Comments by "Scott Franco" (@scottfranco1962) on "3 Career Killers for Software Engineers (from a Principal at Amazon)" video.

Just a short story to address your last point. I worked for a company that shall remain nameless. They were failing. The CEO skipped the country because it had been discovered he was embezzling. They laid off half the company. We got written up in the press, and one writer said, and I quote "clearly the only workers remaining there are stupid and cannot find other work". I was one of the few people actually working there. Others were playing board games on the whiteboards. This was after the 2008 downturn, so jobs were not easy to find. So I left to take a contract. I would not say my career tanked, but those were some bad years and some stretches of unemployment. The company? They got bought by a very good company, and people I know there went on to work for years there productively. The moral of the story is that what seems to be black and white, sometimes isn't.
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@nicksrub I'm 65, I have been an engineer since 19, technician before that, and repaired TVs in my parents garage for money when I was 15. I guess what other folks think of as career markers just strike me as a phase. The story above was 2009 if I recall, just after the "great recession" of 2008. I didn't escape that, but not for the obvious reasons. My wife of 13 years decided that was the time to get a divorce. About the only good thing that resulted from that is that our house's value was depressed, and so I could buy her out. Things have changed since then. During the time I described, I got very good at making spreadsheets, and what I found in those days was that I was going to lose the house shortly. I rented out two rooms for a while and got past that. I think by 2010-2011 things took off again, and they really haven't slowed down since then. I did full time up to 62 years of age, and preferred that. After 60, I got lots of interviews, but no interest. Since then it appears more companies are interested in having me as a contractor. I can't say if it is because of my age, or the times we live in. I can't say it is not possible to get full time now, when there seems to be a lot of demand. It just seems far easier to get contracts, and those have been good. My last contract was Apple. My current one is Google. Not exactly poor companies :-)
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@nicksrub Invest heavily in Microsoft? Kidding. Probably get a PHD. My career never really got to the levels of tech that I wanted. Other than that, I don't think there was a perfect path. The guys I knew who really took off in the valley just retired early or became managers. I never wanted to shorten my career, just work on better quality stuff.
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@SuperWhisk Its a big subject (age). It would explain why companies take efforts to figure out your age even if you are not allowed to list it. I used to have companies that would ask me for my date of birth while quickly adding "its just for identification purposes!". Perhaps this might shock you, but I think I don't blame them. If you are in or near retirement age, the company has to assume you are looking at the calendar and wondering if your keeping working is really worthwhile. Does that apply to me? I don't think so. If I were in retirement and someone gave me a remote contract with reasonable hours I would take it, even if I had to come to the company part of the time. And this arrangement seems popular. But then I like to work, and like to get out of the house on occasion. My wife of 10 years feels the same way. Is age discrimination unfair? Wellll... yes, but discrimination by skin color or similar reasons is a lot less fair. I would say trying to categorize everyone is really the issue. A short story (yea, again sorry). I worked at a place where another employee was clearly older, and likely retirement age. His boss was a friend of mine, and he ended up terminating him. I asked him about it, and he said he gave him several chances to improve his productivity, but without result. It seems to be all relative anyways. At 65, I found that unless I take a nap after lunch I can't function. I sit at my terminal and fog out. a 20 minute nap fixes that. I had one boss that had a real problem with that. At my current contract (Google), they actually have rooms to take naps in (god I love this place).
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@real_hello_kitty Well, people resources are %50 of your career. I suspect the employers you think are smearing you are not going to do so. These days employers are very worried about litigation, and managers are told to stick strictly to the facts. My references are from coworkers that I know had experiences directly with my work. My dad (also an engineer) said it best: if you worked for a company for 2 years or so, that says a lot regardless of what your previous manager(s) say. Why did they keep you working there if you weren't producing? Finally, here is an ace of spades for you, that is a common industry trick. Get a friend to act as a potential employer and call up your previous manager(s) to ask what they think of you. This will give you a very solid overview of where you stand. I have been an engineer for 40+ years. I have had a few employers that I didn't want to use as a reference. So I didn't. I left them off my resume. There is one thing that isn't in doubt. People are important. I have been at companies that were failing, but what I got out of it was far more important than a job. Good people, and good contacts. If you realize how valuable they are, you can work on developing your contacts. It works both ways. People call me after their last job ended, and I try to get them started on a new position, with my company or another.
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@real_hello_kitty Sure.
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