Read on, as that pithy comment is (mostly) wrong. Old programmers are around but perhaps not in the places you would expect them to be.
New Blood, Old Blood. Laying the groundwork for an industry unfriendly to experience
Some of the problems around older coders are mirrored with entry into the profession.
Lack of respect for experience outside the industry
Put simply:
We don’t care about your experience outside programming.
This stops those with experience outside the industry from getting a foothold as coders. There is a barrier to entry for experienced hires meaning software development remains a young man's game. In 2023.
Genuinely
Imagine a chemist who wishes to move into a junior software developer job. Their programming experience that’s struck off (code not in production). They’ll still be asked basic behavioral questions about working with other people.
It does make you wonder how bad things can get.
It can get bad, it turns out.
One of my friends someone with years of experience in childcare has been asked about their organizational abilities in a behavioral interview. They struggle because it’s not within “a programming context” while Dilan at 24 flies through with his experience organizing a computer club at university.