As someone who's "getting up there in the years", I really want to believe such a shift will come to pass, but somehow doubt it will, at least for my generation. Partially because '80s - '00s generation CS students were by an overwhelming majority upper-middle class males, and it's hard to generate sympathy for what are now mostly high-earning older men. As pointed out by others, it's "the bias in tech nobody wants to talk about." There's almost this sort-of "serves you right for getting complacent" kinda attitude around all of it. In general, the most sympathetic coverage I see about ageism in tech is through investigative journalism contextualized with riches-to-rags stories of the loyal Company Man whose American Dreams are dashed at the behest of an uncaring Corporate Goliath: "He had a family, a stable 6-figure job, 30 years of experience, and multiple advanced degrees, but now he's in the breadline". The perfect example of this is ProPublica's coverage of IBM's layoffs. Meanwhile, there is little recognition of the parallels between the purported "millennial mindset", sought-after and lauded by corporate HR departments, which holds "my job is my purpose, my life's work" and the sort of toxic "leetcode-ism" / "brogrammer" culture that is harmful to diversity in tech.
Anecdotally, the older folks who work a strict 9-5 are, unsurprisingly, often the most welcoming and "chill" people I've worked with. They also manage to get the same amount or more "real work" (i.e. fewer bugs, less drama) done in that same 9-5 block (again, this should be unsurprising when one considers the effect of experience). However, I also recognize these older folks have been almost overwhelmingly men. In my career thus far, I can recall working with 3 women over the age of 40 who were direct-contributors. Most corporate HR departments believe at least part of the solution to this problem is laying off "old guys" and replacing them with "young woke millennials," whilst totally ignoring that the "old" part of that is itself a bias and protected category. However, the protections are getting weaker (https://www.propublica.org/article/appeals-court-rules-key-a...).
Anyways, for folks looking for somewhat offbeat advice - as I get around to being an "old guy" myself, I've found that having dreads and a beard (and generally being of that "long haired freaky people" bent), while maintaining physical fitness, has helped a tremendously in masking my age. People are usually shocked to find I'm not "in my 20s or something." Of course this is sort of lifestyle-specific and not accessible to everyone, and I assume at some point I'll reach that "uncanny valley" with regards to my appearance and age, as mentioned by another poster.
Thanks! Finally some actionable advice in all of this, regarding the dreads and beard. Growing a beard now, too. On the other hand, I feel like misrepresentation doesn't quite get to the core of the problem ;-)
“Won’t someone think of the old white guys?” This very sentence came to mind recently. Sucks because we developers were the nerds, not the ones stealing your savings, housing, education, and healthcare.
There was a grey dread guy in the walking dead, Ezekiel?, is he cool with the young crowd?
Anecdotally, the older folks who work a strict 9-5 are, unsurprisingly, often the most welcoming and "chill" people I've worked with. They also manage to get the same amount or more "real work" (i.e. fewer bugs, less drama) done in that same 9-5 block (again, this should be unsurprising when one considers the effect of experience). However, I also recognize these older folks have been almost overwhelmingly men. In my career thus far, I can recall working with 3 women over the age of 40 who were direct-contributors. Most corporate HR departments believe at least part of the solution to this problem is laying off "old guys" and replacing them with "young woke millennials," whilst totally ignoring that the "old" part of that is itself a bias and protected category. However, the protections are getting weaker (https://www.propublica.org/article/appeals-court-rules-key-a...).
Anyways, for folks looking for somewhat offbeat advice - as I get around to being an "old guy" myself, I've found that having dreads and a beard (and generally being of that "long haired freaky people" bent), while maintaining physical fitness, has helped a tremendously in masking my age. People are usually shocked to find I'm not "in my 20s or something." Of course this is sort of lifestyle-specific and not accessible to everyone, and I assume at some point I'll reach that "uncanny valley" with regards to my appearance and age, as mentioned by another poster.