Communications of the ACM
No Place For the Old? Is Software Development a Young Person's Game?
Do recent surveys showing the average age of software developers is under 30 reflect a glut of new entrants to the industry, or are older workers being pushed out?
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Statistics and anecdotal evidence suggest software developers tend to be under 30, with University of California at Davis professor Norman Matloff noting coders face mounting rejections at the age of 35 to 40, either because they are over- or under-qualified, although the more likely reason is seasoned developers are unaffordable for employers.
Meanwhile, a Stack Overflow survey this week estimated London developers have been coding for an average of less than eight years, while average global coding experience is even lower.
However, there is not universal agreement that older coders are abandoning the profession. For example, RedMonk analyst Fintan Ryan notes the surveys are biased in favor of younger coders who use the Stack Overflow site. "There are significant groups of older developers in areas such as finance that are not inclined to respond to surveys likes this," he says.
Meanwhile, Stack Overflow's Natalia Radcliffe-Brine contends the numbers signify a record influx of younger people entering the profession. "The proportion [of younger to older] is changing, so instead of having lots of older people in the industry, you have so many more young people coming into it now," she says. "That's why the age looks a lot younger. I definitely don't think it's that the older developers aren't there."
From TechRepublic
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