One of the commentators mentioned a scene from The Lord of the Rings when the elves left Middle-earth and sailed to Valinor.
One of the commentators mentioned a scene from The Lord of the Rings when the elves left Middle-earth and sailed to Valinor.
A viral post about the generational shift in the IT industry has become popular on the social network Threads. User sergey.seda shared a story about his colleague, a buzzer, 15 years younger, who asked quite seriously: "Haven't you thought about where these 45-year-old IT guys are? Have you even seen them? Do they all go somewhere to a deserted place and slowly die?"
This naive but apt question provoked a wave of answers from experienced experts who explained where the seniors are really "hiding."
Most of the discussion participants agree that after a certain age, IT professionals simply change their work format. User Volodymyr Zhukov, who has been in the industry for over 20 years, notes: “We don’t disappear, we start to combine.” According to him, experienced specialists often move into management, consulting, or start their own business.
"Someone goes into IT + management, someone starts their own business, someone goes into consulting. According to experience, after 10+ years, few people remain on the payroll. Rather, it will be some partnership formats, or a move to the C-level," he adds.
User bellabellalara, who implements ERP systems for finance, said that in her field, 40-year-old consultants are the main contingent.
"At 30, they are just gaining experience in finance, and at 50+, almost all of them are freelancers, especially in SAP. We also have 60-year-old consultants," she shares, citing the example of a colleague from Britain.
Another participant in the discussion, ostannia_z_barikad, confirms this thesis: veterans often settle in stable product companies supporting complex Legacy systems.
"They don't overlap with buzzers, because in such offices, such positions require 7–10+ years of experience. In my team, the youngest is under 30, and the oldest is 65+," she writes.
Another scenario is achieving financial independence or transitioning to a more relaxed lifestyle. Experienced developers, having earned capital, can afford to “downgrade” or even leave the industry for their own business or hobby.
"The children are already adults, so we can afford it. Nature is being cleansed," user jimmywarhammer ironically says, adding that despite the outflow of personnel, there are those who, even at the age of 60, continue to write code in C++ and give a head start to the young.
