I haven't yet read the Bloomberg article yet, just the snippets from Steve's editorial. I am a software engineer specialising in Data Warehousing, SSIS & SQL Server (hence I visit here). I have also had a few jobs, Royal Australian Navy, Office of Corrections (Prison Officer), Police, factory worker (Ford) and a couple of dead-end jobs. Thankfully, my boss at Ford saw that I had some qualities and pushed me into a sponsored university Certificate program, where a lecturer saw (again) that I may have had some qualities, and suggested that I opt out of the Cert program and enroll in a full-time bachelor degree in Computer Science. This was at age 34. I completed the degree in record time (I had actually completed the degree in 2.5 years, but had to do the extra semester because they wouldn't grant a degree in less than that), became a member of the Golden Key National Honour society (qualified every year while I was at Uni), and had a full time programming job the day after I completed my final exam (before the exams had been marked). I'd also worked 2 days per week (as a database & web programmer) for Ford while at uni in 2nd & 3rd years.

Since then, I've had a couple of full time jobs, and 10 years as a contractor running my own company. I'm now working as a consultant - still as a software engineer, and am happy as Larry. I wouldn't change this for the world. I love programming. Oh - I'm also very happily married (2nd time) and have 2 kids & 2 grandkids. I think only once have I ever been asked "would you have any problem working for people who are younger than you" - my answer - "almost every one of my bosses for the last 10 years has been younger than me, so no, I don't have and haven't had, any issues at all".

My CV states may varied job titles, but at heart, they are all one form or other of Software Engineering. My degree - B.Computing (Applied Computing)

Is this one of the only industries that seems to knock people as they get older? In other engineering forms, it seems that people respect you more as you gain more experience. As a general rule, I have found that while people are happy to employ me for my experience (and pay me for it as well), they're not so sure about listening to what I have to say sometimes.

Cliff Notes: I'm old, a software engineer, and very happy.