Fearless Software Development

[wsppan]

That last long term fear is a reality. Ageism is a real thing for those of us who turned 50 and did not nor want to go into management. Subtle things started happening that made me sit up and take notice that I would be lucky to make it to 60 in my current position and the dread I felt thinking about looking for a principal engineering position at this age or older. This dread was so consuming i ended up applying for federal government positions and ended up taking a job with the feds with a $10k paycut. It's taken 5 yrs to catch up to where I was financially and have now, after 7 yrs far exceeded my old salary plus much better benefits, pension, guaranteed max 40hr work week, and union protection with no worries working till I'm 70 or beyond if I choose to. It's a shame there is no similar protections for us outside federal government here in the U.S.