believe you can get me through the night
    Team Creimer, I believe we can reach the morning light

  47. creimer spam alert! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't click on his homepage link! creimer is trying to get you to subscribe automatically to his youtube channel and make money off you!

    CREIMER' SUBMISSIONS UPDATE:
    Note also that creimer is trying to regain karma by getting his submissions published as articles on /. so make sure to go to:
    https://slashdot.org/~cdreimer
    https://slashdot.org/~criss69
    https://slashdot.org/~Anonymou...
    https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
    https://slashdot.org/~ILoveFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IHateFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IAteFatC...
    https://slashdot.org/~ITapeFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IApeFatC...
    https://slashdot.org/~IPrayFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
    and mod down his submissions as well. The great thing is that you don't even need mod points to mod down a submission, just click on the "minus" icon!

    Yes, believe it or not, creimer owns all the above sock puppet accounts. It is a mystery why Slashdot management tolerates it!

    creimer wrote:

    I don't bother with mod points. I'm doing something much more sinister. It took ten story submissions ? I'll have to double check the number ? to move cdreimer's karma from neutral to excellent without ever being exposed to the capricious mods. Mmmmmwwwwahahahahahahaha!

    https://slashdot.org/comments....

    Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! Creimy is posting more than 2 posts a day. Hurry! mod down otherwise /. will go to hell again!

    Note: you can mod down even if already at -1 to lower karma and to prevent lost /. users to accidentally mod up.

    creimer wrote:

    All you need to do is find a website with a permissive TOS, say, Slashdot, create a Python script to scrape your own comments, sprinkle Amazon affiliate links in various posts, and then re-post past links whenever possible. Won't be long before you start making "coffee money" each month.

    https://slashdot.org/comments....

    C.D. Reimer is a renowned Slashdot collaborator, as he puts it himself; "Because of the quality of my posts and my article submissions, I'm a highly rated commentator and moderator."

    But does anybody ever wondered what "C.D." stands for? Well, it stands for Creimy Dumpty of course!

    Creimy Dumpty sat on the wall,
    Creimy Dumpty had a great fall.
    All the king's horses
    And all the king's men
    Couldn't put Creimy Dumpty
    Together again.

    Creimy's siblings video and theme song, very realistic, especially the pants, just like Creimy's:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    With "Vice President Pence Vowing US Astronauts Will Return To the Moon", we are sure they will need miracle workers up there, here is what it would look like. Note that Creimy takes care of bringing a lot of food to the moon as depicted below:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Creimy's real pictures:
    Before the sex change:
    https://ibb.co/cc7Ddw
    After the sex change:
    https://ibb.co/gVad65

    Creimy's "enterprise-level" chair, he talks about it all the time on slashdot:

  48. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And taxes here with AMT are around 50%, so 400K -> 200K

    Cost of living is crushing along with abusive confiscatory taxation and the tech companies are ALWAYS trying to flood the market with H1B and scabs to lower your "rate"

    How're those leftist policies workin' out for you over there in Commiefornia? Not so good?
    Aw, that's a shame. Now we just need to figure out how to quarantine Commiefornia and prevent the infection from spreading. Then we can all sit back and have our kids learn the object lesson that the Commifornians are setting as an example.

  49. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by computational+super · · Score: 1

    That'll get you fired from Google these days, too.

    --
    Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
  50. SF would have to pay me $600k by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or eat my ass.

  51. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    ProgrammerInstance.Pants.Remove(true);

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  52. creimer dreams again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    creimer dreams again...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    I have just closed my eyes again
    Climbed aboard the Team Creimer train
    Driver take away my worries of today
    And leave tomorrow behind

    Team Creimer, I believe you can get me through the night
    Team Creimer, I believe we can reach the morning light

    Fly me high through the starry skies
    Or maybe to an astral plane
    Cross the highways of fantasy
    Help me to forget today's pain

    Team Creimer, I believe you can get me through the night
    Team Creimer, I believe we can reach the morning light

    Though the dawn may be coming soon
    There still may be some time
    Fly me away to the bright side of the moon
    And meet me on the other side

    Team Creimer, I believe you can get me through the night
    Team Creimer, I believe we can reach the morning light

  53. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by mikael · · Score: 1

    There are so many different programming languages ( Java, C#, Python, Scala, C++, Javascript, Fortran), API's and frameworks that are changng every six months, that it is more important to have someone with experience in the latest technology in the last few years that it is to have experience over 10 years.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  54. Only with Hom[e|o]Pods. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks Chris!

    This has been added to your file and we will discuss it next time I meet with Silvia in Berkeley.

    Take care of yourself,

    --
    Nancy Guerrero
    Director
    Special Education
    Santa Clara County Office of Education

  55. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Never knew you rednecks like to look at ships a lot. I guess those of you on the coasts can try, but what about you inland inbreeding honkies?

  56. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    And experience from a 22 year old is much more credible to a 28 year old manager than the same amount of experience from a "greybeard" who is 50 years old.

    Aside from that, we really need single payer health care badly because companies know a 22 year old is 99.999% likely to cost them nothing (if they self insure) per year while an older programmer is 50% likely to cost them $1,200 or more annually.

    Pre 2008 some companies were caught dumping young people with chronic diseases that had no impact on their ability to do the job. But they were costly to self-insuring corporations.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  57. Article could be improved by larryjoe · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure what to make of some of the numbers from the article.

    Salaries peak around age 45 and then level off or drop. Looking at the last chart, I see that salaries start leveling off at around age 35. The averages don't come with any confidence intervals so I'm not sure if any real conclusions about the trends can be made. There are also distributions in the survey responses, so maybe the median might be a more representative statistic.

    The global average salary is hard to believe. All listed US cities are significantly below the global average, except for San Francisco which is barely above the average. The only way this number could be accurate is if salaries in non-listed, non-US cities are way higher than in the US or if the overwhelming number (say like 90%) of all US survey respondents live in San Francisco.

    The article also says that the data includes "420,000 interview requests and job offers from the past year facilitated through our marketplace" including "69,000 job seekers". That seems like a huge number. This is the first time I've heard of hired.com, but apparently they are connected with a significant portion of all job interviews and offers in the tech industry. The article also mentions that the data also includes "survey responses from more than 700 tech workers on the Hired platform". The implication is that the 700 internal responses are weighted more than the other responses because otherwise those 700 responses would be statistically insignificant.

  58. Th Elephant in the room... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is the unspoken rule that you are a has been if you are over 45 years old and will allow a worthless site like /. tell you what you should be asking for salary wise at a job!

    I said it, everyone was thinking it, you are all welcome!

    The answer to your next question is I am 50 and making 20 k per year more than I was making at 45 and I am a Database Architect.

  59. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In 5 years those hot new stacks will be old hat. We stopped inventing new things in the 1970s for computer science. Since then it has just been more memory, disk space, and very small chips. Those things have afforded us the ability to abstract things away. Hell two hot up and coming frameworks are nothing more than transpilers into ANOTHER language to be run in a virtual machine.

    Give anyone about 2-3 months in a language and they can be fairly competent in it. Do you want the guy who is 1-2 years out of school or the guy who has done exactly that same thing at least 10 times?

  60. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish I had your problems at a quarter of the pay. I would gladly replace you.

  61. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dont worry. Thats the idea. And when you undercut and replace me an H1B scab will come along and do the same. When you think about how to get ahead by pulling down and replacing others you have already failed. Do something new, something better, something unique. But dont aim to say Ill do something someone else does great for less just to fuck the other guy to get access to chips.

  62. What a cruel world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My decades of technology experience mean nothing in today's screwed up world.

    My retirement will be homelessness.

  63. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Learn to manage your finances. My non housing expenses last year were a bit under $13k and I don't drive a shit car so that includes things like full coverage auto insurance. Actually...that includes a bit of housing expense as well as it includes house insurance and utilities. The only thing I subtracted out of my total expenses was property tax.

    $13k for my ENTIRE LIFE. Basketball season tickets...everything. Add in your $60k housing and boo hoo, you're only blowing 70k-130k more than me on a bunch of buillshit.

    Your kids don't need fucking private school if you are feeling squeezed.

  64. Re: San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're either not living in the SF Bay area, or you're lying through your teeth.

  65. Re: San Francisco pay more but in other areas hal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm living in another major west coast city which is also considered hcol. It's not sf, but it has many of the great features that drive cost like.. Higher minimum wage than other parts of the state, etc.

    In January I spent $640.95. it's basketball season and that shit was paid for last year before the season started so it's one of my lower expense months of the year. Go to work... Go to games... Or go home and watch road games... Go to work....

    With the giant fucking pile of cash I don't spend I buy freedom from wage slavery. I can say fuck you to any job on any day it pleases me. Between my bonus and my regular check I made more money after confiscatory taxes and making out my 401k in December than I am likely to spend in all of 2018. Maybe in a couple years I'll sell my house and move to SF and buy a house with cash for shirts and giggles... Actually I won't because the housing cost is ridiculous there even compared to here, but most shit is about even on price.

  66. Re:you have to move around to get that kind of mon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can increase your wealth far faster and higher by reducing your spending.

  67. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by swillden · · Score: 1

    Okay... here's some evidence. Now at least you can't say you've never heard or seen evidence of google senior managers making comments about employees being âoeobsoleteâ and âoetoo old to matter."

    "Evidence" is a strong word to use to describe the unsubstantiated claims of one former employee. I'm not saying it's not true -- I have no idea -- but I don't think it rises to the level of "evidence".

    In addition, there's little reason to expect that what happened in 2003, when Google was a much different company, is indicative of the situation today. It's worth pointing out, for example, that the executive named in the suit was 38 in 2003 which means he's now 53.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  68. New starters by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

    So, not a good idea to change careers for tech, in your 40's?

  69. Report from 53yo: Ouch by michael.karl.coleman · · Score: 1

    As a data point, I did an extensive job search this last year at 53. Although I'd heard that market value decreases with age, it was a bit surprising to me how sharp the drop-off was. I do, of course, hope that your experience is not like mine. But prudence suggests that you assume that your market value at 55 is similar to what your market value at 35 was, and will decrease from there. Plan accordingly and godspeed.

    1. Re:Report from 53yo: Ouch by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      At the age of 54, I got a great job, although I was a bit under average salary for a while. I think it's a matter of luck and hair dye.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  70. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    Yes, we all get old. Which is one reason young people should care more about the employment rights of people older than they are.

    https://www.bizjournals.com/sa...

    So far, 269 people have joined a class-action lawsuit against Google claiming they were discriminated against in the workplace based on their age.

    The scope of the lawsuit against Alphabet's Google division was revealed in a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Howard Lloyd and follows what he referred to as a âoelengthyâ hearing that took place in a San Jose on July 26.

    The lawsuit originated in 2015 with plaintiff Robert Heath and was certified as a class-action in 2016.

    When plaintiff Cheryl Fillekes joined the case in 2015, she claimed that because of her age, Mountain View-based Google did not hire her for an engineering position for which she was qualified, which she alleges violates the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. In court documents, Fillelkes claimed that a recruiter told her she needed to put her dates of graduation on her resume so the company could view how old she was.

    In October 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman ruled that more software engineers could join the lawsuit. The lawsuit represents over-40 job applicants who sought engineering jobs at Google but say they were discriminated against because of their age.

    [See the full complaint below]

    "We believe the allegations here are without merit and will continue to defend our position vigorously," said Google spokesperson Ty Sheppard. "We have strong policies against discrimination on any unlawful basis, including age."

    In recent years, Google has maintained it has policies in place to guard against age discrimination in the workplace. Last year, Judge Freeman reportedly responded:"Having such a policy does not necessarily shield a company from a discrimination suit, particularly in light of the evidence and allegations presented here ... today, most, if not all, companies are well versed in anti-discrimination and make great efforts to ensure their written policies comply with anti-discrimination law."

    Itâ(TM)s not the first time the search giant has been accused of age discrimination. In 2004, Google was sued in a case that was ultimately settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

    Silicon Valley's tech industry skews young. As of late last year, the median age of workers at both Google and Menlo Park-based Facebook was just 29 years old, according to the Huffington Post. Last year, Hewlett-Packard was sued by former employees who claim that the company had deliberately and unfairly acted to become a "younger" company.

    Laurie McCann, a senior attorney with the AARP, which advocates for older people's rights in the U.S., recently stated that ageism in the tech industry is a "very big problem." Two-thirds of older tech workers say they have either experienced or witnessed age discrimination at work, according to a 2013 survey taken by the organization.

    A study by recruitment platform Hired cited by the Financial Times suggests that once tech industry workers turn 45, they often see the number of job offers fall and their salaries plateau.

    "People brag about how young the average age of their workforce is and say downright derogatory things to older people, almost like they are above the law," McCann said recently, speaking generally about ageism in Silicon Valley's tech industry.

    Guess you've been lucky.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  71. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

    Many metro areas in the Midwest feature a similar standard of living but with a MUCH better ratio of salary to cost of living. (Examples: Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, arguably Chicago) They do suffer higher than average levels of poverty, crime, and corruption, but these are of limited relevance to ordinary people, who typically live in safe but affordable suburbs and have no reason to go to the more dangerous parts of town.

  72. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by swillden · · Score: 1

    Guess you've been lucky.

    Maybe. But you're assuming that the allegations are valid and also that they're systemic. I see no justification for either of those assumptions.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  73. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "When I was a kid "

    You still are, Chris. Unkissed, virginal, middle-aged man engaging in childish online disputes making videos a child would be embarrassed to show.

  74. Re: San Francisco pay more but in other areas ha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm gonna go with "lying through your teeth".

  75. Soon everyone will be making 135K and it will take by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would never, ever live in California. I would rather live in Russia!!!!

  76. not what it seems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think about it, the result is probably not true, except that it is true, except that it's not.

    What's true is that the median salary as a function of age has a peak at age 45. However, I'll betchya dollars to donuts that engineers don't see their salaries decline as they age past 45.

    What's happening is that starting salaries go up as a function of time, and so do current salaries, but they do it at different rates. So, it just so happens that those who entered the work force about 23 years ago have the highest salaries. The guys who got in earlier had raises that did not catch up enough with starting salaries + raises of those who entered later. Yet, those guys will still be getting raises.

  77. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WTF? I live in Silicon Valley for far less and live the good life. I save money and my son goes to a 10/10 school district and I travel and have a house and wife & I drive nice cars. I can't even imagine how much money you waste if you can't do all this on 400K.

  78. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by shess · · Score: 1

    And taxes here with AMT are around 50%, so 400K -> 200K

    Cost of living is crushing along with abusive confiscatory taxation and the tech companies are ALWAYS trying to flood the market with H1B and scabs to lower your "rate"

    How're those leftist policies workin' out for you over there in Commiefornia? Not so good?

    Aw, that's a shame. Now we just need to figure out how to quarantine Commiefornia and prevent the infection from spreading. Then we can all sit back and have our kids learn the object lesson that the Commifornians are setting as an example.

    It's getting so bad here that people are leaving, driving housing prices up and making traffic worse.

  79. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lick my ass rich fucker!

  80. Re:San Francisco pay more but in other areas half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the fuck? Really the only big price difference between living in the Bay Area and elsewhere is that a nice house will cost $100K/year in mortgage+taxes, while a nice house in Texas or some flyover state like that might be $50K/year. Groceries/cars/etc. all cost about the same.

    If you're really making $400K/year, big fucking deal. Land prices will stay higher than Texas, so you can just consider the high mortgage part of your retirement savings...reverse mortgage or move somewhere cheaper when you get old.

  81. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

    Two rounds of face to face interviews?

    Nope, that isn't how they do it. You get a phone interview with a technical person, tied to a Google Doc. They give you a coding puzzle and you implement something (language of your choice, or even pseudo-code. Doesn't matter, since its not being compiled).

    I got two of those. IMHO, I knocked the first one out of the park. The second one was a bit tougher, but I think I came up with something useful. As near as I could tell really the main thing they were querying me for was knowledge of things like design impact on O() time behavior and efficiency/maintainability tradeoffs. That's the kind of things the interviewers seem to be asking me about as I went.

    But as a guy who's been writing software since his grade-school hobbyist days 40 years ago, if you give me a software design quiz, you really are playing into my strength. Its like giving a strength test to a bodybuilder.

    A call from HR seems extremely unlikely.

    That was exactly what I thought when I got called. But no, she identified herself as being from HR in Cali (as opposed to the recruiters who made the initial calls to me, who were I believe reported being based in Texas.) I don't remember getting asked a single question by her other than the ones about if I was a manger. And of course a few weeks later I found out Google hired a co-worker of mine from a less intensive software group who was 20 years younger.

    You're right that there could be innocent explanations for it. That's the thing about prejudice, there could ALWAYS be some other more innocent explanation for it. Any time a woman gets interrupted, there could be a innocent reason it happened that once. Any time a black guy has trouble getting a bartender's attention, there could be an innocent reason. Its only in aggregate where things become obvious.

  82. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by swillden · · Score: 1

    Two rounds of face to face interviews?

    Nope, that isn't how they do it. You get a phone interview with a technical person, tied to a Google Doc. They give you a coding puzzle and you implement something (language of your choice, or even pseudo-code. Doesn't matter, since its not being compiled).

    I got two of those.

    You got two phone screens? That's unusual. The normal process is one phone screen to decide whether or not you are brought in for on-site interviews. The on-site interviews are the actual interviews. If you got a second phone screen, that's because the engineer who did the first one couldn't decide whether you should be brought on-site.

    So, I think what happened was the first phone screen was so-so, and the interviewer couldn't make the call. Or maybe it was bad, but your resume was good enough that they thought maybe you just had an off day. So they scheduled a second one. It's not common, but it happens.

    BTW, I do lots of interviews at Google, both phone screens and on-site, as well as do campus outreach to teach students what to expect and how to do well, so I'm very familiar with the process.

    IMHO, I knocked the first one out of the park.

    It's actually quite hard for you to know that. Google interviewers are asked to try to make everyone's experience good, regardless of how well they do in the interview. To make that work, we generally start with a simple question then move to harder questions, or, better yet, use an open-ended question that can start simple and become increasingly difficult. So weak candidates get only the simple questions and feel good about having done well. Better candidates get further and feel good about having done well. Sometimes really outstanding candidates walk away feeling like maybe they didn't do well, even though they blew the interviewer away (not ideal, but sometimes it's hard to gauge the difficulty when you're interviewing someone really, really good).

    This "leave them feeling good" bit is not easy to pull off in all cases, but really good interviewers are masters at it. Anyway, the upshot is that your feeling about how you did doesn't mean much about how you did, one way or the other. The fact that you were less certain about the second probably means that the second interviewer was less experienced.

    As near as I could tell really the main thing they were querying me for was knowledge of things like design impact on O() time behavior and efficiency/maintainability tradeoffs. That's the kind of things the interviewers seem to be asking me about as I went.

    Yep, that's what they asked you about, but it's not what they were looking for. Google interviews are focused on seeing how you solve problems. Interviewers look to see how you go about working your way through a problem you haven't seen before. The language of the conversation is algorithms, data structures, big-O time/space efficiency and coding, but the real focus is on how you think and how you solve problems.

    That was exactly what I thought when I got called. But no, she identified herself as being from HR in Cali (as opposed to the recruiters who made the initial calls to me, who were I believe reported being based in Texas.)

    I still don't think she was HR. HR has no role in the hiring process at Google. Recruiters gather and screen the resumes, engineers do the interviews, more engineers sit on the hiring committees to make hire/no-hire decisions, recruiters generate the offers. HR doesn't come into the picture until you're hired.

    You're right that there could be innocent explanations for it. That's the thing about prejudice, there could ALWAYS be some other more innocent explanation for it.

    I don't know how to say this gently, so I'll just be blunt: You didn't do well enough on the phone screens to make the case for bringing you on-site. I stil

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  83. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    Man, I started seeing it when I was 30 years old in the 80s. It was systemic then and older programmers had more protection then than they do today.

    As I quoted above:

    "Two-thirds of older tech workers say they have either experienced or witnessed age discrimination at work, according to a 2013 survey taken by the organization."

    So sure, you are in the third that has been lucky so far.

    But we've had people claiming to be google employees post on slashdot that old people didn't fit their culture.

    The most likely case is you will be involuntary let go from your current job and then suddeny find none of your experience matters and you can't even get an interview. Hold on to your job while you have still got it.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  84. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    Oh yea, and this has been in the news almost annually, it was trivial to find cases. Yet, you've never heard of it or seen it?

    That takes some serious kind of blindness, rationalization, and willful ignorance.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  85. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by swillden · · Score: 1

    I didn't say I hadn't heard of it. I said that there were nothing but allegations, nothing proven. You're assuming they're valid. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. From where I sit, I don't see it. We'll see what happens.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  86. Re:Left out... many IT workers "retire" at about 5 by swillden · · Score: 1

    The most likely case is you will be involuntary let go from your current job and then suddeny find none of your experience matters and you can't even get an interview.

    Vanishingly unlikely in my case. My expertise (cryptographic security) is in very high demand across the industry. Moreover, my specific experience in Google over the last several has put me in close contact with lots of major industry players, and built up a lot of expertise and knowledge they'd love to have (nothing secret; it's all open source). I could have a dozen job offers next week, either contract or full-time, my choice.

    I'm not claiming my position is typical. It's not. My career is hitting kind of a sweet spot at the moment. But I also know lots of other "individual contributor" engineers at Google who are significantly older than me and plugging happily along, doing their work. Including one in his 70s (who has no financial need to work, but likes it).

    From everything I can see, if you're a software engineer at Google, no one cares how young or old you are, what color you are, what gender you are (if any), or used to be, what you look like, what you wear, etc. If you can do good work, you'll keep your job, and you'll get paid commensurate with that work.

    It will be fascinating to me to see what comes out in these various legal proceedings.

    --
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