am I too old to be hired?

[gusmnk.dev]

I don’t know, sometimes I think I’m too old to get a job as a developer in some company.
I’ve seen people on YouTube say that after 35 years no one is going to give you a job as a junior developer.
Is that so in the United States? I am from Argentina and here the environment of programmers is somewhat elitist, at least that is what I feel when I read twitter.

[bradtaniguchi]

Hello @gusmnk.dev , welcome to the freeCodeCamp forums!

There’s bound to be some ageism, as is the case in most industries and professions. However putting some hard-line on the idea based on what you hear on social media might not be the best idea, primarily due to some form of selection bias.

Simply put, the only people you’ll find on social media are the ones that want to be on social media, have enough time to be on social media, and are popular enough for you to find them. So the single parent working full-time as a highly paid developer who doesn’t care about social media wont be someone you can find on social media. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means you can’t find them. That’s selection bias

Again, it’s possible ageism may affect your chances, but so could just be inexperienced.

If Mark Zuckerberg walked into applying for a job, odds are he will be hired on his name alone. Except he’s closer to 40 than 35. (he is currently 38)

Of course Mark has lots of experience, so even if it was just his resume laying on the table, he’d probably get hired based on his experience level.

So is it impossible to get hired at 35? It might have a slight negative effect depending on where you’re applying, but there will also be bigger more important factors that may come up during your job search. The key being how well could you do the job at hand? If you don’t have much relevant experience, then that will be the bigger factor than just your age.

Finally, there isn’t a magical way to turn back the clock, everyone is moving into the future at the same pace, the only question is how will you use your time now to get where you need to go?

Good luck, keep learning, keep building