Older tech workers are tapping out early

Older tech workers are tapping out early(seattletimes.com)

20 points by root-parent 3 hours ago | 14 comments

I'll be hanging up my hat (mid 40s) in a few months after 20+ years working as an engineer. The culmination of having our second child, corporate politics, and the hustle of it all (false urgency/deadlines) led me to take a hard look at what we wanted and our finances. We were fortunate to live below our means and save during our careers and move to a lower COL state prior to COVID. Obviously a lot of the reasons related to family and corporate is normal and expected as a career progresses but I can't help feel like the AI factor has a lot of folks unsatisfied with their jobs. Coding agents have killed the craftsmanship side of the equation; sure you can still write it by hand but you'll drag on the team and fall behind ect. Anyway, it's been a good run and I hope that future engineers still find a viable path to a good lifestyle. I don't want to be the only one that was lucky.

x______________ 30 minutes ago | |

> Coding agents have killed the craftsmanship side of the equation; sure you can still write it by hand..

It's the same for language. Now everyone is writing super smart things but there is 0 reasoning or understanding when you talk to or ask them them about it.

DANmode 27 minutes ago | |

Well-considered as much as fortunate, I’m sure?

futuraperdita 2 hours ago |

I’m not sure why this is interesting. Wealthy people often retire early, and if you’ve spent three decades at Microsoft, you likely could have retired a very long time ago.

JohnFen 1 hour ago | |

Most of the older devs I know aren't in the industry primarily for the money. Their wealth level may not be a large factor in their decision about whether or not to leave early. The ones I know who are leaving (including myself) are doing so because the industry has changed in ways they are not comfortable with.

dofm 1 hour ago | | |

> The ones I know who are leaving (including myself) are doing so because the industry has changed in ways they are not comfortable with.

The AI doom-trolling (h/t Cal Newport) of the big two firms is so utterly disreputable, shameful and absurd that everyone has lost their heads, and with long enough perspective it's possible to see that this is going to go on for another couple of years.

I am past my half-century and currently trying to get back into things after a period of devastating burnout, but figuring out all this stuff from the perspective of a freelancer, without falling into the traps being laid, is challenging.

I would like to get out of the industry but I don't really know to where, yet. The only reassuring thing is that outside of the IT world, people are proving more resilient to AI marketing than we are.

idleplant 1 hour ago | |

I think there's some level of interest in that tech jobs are fairly cushy (can work from home several days a week, benefits are good) and most older SWEs usually have more of a passion for the field. There's also maybe more of a culture nowadays of continuing to work at least part-time through typical retirement age to keep your mind active.

indycliff 1 hour ago |

30 years at Microsoft. I think he'll be fine. Us B and C tier company employees with low six figure salaries and 5 year vesting schedules will be going as long as someone continues to pay us.

rekabis 1 hour ago |

Sooooo… not only are companies kneecapping juniors by refusing to hire them, thereby starving the employee pipeline of future seniors, but now those very seniors are tapping out?

Sounds like the entire software dev field is going to implode violently within a few years, causing many companies to go titsup due to a sheer lack of experienced devs. Only those who have a war chest large enough to allow them to pay through the nose will still be standing.

fred_is_fred 1 hour ago |

Tech workers are lucky that for many of us this is possible. You don't see "older nurses are tapping out early" because financially they can't.

JohnFen 28 minutes ago | |

> You don't see "older nurses are tapping out early" because financially they can't.

In the US, anyway, you do see that. Experienced nurses make money comparable to what experienced devs make, and as the doctor and nurse shortage worsens, making life harder for those that remain, more of them are deciding to leave early.

slaw 1 hour ago | |

It is tech workers at Microsoft.

ErroneousBosh 1 hour ago |

I'm kind of at this point. I'm 52, I have a child, I am not working on things I want to work on, and the place I work for is going in a direction that's taking my job further away from things I want to work on.

So recently I thought, fuck it, I'll go back to fixing tractors.

The money's okay, and people are *really really grateful* when you drive out to the middle of their field at 11pm to weld some irreplaceable broken part back together.

throwfaraway4 1 hour ago | |

Not fixing tractors myself, but there's something really satisfying about working with your hands and being outside with a desk job. Once I hit my forties my back and eyesight started deteriorating and I could tell I felt much better on the weekends from being more physically active.